Here's why a LIV golfer's 59 should count among the most quirky in history

Well, this is a stat. At the LIV Golf event in Indiana, Sebastian Munoz recorded the first 59 on a top-level US professional golf tour that included a double-bogey.

Munoz, the Colombian who plays on Joaquin Niemann’s Torque GC team, began the first round on Friday of LIV Golf Indianapolis at The Club at Chatham Hills, a par 71, on the second hole due to LIV’s shotgun start format. By the time he’d made his way around and drained a short birdie at the first, he’d shot 12-under 59 to begin the last individual tournament of LIV Golf’s season. The season-ending team championship will be held in Michigan next week.

Munoz, 32, recorded the third sub-60 round in LIV’s short history following Bryson DeChambeau’s 58 at The Greenbrier in 2023 and Niemann’s 59 at the 2024 LIV Golf Mayakoba. Both Niemann and Munoz started their 59s on their respective second holes. With the score, Munoz was three shots ahead of Dustin Johnson (62), while Niemann, Cam Smith, Patrick Reed and Thomas Pieters were at seven under (64).

Perhaps the wilder stat from Munoz’s round is that he had an early double bogey and was one over par through four holes. That makes his round the first sub-60 at a top-level U.S. tournament that included a double bogey. None of the 15 sub-60 rounds on the PGA Tour history have included a double bogey and neither have 15 on the Korn Ferry Tour.

Overseas, there has been a 59 featuring a double bogey, with Adrien Mork pulling it off in the Challenge Tour's 2006 Moroccan Classic.

"Awesome, awesome day,” Munoz said. “Feeling right now a bit tired. It was a lot of mental strength out there. I started decent. A couple pars, a birdie and then a couple bad shots in a row, ended up making double. Kind of forgave myself, honestly. I didn't want to hold on and have a grudge all day … [and] I ended up chipping in for birdie on 6.”

Indeed, after two opening pars on Nos. 2 and 3, Munoz birdied the fourth. He then doubled the par-4 fifth to sit one-over. Munoz promptly tore up the course when he made eight consecutive birdies from there, starting with that chip-in for birdie at No. 6.

“I hit really good shots, really committed shots, swung the ball really good and made the clutch putts,” he said.

Later, the winner of the PGA Tour’s 2019 Sanderson Farms Championship made a boring par at the 221-yard, par-3 14th before resuming business with another four straight birdies from the 15th.

Knowing he needed birdie on No. 1 for a 59, Munoz’s caddie convinced him to take a 3-wood from the tee to boost his chances of finding the fairway. From there, a perfect gap wedge left a short birdie putt.

“Three-wood [is] one of the clubs I don't really love in my bag, but, obviously, it just required a little bit more focus, a little bit more trust, and we managed to pull through and did it. … We had 127 [yards] left, a little downwind,” Munoz said. “So we ended up playing for a 118 shot with my 50-degree, which I like a lot.

“Once I hit it, I saw it going straight at it, I was like, ooh, it's going to be good. Then I couldn't see it, but Sergio [Garcia] and Carlos [Ortiz] both gave me the hands up like it was tight. So really good, and then I ended up having a three-footer up the hill pretty straight, and it kind of reminded me of a putt I hit in the U.S. Open qualifier in sectionals. … I had a three-footer to make it through, and I missed it, and I felt like I rushed it. I wasn't all of myself there. So I just reminded myself, just stay here in the moment, keep breathing, one more time, just keep it simple, and it worked.”