59 Watch Archives - Golf Digest Middle East

Open Championship 2022: Would the R&A be upset if somebody shot a 59 on the Old Course? Not exactly

Golf Digest Middle East — Thu, 14 Jul 2022 09:23:13 +0000

R&A

By Ryan Herrington
History is often made at the Old Course, but the kind of history that’s being talked about potentially occurring here this week at the 150th Open Championship can be viewed in different ways. Would a player shooting a 59 at the Home of Golf be an regarded as an accomplishment or an embarrassment by the R&A?

There is a sense that scores will be low as the oldest men’s major returns to the Home of Golf, an extremely firm and fast golf course playing far shorter than the 7,300 yards listed on the scorecards. And if the relatively calm winds that are forecasted come true, the perception is that the major championship record score of 62 — set by Branden Grace at Royal Birkdale in 2017 — could be broken if not shattered.

No doubt R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers has heard the rumblings himself. But when posed the question during his Wednesday media conference — one of the few that didn’t deal with the dicey subject of LIV Golf — his answer might have come across as a bit surprising.

“Let me make a comment about 59 because I’ll put that back to you,” Slumbers began. “A 59 is 13-under par around this golf course. There’s 7,300 yards. It’s got greens that are running at 10.5 to 11 [on the Stimpmeter]. It’s got fairways where the ball is bouncing 50 yards if it’s hit and more if it catches the downslope … 13-under par around that, I’ll tell you what, if someone shoots that, I will be the first person on the 18th green to shake their hand because they have played outstanding golf.”

It’s easy to say that on Wednesday, when it’s only a hypothetical. But there are as many as par 4s on the course that given the conditions will be drivable for several players in the field. During a practice round, the DP World Tour captured this video of Richard Mansel nearly holing his drive on the par-4 18th.

.@richardmansel14 almost made an ace on the 18th hole yesterday during practice. ?#TheOpen pic.twitter.com/sOUtsEqBEM

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) July 13, 2022

All due respect to Mansel, but he’s ranked 297th in the world. There are other golfers in the field this week seeing this video and salivating. If the sun shines, and the breezes stay calm, the Old Course will indeed be under a #59Watch. And Slumbers will have to be positioned near the 18th green in case he owes a man a handshake.

The post Open Championship 2022: Would the R&A be upset if somebody shot a 59 on the Old Course? Not exactly appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Tyler McCumber comes agonisingly close to a 59 in his final round of 2021

Golf Digest Middle East — Sun, 21 Nov 2021 22:17:38 +0000

Sam Greenwood
Tyler McCumber had a 53-footer for birdie and a 59 on his final hole Sunday, and just missed it.

By Shane Ryan
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. — There’s an old saying that pros miss their putts on the high side of the break, but moments after shooting 60 to reach 15 under at the RSM Classic on Sunday—tied for second as the leaders made the turn—Tyler McCumber wasn’t buying it.

“Pros hit it in the middle of the cup,” he said.

To be fair to McCumber, his own birdie putt on the ninth green at the Seaside Course—he started on the 10th hole early Sunday morning—was miles from a gimme. Following a string of five birdies over his previous five holes, he blasted a 3-wood 123 yards from the hole, but hit his approach a groove low with his 52-degree wedge and left himself 53 feet for the 12th 59 in PGA Tour history. The long attempt, which tour players drain roughly 5 percent of the time, came shockingly close, and before it slipped by on the high side, McCumber thought it was good.

Making dad proud. ?

Tyler McCumber taps in for an impressive 60. pic.twitter.com/dJUZrj844w

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) November 21, 2021

He was only one-under through his first five holes, but jump-started his round on the par-5 15th, his sixth, with a 3-iron into the wind from 224 yards that set up a 48-foot eagle putt. A birdie on 16 set him up for a 31 on his front nine, but it wasn’t until the fourth hole when he turned up the heat. Five straight approaches to within 10 feet set up that string of five birdies, and turned the idea of 59 from longshot to near-reality.

McCumber said he began considering the possibility on the seventh, and rather than making him nervous, it was a helpful goal to ensure that pushed hard for the finish rather than coasting in.

He was trailed by a favourable gallery all day, including his father Mark, a 10-time PGA Tour winner (whose career-low on tour was a 64, according to Golf Channel), and a group of family and friends wearing “Tito’s Banditos” hats. (Megan McCumber, his older sister, gave him the nickname Tito in childhood, and designed the hats.) Jay Haas walked with the elder McCumber, watching his own son, Bill Haas, in the same group.

“I’m happy for him,” Mark McCumber said after he made his birdie on eight. “I know how hard it is.”

Afterwards, when asked if his father had ever shot 60, Tyler McCumber laughed.

“He has not,” he said. “I know that for a fact. … I have a long way to go in that career to match him, but I’ll hold the 60 over his head tonight over a beer.”

There’s always a certain level of paradoxical disappointment when a player misses a putt for 59, despite the fact that it still indicates a brilliant round. McCumber is no different, but there was one subset of Tito’s Banditos who won’t be sad at all. Those are Megan McCumber’s kids, who told her before the round they didn’t want to leave St. Simons Island to go back to their home in Florida.

“I’ll tell you what,” she told them. “If your uncle shoots 10-under today, you don’t have go to school on Monday.”

She thought there was no chance, but her little brother proved her wrong, and her kids won’t be at all upset that Uncle Tito couldn’t quite make history.

The post Tyler McCumber comes agonisingly close to a 59 in his final round of 2021 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Watch Web.com Tour pro Chris Baker painfully miss three birdie tries for a 59

Golf Digest Middle East — Sun, 02 Jun 2019 04:20:10 +0000

Matt Sullivan/Getty Images

ByRyan Herrington
There really shouldn’t be anything to get upset about when you shoot a 60 in a professional golf tournament. It’s a 60. It’s an amazing score. It puts you at or near the lead and sets up the potential for victory. It’s a very, very, VERY good thing.

And yet, Chris Baker, might have walked away from the Country Club at Wakefield Plantation in Raleigh, N.C., on Friday a little bummed with his second-round 10-under 60 at the Web.com Tour’s Rex Hospital Open. That’s because it came oh so close to being even better. Maybe even WAY better.

Sitting at 11 under par through 15 holes, having made seven straight birdies in one stretch and 11 in 13 holes, the 33-year-old from Seymour, Ind., had three more birdie looks on the last three holes that could have gotten him to golf’s magic number. Or even lower. Historically lower. Just making one would have gotten him to 59, and if he made all three, well, 57 turns you suddenly into a household figure in golf even if you’re currently just 28th on the Web.com Tour money list.

Unfortunately for Baker, his luck ran out over those final three holes, as you can see here:

Chris Baker (@ChrisBakerGolf) needed to birdie one of his final three holes Friday @RexHospitalOpen to shoot golf’s magic number … pic.twitter.com/EBfWKeyvui

— Web.com Tour (@WebDotComTour) May 31, 2019

Each time Baker just missed to the right of the hole. The one on No. 18 feels painful because it was the shortest, but the one on No. 16 felt most cruel given it looked like it was just about to drop at the end.

“I did everything I could,” Baker said. “It’s just exciting when you’re playing great and everything is going well. You almost just want to get out of your own way and let it go. It was a blast. I had a lot of fun today.”

While Baker failed to become the eighth golfer in Web.com Tour history to shoot a sub-60 score, he does lead the rain-delayed event by three strokes. This is his 131st Web.com Tour start dating back to 2009, and the Iowa State grad is still looking for his first Web.com victory, with his best finish thus far being a playoff loss at the 2017 Panama Championship. He might not have shot a 59 on Friday, but a 60 goes a long way to giving him a chance to have a career-defining moment this weekend.

The post Watch Web.com Tour pro Chris Baker painfully miss three birdie tries for a 59 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.