The day after Davidson junior Alex Ross fired an absurd 57 in the third round of the Dogwood Invitational, we nearly saw another sub-60 round on the PGA Tour. And that’s not even the craziest part of the story.
The really crazy part, is that the sub-60 round was nearly shot by Brandt Snedeker, who just last August joined the 59 club with a scintillating 11 under opening round at the Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club. It made him just the 10th player in PGA Tour history to card a sub-60 round, and the third since January 2017.
In the second round of the RBC Canadian Open at Hamilton Golf and Country Club, Snedeker almost accomplished the feat again, ultimately settling for a 10-under 60 that saw him go from one under to 11 under for the tournament, good enough for the solo lead. Had Snedeker pulled it off, he would have joined Jim Furyk as the only players to shoot a pair of sub-60 rounds on the PGA Tour. Furyk shot a 12-under 59 in the second round of the 2013 BMW Championship at Conway Farms Golf Club and then shot a 12-under 58 three years later in the final round of the 2016 Travelers Championship. Furyk failed to win on either occasion, while Snedeker was able to pull out a victory at the Wyndham.
Unlike his last ridiculously low round, this one got off on the right footing (Sneds bogeyed the opening hole when he shot 59 in August). On Friday, he began with a birdie at the par-4 10th at Hamilton Golf and Country Club, then made three more at No.’s 12, 16 and 17 to turn in four-under 31. After a par at the first, Snedeker made his fifth birdie of the day at the par-4 second, then made eagle at the par-5 fourth following a 234-yard approach shot to 20 feet:
That got him to seven under on the round with just five holes to play, but back-to-back birdies at the fifth and sixth brought 59 into the equation. The first came from 21 feet:
The second came from 14 feet at the par-3 sixth:
Needing two more birdies and a par for 59, Snedeker’s dream died when he went par-par at the seventh and eighth holes, but he still gave 59 a good run with his final approach shot of the day at the par-4 ninth, which needed to drop:
A valiant effort, but he had to take his 60 and go home. Sigh.
The 60 still puts Snedeker in an elite club of players to shoot multiple rounds of 60 or lower, one that Furyk belongs in with his 58 and 59. The other two are Phil Mickelson and Zach Johnson, neither of whom have broken 60 in their careers. Mickelson has shot three 60s, one of them coming in the opening round of this year’s Desert Classic, to Johnson’s two.