Snedeker shoots 59; 10th player to break 60

GREENSBORO, N.C. — Brandt Snedeker predicted low scores at the Wyndham Championship — but not this low.

Snedeker shot an 11-under 59 on Thursday, falling one shot shy of matching the PGA Tour record.

He made a 20-foot putt on his final hole to become the 10th player in tour history to break 60. Jim Furyk set the record with a 58 in the final round of the Travelers Championship in 2016.

“I better be smiling,” Snedeker said. “I don’t do this every day.”

This is the third consecutive year the PGA Tour has had a sub60 round. Snedeker is the first to shoot 59 since Adam Hadwin in the third round of the 2017 Careerbuilder Challenge.

It gave him a four-stroke lead after one round. Ryan Moore and John Oda shot 63s, and Martin Flores, D.A. Points, Brett Stegmaier, David Hearn, Abraham Ancer, Ollie Schniederjans and Jonathan Byrd had 64s.

Snedeker — who said a day earlier that the tournament would turn into a “birdie-fest” — began the round at par-70 Sedgefield Country Club with a bogey at No. 10, and took off from there. He played the front nine in 27, including an eagle 2 on the par-4 sixth hole when he holed out from 176 yards.

Snedeker, the 2012 FedEx Cup champion, won the Wyndham in 2007. He broke Si Woo Kim’s 2-year-old Wyndham record of 60 and had the best opening round in this event’s history. Arjun Atwal had a 61 in 2010.

Snedeker, who began his round on the back nine, reeled off four consecutive birdies on Nos. 13-16. He then got even hotter on his final nine holes, with six birdies in addition to the shot of the day on No. 6. But he missed a 3-foot birdie putt on No. 8 that would have made a 58 possible.

“Could have been even more special,” he said, “but happy with the way everything turned out.”

Ken Duke (Arkadelphia, Henderson State) shot a 2-under 68. David Lingmerth (Arkansas Razorbacks) had a 1-under 69. Matt Atkins (Henderson State) had a 2-over 72 and Ethan Tracy (Razorbacks) shot a 4-over 74.