Snedeker joins elite club with 59
● US golfer only tenth man on PGA Tour to shoot magical figure ● World No 88 cards 10 birdies after bogey on opening hole
America’s Brandt Snedeker carded the 10th sub-60 round in PGA Tour history with an opening 59 in the Wyndham Championship in North Carolina.
Snedeker recovered from a bogey on the 10th, his opening hole, to card 10 birdies and an eagle at Sedgefield Country Club and set the early clubhouse target on 11 under par.
The 37-year-old hit four birdies in a row from the 13th to reach the turn in 32 and picked up four more shots in the first five holes on the front nine before holing his second shot to the sixth for an eagle two.
Snedeker’s approach from 176 yards flew straight into the cup with such force that it damaged the hole and forced tournament officials to cut a new hole a foot away, but it had no effect on the world No 88’s concentration.
A birdie on the seventh was followed by a miss from six feet on the next, but Snedeker then holed from 20 feet on the ninth to break the magical 60 barrier with an incredible inward half of 27.
“I was pretty upset [after the eighth] because I knew you’re not going to have many good looks to shoot 59,” Snedeker told PGA Tour Live.
“I kept telling myself after I birdied number seven, I’ve shot 60 out here before in China one year; you do this to shoot 59 so quit worrying about it and hit two fairways, give yourself two good looks [at birdie] and make one of the putts.
“Unfortunately I left myself one of the hardest four-footers you can have, a downhill rightto-lefter and I didn’t hit a great putt.
“I kept telling myself on nine, I don’t care if you four-putt, three-putt, but do not leave this putt short and luckily it held in there and went right in the middle. What a cool day.
“I just had a feeling I was going to do it, didn’t want to try to shy away from it at all. Last time I shot 60 I had a chance on the last two holes and kind of shied away from it and today I wasn’t going to do that.
“I found something on the back nine and started hitting a bunch of great iron shots and those days are fun. It’s why we play in practice and put all this time in to have days like this.
“If you had seen me yesterday you would have said there is no way I’m probably going to make the cut let alone shoot 59. It’s probably why I love golf so much, you never know what you’re going to get when you show up.”
Ryder Cup captain Jim Furyk holds the record for the lowest score on the PGA Tour with a 58 in the Travelers Championship in 2016. Furyk also shot 59 in the BMW Championship in 2013. Scott Jamieson believes he can use his experience to get out of a “sticky situation” and retain his European Tour card for next season.
Jamieson recorded four top10 finishes in 2017 and was a career-best 26th on the Race to Dubai, but currently lies 126th with only the top 110 at the end of the season retaining their full playing privileges for 2019.
The Florida-based Scot, who also struggled to retain his card in 2015 and 2016, made a superb start to the Nordea Masters in Gothenburg with an opening six-under-par 64 to lie just two shots off the lead held by France’s Clement Sordet. “I’m obviously in a bit of a sticky situation as things stand but if I can keep days like today going then I’ll be OK,” Jamieson said.
Jamieson shared second place with England’s Lee Slattery, with Sweden’s Christofer Blomstrand one of four players a shot further back. A controversial revamp of the Davis Cup format has been voted through at the International Tennis Federation’s AGM. In November next year the competition will see 18 nations compete in a week-long, round-robin tournament.
The overhaul of the 118-year-old competition was rubber-stamped despite the Lawn Tennis Association, the governing body of British tennis, opposing the changes.
The ITF outlined the changes in conjunction with Kosmos, a company founded and chaired by Barcelona footballer Gerard Pique.
The Davis Cup is currently played in February, April, September and November at home and away venues. However, an increasing number of top players have opted not to play in recent years due to the hectic schedule.
From next year the 18 countries will be divided into six groups with each qualifying round consisting of three matches – two singles and one doubles – of best-of-three sets.
The top teams from each group and the two highestscoring runners-up will play the quarter-finals on the Friday, with the semifinals on Saturday and the final held on Sunday.