It’s one of the hardest things to achieve in the game.
The first one came in 1977.
It was another 14 years before someone did it again.
It was then eight years after that before it happened a third time.
Breaking 60 has always held mythical status in golf.
Al Geiberger (1977), Chip Beck (1991) and David Duval (1999) were the first three to pull it off.
Since 2010, there have been eight more PGA Tour golfers who shot a 59, including Jim Furyk, who also shot a record-setting 58 from in 2016. He remains the only golfer to shoot a 58 on Tour and he’s the only golfer to break 60 twice.
Bryson DeChambeau joined the 58 Club after his 12-under round in a LIV Golf event.
Scottie Scheffler is the latest to break 60 on the PGA Tour, shooting a 59 in the second round of the 2020 Northern Trust. It’s the 12th time that a Tour golfer broke 60.
On the LPGA, there has only been one 59. It came in 2001 and was accomplished by Annika Sorenstam.
Joaquinn Niemann’s 59 in the 2024 LIV opener made him the second on that circuit to do it.
And in 2024, a golfer on the Korn Ferry Tour became the first to shoot 57 in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event.
Here’s a closer look at the sub-60 rounds in pro golf.
Some golfers are known to incorporate mindfulness, meditation and religious practices into their routine.
It’s no secret that travel takes a toll on the body. If you add a week of walking, four days of tournament play, practice rounds, driving range time and workouts for weeks on end, the mind and body will have to work overtime to recover.
For example, Jon Rahm forces himself to exercise after a long plane ride.
“If you have time and [access to] a gym or whatever it may be, get a little bit of exercise in,” Rahm said. “It doesn’t need to be crazy. It could be 30, 40 minutes of just some kind of stretching or whatever to get the blood
flowing a little bit more so your body can just naturally recover and get things moving.”
The physical demands of golf tournaments are extensive. This includes long days often jam-packed with physical activity. With the long weeks of back-to-back travel, some golfers simply can’t maintain a true routine of non-negotiables such as managing nutrition and lifting in the gym.
Golfers have to adapt to various time changes, societal norms, diets and cultures in different states and countries. For example, a United States-based golfer will likely often fly to Europe, which can present as much as a nine-hour time difference. Let’s say that particular country does not prioritize breakfast or it’s harder to get their hands on common U.S. essentials, their body only has a couple of days to adapt to these changes.
Jon Rahm plays his shot on the first hole fairway during the first round of The Genesis Invitational golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
Professional golfers employ numerous strategies to recover physically and mentally while on the road.
They may engage in specific exercises or work with a trainer to ensure they maintain strength and flexibility. Adequate sleep, hydration and rest are all a huge priority to ensure physical and mental cognition.
Yes, they get to travel to some amazing destinations, but many spend the majority of their time in their room to recharge before and after their rounds.
And some golfers at various levels even have part-time jobs to pay for golf tournaments and expenses. It is a constant grind on and off the course for them.
To address mental and emotional recovery, some golfers are known to incorporate mindfulness, meditation and religious practices into their routine to manage stress and stay focused.
Golfers may also seek the support of sports psychologists or engage in activities that help them relax and unwind.
Additionally, collegiate golfers are managing just as much as the professional level, but their life includes college classes on the road.
Playing a round of golf is at least four hours of mental and physical strain plus the warm-up and post-round practice. Many collegiate tournaments have 36-hole days, equating to nine-plus hours of golf in a day. Having to complete essays, math and other tasks is nearly impossible on the day of a tournament.
Golf has many layers that go into the preparation and performance of the sport, but managing it properly can be the ticket to success for many.
“I’m concerned about the future of the tour,” said Duffy, who will hand over a $2 million check on Sunday.
NAPLES, Fla. – The seeds of the CME Group Tour Championship began with a pro-am 15 years ago. In those early years, CME Group Chairman and CEO Terry Duffy received note after note from clients who so enjoyed their rounds of golf with LPGA players that they instantly became fans of the tour.
Beginning in 2011, CME began title-sponsoring the LPGA’s year-ending event, eventually integrating the firm’s Global Financial Leadership Conference in Naples, Florida, with the LPGA’s season-ending event at the Ritz-Carlton’s Tiburon Golf Club. This week, Duffy will hand over the biggest check in the history of the women’s game – $2 million. The overall purse of $7 million is the largest on the LPGA outside of the majors (and is bigger than the purses at two of the five majors). The last player in the field of 60 will make $40,000, close to what 10th place made last week.
Former U.S. presidents, secretaries of state and business tycoons have presented at CME’s conference, and for Tuesday night’s dinner, the firm typically invites a select number of players to attend. Earlier this week, when Duffy asked for the houselights to be turned on so that he could applaud the players in the room, the only people standing were those serving the tables.
Not a single player showed up.
“It’s an embarrassment to a company of my size and an embarrassment to me personally,” said Duffy, two days after the event.
Duffy’s beef isn’t with the players, though — it’s with who’s at the helm.
“I am exceptionally disappointed with the leadership of the LPGA,” he continued. “They better get their act together because they’re going to lose people like me over stuff like this.”
When CME first sponsored the Titleholders event in 2011, the purse was $1.5 million and the winner received $500,000. Three years later, the Race to the CME Globe season-long points race was introduced with a $1 million bonus. That bonus has since been folded into the official prize money with a winner-take-all format. In 2018, it was announced that the winner would receive $1.5 million, which at the time was more than what most PGA Tour winners received.
“This announcement is really about setting a new standard in women’s golf,” said then-commissioner Mike Whan four years ago. “I would love to lie to you guys and say that I called Terry 16 times and pushed and pushed him for it, but it was his idea.”
Duffy aimed to blaze a trail that he hoped other organizations would follow. His influence today is similar to what David Foster did at Mission Hills in the 1970s to elevate the women’s tour with the Colgate-Dinah Shore Winner’s Circle.
LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan speaks with the media during a roundtable during the second round of the CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburon Golf Club on Nov. 18, 2022, in Naples, Florida. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
Mollie Marcoux Samaan was named commissioner of the LPGA 18 months ago, and she was at the dinner that players skipped.
“There hasn’t been any greater supporter of the LPGA than CME Group and Terry Duffy,” Marcoux Samaan told Golfweek on Friday when asked about the incident.
“There was clearly a disconnect, and it’s my responsibility to make sure that this doesn’t happen. So on this particular issue, I’m taking full responsibility as a leader of the organization to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
This week, the LPGA announced that the total prize fund in 2023 will cross the $100 million mark for the first time, despite losing three full-field events and only adding one (although it’s unknown at this point if players will actually be able to travel to the two events in China that are worth $4.2 million). The majors and CME represent nearly half of the tour’s prize money, with only three additional events on the schedule with a purse of at least $3 million. A dozen events still offer purses below $2 million.
As the LPGA’s big events do the heavy lifting, it’s still a grind to push longtime sponsors to higher purses and fill in the gaps of those who don’t renew. Veteran players, who not too long ago worried that the LPGA might not survive, understand that a culture of appreciation remains vital.
The accessibility and approachability of players is what drove Duffy to take a pro-am event with about 20 players and build it into a benchmark event for women’s sports.
While the LPGA continues to reach new heights financially, the chasm between the men’s and women’s tours only grows deeper as some purses on the PGA Tour’s schedule now reach $20 million. LPGA veteran Karen Stupples believes it’s critical that LPGA players maintain the “act like a Founder” mantra that Whan preached for years.
“They went to baseball parks and did tricks on the fields to bring people in to watch them play golf,” said Stupples of the 13 women who founded the tour in 1950. “The players don’t have to do that anymore, They have to go to a party or two. Just treat it as your job. Your job description is to do this.”
Terry Duffy addresses the crowd with Keith Urban, who performed on the lawn at the Ritz on Wednesday as part of the week’s festivities at CME. (Photo courtesy of CME)
It’s not unusual now for top players to turn down pre-tournament interviews, even at major championships and CME. Some will meet with the print media or Golf Channel, but not both. Sometimes, it’s nothing at all.
When Stacy Lewis became the No. 1 player in the world, a couple of LPGA Hall of Famers sat her down and outlined the expectations.
“They just said, as a top American, as No. 1 in the world, you’re going to be asked to do a lot of things,” said Lewis. “You’re going to be asked to do a lot of interviews that you don’t want to do. You need to do it because it’s what’s best for the tour. It will be productive for you; it will be productive for the tour. It creates more exposure, and that’s your job. Your job as a top player is to help build this tour.”
Stupples believes that players often get so caught up in their own little bubbles that they fail to see the bigger picture. Lewis agrees.
“It’s all these kinds of things that for so long they were unsaid, and people just did it because it’s the right thing to do,” said Lewis, “and the current generation needs to hear it, needs to be taught it.”
For the LPGA to continue on an upward trajectory, player buy-in remains critical, especially when it comes to knowing the expectations of those who write the checks.
“I’m concerned about the future of the tour,” said Duffy, “because the leadership needs to work with their players to make sure that everybody has a clear understanding of how we grow the game together, along with sponsors and others. There’s no one person, no two people who can grow it alone. You need everybody. They say it takes a village, and I think their village is getting a little fractured.”
Marcoux Samaan said she continues to emphasize the “act like a Founder” culture Whan created at staff and player meetings, believing that the organization’s “secret sauce” of hospitality, sponsor engagement and accessibility remains one of its biggest strengths.
“We just need to continue to deliver that message,” said Marcoux Samaan, “and I don’t think anyone disputes it. I think everyone believes it. Sometimes you just miss in the moment.”
Often times golfers struggle with the pressures of the game and may not even realize it.
It’s no secret that great golf comes from between the ears. Often times golfers struggle with the pressures of the game and may not even realize it. There are many factors that go into the mental game of golf like how you talk to yourself or how you visualize a shot.
Jamie Glazier is an Australian Mental Performance Coach (NLP Master Practitioner), specializing in the sport of golf for nearly 20 years. We asked him why some golfers prefer to seek mental performance coaches vs. sports psychologists.
Sports psychology and mental performance coaching can overlap at times, but both practices focus on enhancing an athlete’s cognitive performance and ability to remain focused and calm during high-pressure situations. All athletes face systemic elements that play an important role of an athlete’s performance.
This topic is controversial to some. but you may be wondering what that main differences of the two are. It’s important to note that mental performance coaches are not psychologists.
“I would clarify the difference by saying a sports psychologist comes from a clinical background that targets any persistent or distressing life problems that can cause stress, anxiety, or depression,” said Glazier. “A Mental Performance Coach focuses more on looking at where the athlete currently is at, their cognitive behaviors and looking forward to what the athlete would like to achieve or what patterns they would like to change.”
Many golfers seek out Mental Performance Coaches over sports psychologists because they provide a more practical structure to the athletes mental game training program. They can provide exercises to help build a specific cognitive function that can aid the golfer in closing out a round of golf without letting the pressure interrupt a streak of good play.
Some players may solely want to focus on the sport and don’t have any past trauma or outside issues they want to address and don’t need the psychology aspect of help.
“Some of the key areas I work in with a golfer are expectation management, enhancing focus, self-belief, achieving clarity, cognitive flexibility, enhancing commitment with shots, self-identity/athletic identity and achieving a balance between life and golf just to name a few,” said Glazier.
Glazier offers an online training platform for elite and club level golfers where they can begin to build their mental game with approximately eight courses, a members forum and weekly mental game tips.
Lucy Li won again on the Epson Tour, virtually locking up her LPGA card for 2023.
Lucy Li’s second victory of the season on the Epson Tour doesn’t yet technically make her a mathematical certainly for the LPGA, but it certainly looks good for the one-time prodigy.
Li’s wire-to-wire triumph at the Twin Bridges Championship gives her $107,241 for the season, $36,669 ahead of second place Linnea Strom. The top 10 players on the money list earn LPGA cards for the 2023 season.
Li shot 66-68-69 at Pinehaven Country Club to win by four over Strom.
“Having the support of your family, for me was huge,” said Li. “I can say that they never stopped believing in me, even when at some points it feels like you stop believing in yourself.”
Li, 19, burst onto the golf scene in 2014 when she became the youngest player to qualify for the U.S. Women’s Open at age 11. She turned professional at age 17, and has played the last three seasons on the Epson Tour.
Li currently leads the tour in scoring (69.39), rounds under par (27) and birdies (143).
“It’s a journey,” said Li. “And it’s different for everyone. But it’s important to boil it down to why you love playing this sport and focus more on that. I transformed my practice to focusing more on that enjoyment of the game.”
In keeping with that theme, Li said she might go to the Dave & Busters near her hotel after the victory.
“I have a ton of points I haven’t used,” she said with a smile, “so I hope they don’t expire.”
“The momentum is with us. And we just think there’s even more growth to come in so many different areas.”
On the same day the LPGA announced its 2022 schedule, Mollie Marcoux Samaan met face-to-face with members of the national media for the first time.
“As you know, I’m engaged in this 100-day plan,” she began at The Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort in Naples, Florida. “We’re at probably day 75 with our math, which is a little creative math.”
Marcoux Samaan takes over a tour that’s experiencing strong growth in the area of purses and global partnerships. On Friday, the LPGA announced a 2022 schedule that will feature a record-setting $85.7 million in official purses across 34 events. That number is expected to increase in the coming months. At this time last year, the tour announced a record-setting purse total of $76.4 million across 34 events.
But it’s not just about the money. Once again, the LPGA will be breaking ground at historic venues that have never before hosted a women’s major, with the AIG Women’s Open heading to Muirfield and the KPMG Women’s PGA being staged at Congressional Country Club.
“I think people have also had an awakening around women’s sports,” said Marcoux Samaan, the former Princeton AD who was named to the position last May, “and they said, ‘Wow, this is an undervalued asset out in the world. We need to accentuate that value.’ ”
CME Group CEO Terry Duffy has always been one to push for equity, announcing earlier this week that the winner of next year’s CME Group Tour Championship will receive a record-setting $2 million, and the player who finishes 60th will receive $40,000, up from $11,399 this week.
Marcoux Samaan noted the importance of providing data for potential sponsors to help them better understand the cost breakdown for players.
“If you make the cut, how much money do they make at the cut line? Can that pay for their expenses? That’s a really important thing for us to analyze,” said Marcoux Samaan, “and I think sponsors and partners are seeing that.”
The conversations with sponsors have changed significantly in the past decade according to Ricki Lasky, the tour’s chief tournament business officer.
“Our partners that have been there,” said Lasky, “the conversation has shifted from just titling an LPGA event, and once they come in, they understand the value. But now they’re talking about not only the entitlement, but everything under the umbrella of the LPGA.”
The most pressing issue fans seem to point to throughout the course of a season is the inability to sometimes watch live LPGA coverage. When asked what Marcoux Samaan would say to those frustrated fans, she first noted that she understands.
“All we can say is it’s a finite resource when we’re talking about broadcast windows,” she continued. “We just have to keep showing our value to our partners on why we should be prioritized in those windows.
“We believe in it … we say we want to be on as much as we can be on as well. What we’d also like to do is here’s some other options for you. Here’s how you can watch it digitally. Thank you for your engagement.”
“I do think it’s a chicken and egg,” she said. “You have to get more eyeballs in order to get those bigger numbers for our players.
“So I think we have to have a multi-tiered strategy around that and focus on growing our fans and growing our eyeballs, at the same time working with partners to give them other value in their partnership with us.”
The tour doesn’t have a marketing department per se. Perhaps that will begin to change as Marcoux Samaan adds more positions to the staff, something she’s determined to do.
“We think now is the time to build a bigger team,” she said. “Similar in quality and an increase in quantity.”
The goal, she explained, is to be able to get out the tour’s content more aggressively.
“The way we’ve been talking around our world is this is our time,” said Marcoux Samaan.
“The momentum is with us. And we just think there’s even more growth to come in so many different areas.”
Nelly Korda has Player of the Year on the line this week, oh, and $1.5 million.
There’s a lot on the line for Nelly Korda this week — LPGA Tour Player of the Year is the big one, other than the chance to win $1.5 million at the CME Group Tour Championship.
But the fact that the tournament is in her home state of Florida — where she won last week — puts at her ease even more than just being familiar with the state’s Bermuda grass.
“It’s nice to kind of get distracted with family time, going out to dinner every single night,” she said. “It’s a good kind of distraction and keeping it within the circle I think.”
And fellow LPGA Tour player Megan Khang, who grew up playing junior golf with Korda, also is in the field this week and is a frequent dining companion.
“We try to do dinner once a week even during tournament weeks, so, I mean — (her sister) Jess as well,” Khang said. “The whole family is an amazing family. I always joke that they’re my tour sisters, stuff like that.”
Other than being friends with Korda, Khang has watched her golf game continue to take off even more so this season, with multiple victories and leading the Race to the CME Globe in addition to being in contention for Player of the Year.
“Nelly is playing incredible this year,” Khang said. “I think from when we were younger we both knew that — like I knew Nelly was always going to be a great golfer and it was going to be very competitive us two.
“It helps that we’re really good friends and she pushes me to be a better golfer, and just kind of push myself and try to compete with her and keep up; really have something to chase after.”
As for her round, Korda said a Tuesday nap helped ease some fatigue after a long week — “that felt great” — that was capped with a playoff win Sunday near Tampa. She hit all 14 fairways and 16 of 18 greens. Korda made eight birdies, including three in a row on Nos. 9, 10, and 11, but had pair of bogeys, on Nos. 12 and 15. The 23-year-old closed with birdies on Nos. 16 and 17.
“I think I just struck it really well,” she said. “I gave myself some good looks probably inside 10 feet. Two oopsies with two three-putts, but I think I hit a majority of the greens and gave myself some really good looks.”
Weather forces easier setup
With pins placed in the middle of greens and a couple of tees moved up to try to speed up play and beat incoming weather, Tiburón Golf Club’s Gold Course took a bit of a beating Thursday.
But tour officials put it right there in front of the players to make sure they could finish. And most of them finished with birdies.
Nearly everyone in the 60-player field shot par or better. Only five didn’t.
“Honestly, I feel like the course was just set up pretty easy,” said Jennifer Kupcho, who’s tied for second at 7 under. “I mean, preparing for rain moved a lot of tees up, as well as put the pins right in the middle of the green I feel like, so it was pretty attackable.”
Webb chats with Green
LPGA Tour legend Karrie Webb of Australia was out at the course, and talked with fellow Aussie Hannah Green after her 6-under 66.
“It’s amazing she’s even out here,” Green said. “She said the last time she was watching me play was in 2019 at Hazeltine, so it’s pretty cool to even have her watching me back then, as well.
“It’s great that she’s always supporting us. There’s a few amateur golfers that are here at the moment, and she played golf with them (Wednesday), so she’s always giving back. She probably doesn’t realize how much of a big deal it is to those players and myself. I have to say thank you to her.”
Buffett performs concert
Jimmy Buffett played an invite-only concert with all proceeds going to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital after the CME Group Tour Championship Pro-Am at Tiburon Golf Club on Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021.
No word if cheeseburgers were served in Paradise Coast, the local tourism department’s marketing name for Southwest Florida, but Jimmy Buffett did serve a select audience with a concert Wednesday night between Tiburón Golf Club and the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort on a huge stage.
Cheeseburger in Paradise was the name of the 74-year-old “Margaritaville” singer’s restaurant chain.
Concert-goers were invite-only through tournament sponsor CME Group. All money raised went to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Greg Hardwig is a sports reporter for the Naples Daily News and The News-Press. Follow him on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter: @NDN_Ghardwig, email him at ghardwig@naplesnews.com. Support local journalism with this special subscription offer at https://cm.naplesnews.com/specialoffer/
Make an ace, win a Lambo – sounds like a sweet deal.
The ace that won Austin Ernst a two-year lease on a Lamborghini on Monday wasn’t caught on camera. But every shot that’s struck on the par-3 12th during competition rounds of the LPGA Tour’s Pelican Women’s Championship will be streamed live on NBC’s Peacock. It marks the first-ever Featured Hole stream in LPGA history.
“Apparently a lot of people came close on Monday,” said Ernst, who struck an 8-iron from 147 yards at the Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida. Any player who follows Ernst’s lead the rest of the week will also win a two-year lease on the iconic Italian car.
Ernst said she hadn’t gotten the information yet on how much the insurance will run her for two years. That number will determine whether or not it makes sense to accept the prize.
Back home in South Carolina, Ernst drives a Chevy Tahoe, and she was relieved to hear that the Lamborghini is an automatic as she has yet to learn how to drive a manual.
“I was like wait, I can’t drive a stick,” said Ernst. “Probably shouldn’t learn how to drive on that car either.”
Raymond James Pro-Am ahead of the 2021 Pelican Women’s Championship at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, FL on Monday, November 8, 2021.
(Ben Solomon/Outlyr)
Live stream coverage of the 12th hole will feature live interviews by Amy Rogers and studio coverage from host George Savaricas and analyst Jim Gallagher. Coverage of the watery par 3 will begin at 7:45 a.m. ET on Thursday and Friday and 9:45 a.m. ET over the weekend. It will be free to consumers on the Peacock app.
Television coverage of the Pelican will be live on Golf Channel from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Thursday and Friday. Weekend coverage will be tape-delayed on Golf Channel from 7:30-10:30 p.m.
The event’s live stream times on the NBC Sports App and golfchannel.com are from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, and 1-4 p.m. over the weekend.
“I loved the competition. The game, I learned to love it later.”
Danielle Kang has put together quite the resume since taking down Jessica Korda more than a decade ago on her way to winning the 2010 U.S. Women’s Amateur. But three years before her match-play triumph at Charlotte (North Carolina) Country Club, the California native was pushed into 2007 U.S. Women’s Open qualifying without even knowing it. Her brother signed her up and then Kang did the unthinkable: advanced through local and sectional qualifying to earn a spot in the field at Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club.
She was 14 years old at the time and oh yeah – had only picked up a golf club for the first time a year and a half earlier.
“I loved the competition. The game, I learned to love it later.” Kang told podcast host Hally Leadbetter. “I was good at it, which made me like it. I probably learned to really love golf in the last four or five years.
“I felt that golf was sometimes taking things away from me, but then I realized that it has given me so many opportunities.”
Danielle Kang reacts to missing a putt on the ninth green during competition rounds of the Solheim Cup golf tournament at Inverness Club. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports
Since the start of her rookie season in 2012, Kang has won five times on the LPGA tour, including her lone major victory at the 2017 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship (her first win on tour).
She’s represented the United States at the last three Solheim Cups, as well as the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games where she finished T-20.
On the heels of her two-win year in 2020 (LPGA Drive On Championship, Marathon LPGA Classic presented by Dana), she’s yet to hoist hardware in 2021 despite nine top-10 finishes in 19 starts.
