There has always been something special to celebrate when a golfer shoots under 60. Here are the dozen golfers to have done it on the PGA Tour, writes BRENDAN BARRATT.
When South Africa’s Aldrich Potgieter tapped in for a second-round 59 at the Astara Golf Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour, he became the youngest player to break 60 at a PGA Tour-sanctioned event.
Unfortunately for Potgieter, it wasn’t even the lowest round of the week. A day earlier, Chilean Cristobar Del Solar had shattered all records to fire a 13-under-par score of 57 on the Country Club de Bogota-Pacos in Colombia.
While the course was clearly set up for scoring, it still takes some doing to shoot under 60, a point highlighted by the fact that there have only ever been 12 sub-60 rounds on the PGA Tour.
The rarity has also only occurred once on the DP World Tour and once on the LPGA Tour.
So which players are responsible for these miraculous rounds of golf?
58 Jim Furyk
2016 Travelers Championship (par 70)
Back in 2016, Furyk fired a final-round 12-under-par 58 on the par-70 TPC River Highlands Course – the lowest score in the history of the PGA Tour. His round included 10 birdies, an eagle and seven pars.
Furyk only managed to finish the tournament in a tie for fifth.
Amazingly, this was the second time he’d broken 60.
59 Al Geiberger
1977 Memphis Classic (par 72)
Geiberger became the first player to break 60 on any major Tour, back in 1977. What makes the round so special – other than being the first – was that it occurred on a par-72 course of almost 7,200 yards.
He completed the first nine in six under par, before holing out a pitch shot on the 10th, a par five. Two more birdies followed and Geiberger was at 10 under with six holes left to play.
‘I was starting to feel a little invincible,’ he later admitted as he made birdies on the 15th and 16th to stand on the brink of history. On the 18th hole, he hit a 9-iron to eight feet and calmly sank the putt.
‘I remember thinking, “Don’t leave this putt short”,’ Geiberger said. ‘I felt like I hit it so hard it went off in my hand, but it just dived in.’
59 Chip Beck
1991 Las Vegas International (par 72)
It took 14 years for anyone to match Geiberger’s remarkable feat – and again it came on a par-72 course, although this one was expected to produce low scores.
Beck scored 13 birdies in his round, and claimed the $500,000 bonus that the Hilton Corp hotel chain had put up as a bonus for anyone who broke 60.
They also put up a further half a million to junior golf – extraordinary given the winner’s cheque that year was only $180,000.
59 David Duval
1999 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic (par 72)
World No 1 Duval became just the third player to shoot in the fifties when he blitzed the final round of the 1999 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic.
He made 11 birdies before closing with an eagle to win the event by a single shot.
59 Annika Sorenstam
2001 Standard Register Ping
Sorenstam became the first player on the LPGA Tour to break 60. The Swede birdied her first eight holes, and 12 of her first 13.
By the time she reached the 18th tee, she needed only a par to break 60. A regulation two-putt secured it.
‘I wasn’t worrying about anything,’ she explained. ‘I would stand on the tee; I would just swing it. I wasn’t worrying where the ball was going; same thing on my putting. I was just looking at the hole and that is what I was concerned about. I was so free in my mind.’
59 Paul Goydos
2010 John Deere Classic (par 70)
Goydos recorded just 22 putts in his opening-round 59 at the 2010 John Deere Classic.
The American journeyman shot 28 on the back nine to match the lowest nine-hole score in relation to par in PGA Tour history.
59 Stuart Appleby
2010 Greenbrier Classic (par 70)
Aussie Appleby became the first non-American to break 60 on the PGA Tour.
His final round of 59 included nine birdies and an eagle as he beat Jeff Overton by one shot to claim the 2010 Greenbrier Classic.
59 Jim Furyk
2013 BMW Championship (par 71)
Furyk first joined the fifties club during the second round of the 2013 BMW PGA Championship. After getting off to a fast start – he was six under through six holes – Furyk face a 103-yard pitch on the last, needing a birdie to get to 59.
‘I thought, “How many opportunities are you going to have in life to do this again?”’ he said. ‘Got to take advantage of it.’
He hit a gap-wedge to three feet and calmly holed the putt – becoming just the sixth player in PGA Tour history to achieve the feat.
59 Justin Thomas
2017 Sony Open (par 70)
Thomas opened the 2017 Sony Open – an event that tends to produce low scores – with a 59 and backed it up as he ultimately won by seven shots over Justin Rose.
59 Adam Hadwin
2017 CareerBuilder Challenge (par 72)
A week after Thomas’ 59, Canadian Hadwin shot a 59 of his own, in the third round of the 2017 CareerBuilder Challenge.
59 Oliver Fisher
2018 Portugal Masters (par 71)
Fisher finally became the first player on the European circuit to break 60, shooting 10 birdies and an eagle in the second round of the Portugal Masters.
Rounds of 69 and 70 over the weekend saw him settle for a tie for seventh spot.
59 Brandt Snedeker
2018 Wyndham Championship (par 70)
Snedeker joined the 59 club in the opening round of the Wyndham Championship, but struggled to replicate the same form over the next two rounds.
A final-round 65 was enough to get him over the line, holding off Webb Simpson.
59 Kevin Chappell
2019 Military Tribute at the Greenbrier (par 70)
Chappell’s remarkable round came out of nowhere, as the American fired a round of 71 in the first round, hit nine consecutive birdies on the way to a 59 in the second round and then failed to break par over the weekend as he finished the tournament in a tie for 47th.
59 Scottie Scheffler
2020 The Northern Trust (par 71)
Scheffler’s 59 is the most recent sub-60 round on the PGA Tour. The then rookie ended the week in a tie for 4th, some 13 strokes behind champion Dustin Johnson.
– This article first appeared in the April 2024 issue of Compleat Golfer magazine.
Photo: Scott Halleran/Getty Images
