Hayden Springer shot the 14e score under 60 in PGA Tour history in the opening round of the John Deere Classic on Thursday.
Springer hit an eagle from 55 yards on the par-5 17e and then made a 12-foot, 8-inch birdie putt on the final hole for a 12-under 59 at TPC Deere Run.
“I feel good. I don’t know, I don’t know what I can say about how I can do that,” Springer, who had never shot below 61, even in practice, said after his round. “I feel like that’s one of the rare things in golf, so to get that opportunity and make it work, it feels really special.”
It is the second 59 in three weeks on the Tour as Cameron Young shot that song in the third round of the Travelers Championship. It is also the second 59 in tournament history, with Paul Goydos first doing so in 2010.
Neither Young (T-9) nor Goydos (second) won their respective events. Springer currently holds the clubhouse lead by just two strokes over Sami Valimaki.
Jim Furyk holds the Tour record with a 58 in the final round of the 2016 Travelers. Furyk is also one of 13 players to shoot 59. He did not win either event. Only five times has a player broken 60 on Tour and won, most recently Brandt Snedeker at the 2018 Wyndham Championship.
Strengthened by the memories of his deceased daughterSpringer first earned his Tour card in December at Q-School. He entered this week in Silvis, Illinois, 127th on the FedExCup points list, having just ended a streak of six missed cuts.
Frustrated by his lack of success, Springer said he reunited with his youth coach, Rosey Bartlett, the director of development at Trophy Club (Texas).
“She’s been coaching me since I was 6 years old,” Springer said. “So I took a little break from her for a couple of years and then just this last — before last week, these last six tournaments, missing those cuts, I felt like I had to do something, so she could help me.”
Instantly. Springer tied for 10th at last week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic. And now this.
Springer: Matching tournament record ‘quite special’
Hayden Springer reacts to his impressive first-round 59 at the 2024 John Deere Classic, which tied the tournament record and tied the PGA Tour’s slowest round this season.
Springer’s Thursday scoring on preferred lies began with a 13-foot eagle putt on the par-5 second, followed by four straight birdies. He added two more birdies on Nos. 8 and 9 to finish 9-under 27.
After five straight pars at the start of the back nine, Springer birdied the 15th hole before his dramatic finish.
“It’s special,” he said. “It feels good to be here and have played a good round of golf.
“Tomorrow is a new day. I don’t know what’s going to happen. Just try to do exactly what I do pretty much every day and go through the same routine, the same process, and go from there.”