As Hayden Springer Enters the Exclusive ’59’ Club, Meet the 12 Golfers Who Broke 60 on the PGA Tour

Hayden Springer became the latest golfer to shoot 59 on the PGA Tour. The Dallas native rolled a 13-footer over the final hole to stand on the same podium as 12 others who did the same in the past. Springer’s was the second 59 on the PGA Tour this year, 14th in history. Here are 12 other players who achieved the rare feat and how they did it.

Al Geiberger was the first to break 60 on the PGA Tour

When Al Geiberger tees off in the afternoon at the 7,249-yard Colonial, few imagined the first sub-60 would be scored here. Preferred lies were in effect, but Mr. 59 doesn’t remember even resorting to lift, clean, and place.

Rather he went full throttle from the first tee. Pin hunting was complemented by the 166 feet of putts he rolled that day. The roars of 59 reached him in the back nine but you don’t count your score while playing. And Geiberger pushed forward without bothering about the actual numbers.

On the 18th an eight-footer stood between him and history. Destiny took him in the direction he was slated to go: the first man to shoot 59 in history. The Danny Thomas Memphis Classic was his penultimate title on the PGA Tour.

Chip Beck matched that at the 1991 Las Vegas Invitational

Geiberger thought if he could do it anyone could as well. He was wrong. It took 14 years for another PGA Tour pro to reach the magic numbers. Chip Beck looked like he was at 59 when he made the turn at 29 at the Sunrise Golf Club. The relatively short 6,914-yard layout was used as a fill-in course for the 1991 Las Vegas Invitational.

Birding the last three holes in the moving day, Beck tied for the lead. He earned a $500,000 bonus for matching the lowest score. But the bragging rights went to Andrew Magee as Beck tied for third.

Another eight years passed before a round in 59

In the final round of the 1999 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, David Duval had only one thing in mind: to win. The only snag was he was seven shots behind the leader with 18 holes left to play. Duval had to be clinical, and he was. Perhaps a little too much. Jaime Diaz at Sports Illustrated reported that Duval’s longest putt of the day was a 10-footer. Duval had a piece of history all by himself as well, he was the first to shoot 59 in the final round.

Paul Goydos became famous for shooting 59

Until the 2010 John Deere Classic, Paul Goydos used to joke that he was known for losing to Sergio Garcia in the PLAYERS Championship playoff. At TPC Deere Run, then played at par-71, Goydos opened with a 12-under par round to change that. Turning at 31, Goydos birdied eight holes in the back nine; the last one was a 7-footer. Goydos, like Geiberger shot 59 when lift, clean and place rules were in effect.

Stuart Appleby shot 59 within a few months of Goydos

Before 30 days passed from Goydos’s magical round, Stuart Appleby did one better. On Sunday the Aussie needed some low scores to end its four-year title drought. At the par-70 layout of Old White Course, Appleby was chasing overnight leader Jeff Overton on Sunday. Getting 3-under in the final three holes helped his main cause – to win the Greenbrier Classic. It also propelled him to history as the first player to break 60 in a par-70 layout.

Jim Furyk shoots his first sub-60 round on the PGA Tour

Furyk was tied for third when Appleby scored 59. Three years later, Furyk touched that record himself. He entered the second round of the 2013 BMW Championship at one-over tied for 39th. Starting on the back nine, the veteran made the turn at 28. Three birdies followed in the first four holes of the front nine as well.

A bogey on the 5th made some gasp, but not Furyk. On the final hole, Furyk needed a birdie to reach the magical numbers, and he rolled the short birdie putt calmly as he did for the rest of the day. History was made for more reasons than one. Jim Furyk was the only PGA Tour pro to score 59 despite making a bogey.

Jim Furyk does it again but this time one better

Jim Furyk was probably the most frustrated man on the course when he entered the final round of the 2016 Travelers Championship. He shot 72 the other day and was disgusted with his swing. A back-and-forth chat with his swing instructor pop later, Furyk opened with 10-under through 11 holes on Sunday.

At the par-70 River Highland, that meant the veteran golfer was flirting with 56 or even lower. Three par saves instead of birdies on the back nine could have messed up his round, but Jim Fury steadied the ship with a 24-foot birdie putt on the 16th. Eventually, the 17-time PGA Tour winner settled for 58. No less historic as he became the first person to shoot two sub-60 rounds in PGA Tour history and the only player to have a 58.

Justin Thomas makes PGA Tour history at the 2017 Sony Open

Among all those before him, Justin Thomas had the hardest job. Then 23-year-old and fresh off his victory at Maui, Thomas sunk his approach into the sand bunker on the 18th hole. He was at 61, needing an eagle to reach the magic number.

Instead of laying up, Thomas picked a 5-iron and pulled his recovery shot within 15 feet. The job wasn’t done, but the three-time major winner sank the clutch putt to match six others in the history of carding 59. Thomas became the youngest of the lot.

The time Adam Hadwin seized the day

Barely ten days after Justin Thomas’s 59 at the Sony Open, Adam Hadwin became the ninth player in history to have a sub-60 round. The Canadian became the first player since David Duval to do so in a par-72 layout.

Hadwin is also the first Canadian to score 59 on the PGA Tour. It was a perfect round at the Career Builder Challenge by all means. Then 29-year-old Hadwin reached 15 greens in regulation, 12 of the 14 fairways, and didn’t make a bogey en route to his historic round.

No one saw Brandt Snedeker shoot a 59 at Wyndham Championship

Brandt Snedeker knew the 2018 Wyndham Championship would be a birdie fest. But he didn’t envision himself leading the charge. The nine-time PGA Tour winner bogeyed the 10th – his 1st – but then ended the back nine at 27.

Continuing the birdie streak, he added six more circles to his scorecard in the front nine. A chance at 58 was lost when he missed the 3-footer on the penultimate hole. However, you can’t be complaining after a sub-60 score. He became the first player in history to open with a bogey and then shoot 59.

Kevin Chappell continued the sub-60 trend in 2019

Kevin Chappell returned to the PGA Tour at the Military Tribute at The Greenbrier ten months after back surgery. It didn’t take him long to find his footing. After opening with a 71 on Thursday, Chappell shot 59 in the second.

At one point, Chappell made nine consecutive birdies to tie Mark Calcavecchia’s record for shooting back-to-back birdies. A missed birdie chance on the final hole denied him a share of 58, but scoring sub-60 after a long hiatus wasn’t too bad.

Scottie Scheffler makes a splash in his rookie year on the PGA Tour

Scottie Scheffler carded his lowest round only in his rookie year. Then 24-year-old Schefler shot 12-under 59 in the 2020 Northern Trust Open. A perfect bogey-free round with 12 birdies – evenly spread the front and back nine – floated Scheffler from outside the cutline to the top of the leaderboard. The two-time major winner eventually tied for 4th. Scheffler was 24, the second youngest player to shoot a sub-60 round on the PGA Tour.

Cameron Young is the 13th time lucky

Young was the last golfer to shoot a 59 until Hayden Springer eclipsed him at the John Deere Classic. Young carded 11-under 59 on the moving day at the 2024 Travelers Championship. But his was still the second-lowest score on the course, courtesy of Jim Furyk.

The 27-year-old had a chance to match that in the wet TPC River Highlands where he was allowed to lift, clean, and place his ball. His drive landed him on the fairway bunker on the 18th. Unable to make a birdie, Young settled for par and became the 13th player in history to score a 59 on the PGA Tour. Interestingly, Jordan Spieth, his playing mate also teed off with Justin Thomas seven years back.

We already had seven sub-60 rounds this year across recognized tours. Joaquin Niemann started the trend with a 59 at LIV Golf Mayakoba. Cristobal de Solar shot a 57 at the Korn Ferry Tour’s Astara Golf Championship in Colombia. In the past, David Carey shot 57 on the Alps Tour. Notably, there has been only one 59 on the DP World Tour (Oliver Fisher) and the LPGA Tour (Annika Sorenstam). Bryson DeChambeau carded a 58 at LIV Golf Greenbrier last year. What this shows is, that with improved technology more and more players are going deep into their rounds. The trend will continue in the future