The 59 That Didn't Win

On July 8, 2010, Paul Goydos opened the John Deere Classic at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Illinois, by shooting 59 on a par-71 course: 12 birdies, six pars, no bogeys, and 22 putts. 1

That score was strange even before the tournament got weird. Goydos was 46, ranked No. 137 in the world, had missed two straight cuts, had not broken par in his previous six rounds, and had not finished in the top 40 since early May. 1 By the end of the round, he was the fourth player in PGA Tour history to shoot 59, the oldest to do it at the time, and the first to do it on a par-71 course. 1

Goydos did not talk like a man who had solved golf. "Today was a nuclear bomb," he said. "I don't know where it came from. If I knew that, I wouldn't be able to touch it." 2

The course had been softened by rain, and players were allowed to use lift-clean-place conditions during the round. 1 Soft turf helps, but it does not explain a scorecard with no damage on it.

Goydos made birdie on seven of his final nine holes and shot 28 on the back nine, eight under par, tying the PGA Tour record for lowest nine-hole score relative to par. 1 The official scorecard looked almost fake: circles all over the back nine, a handwritten 59 at the end, and no bogey square anywhere. 1

The last hole gave the round its clean movie ending. On No. 18, Goydos hit a 7-iron from 145 yards to seven feet, then made the putt for 59. 1 He later said he was "probably as nervous as I've ever been over a putt in my life" and that the putt "would have gone in a thimble." 2

A 59 usually gets to be the whole story. This one had Steve Stricker lurking behind it.

Stricker shot 60 in the same opening round, which created the PGA Tour's first same-day 59-and-60 pairing. 3 He knew the absurdity of chasing a man who had already posted 12 under before Stricker could settle into his day. "You're 12 back before you even step on the first tee," Stricker said. "That's tough to swallow." 3

Then Stricker did the rudest possible thing to a historic scorecard: he won the tournament. Goydos finished second by two strokes, making him the first PGA Tour player to shoot 59 and still lose that event. 4

That is why July 8 gets a golf oddity with two punchlines. Goydos reached what he called "almost a mythical number" in golf, then had to watch another player turn the same tournament into his own trophy week. 2 4