Fifty-nine no longer seems like a magic number on the PGA Tour, with two already posted this year, the latest by Canadian Adam Hadwin in the third round of the CareerBuilder Challenge on Saturday.
Hadwin, 29, holed a three-foot par-saving putt on the 18th hole to complete the ninth sub-60 round shot in PGA Tour history, but the first by a player without a tour victory.
“I walked off 17, and I said to my caddie Joe, ‘It looks like a lot more people than when we teed off,' " Hadwin said. "I was shaking, I really was. I knew what was at stake. The last thing you want to do is miss a three-footer for 59."
Asked to describe the round, he said, "I don’t know. Perfect, I guess. I got away with a few shots on the back and for whatever reason any time I hit a putt it went in. Everybody talks about you being in the zone, it’s your day. It was my day."
Hadwin made six straight birdies and seven total on the front nine at La Quinta (Calif.) Country Club, then had a streak of five consecutive birdies and six total on the back nine for a 13-under par score. It was the second 59 shot in this tournament; David Duval won the tournament then known as the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic with a final-round 59 in 1999.
Last week, Justin Thomas shot a 59 at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu in the first round of the Sony Open in Hawaii that he went on to win.
The round enabled Hadwin, whose previous-best PGA Tour round was a 63, to climb into the lead at 17-under-par 199, one stroke ahead of tour rookie Dominic Bozzelli and two ahead of second-round leader Hudson Swafford and Brian Harman, Chad Campbell and Bud Cauley.
Here's a video of Hadwin making the putt to clinch the magic number.
Hadwin, in his third year on the PGA Tour, is in pursuit of his first tour victory, as are Bozzelli, Cauley and Swafford. Harman has won once, Campbell four times.
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