Hayden Springer shoots 14th under-60 round in PGA Tour history with eagle-birdie 59
SILVIS, Ill.: Hayden Springer shot the 14th round in PGA Tour history under 60 on Thursday, joining a rapidly growing list with an eagle-birdie at the John Deere Classic with a 12-under 59.
All it got him was a two-shot lead over Sami Valimaki on a rain-soaked TPC Deere Run course that was so vulnerable to scoring that only 13 players in the 156-man field were over par.
Springer shot a 27 on the front nine and tried to block thoughts of a 59 or better. He then made five straight pars and figured the chance was gone until he holed a 55-yard shot for eagle on the par-5 17th.
Needing a birdie for golf’s magic number, his approach caught the slope and left him 12 feet short and the putt was true all the way.
“I’m a little lost for words when it comes to being able to do that,” Springer said. “I feel like it’s one of the few things in golf, so to have that opportunity and take advantage of it, it’s a pretty special feeling.”
The PGA Tour record is 58 by Jim Furyk at the Travelers Championship in 2016. Furyk is also among 13 players with a 59.
Any score that starts with a 5 remains special, although it’s not as rare as it once was, as players improve every year. Springer became the second player in three weeks to break 60. Cameron Young also had a 59 at the Travelers Championship.
It was the eighth under-60 round on golf tours around the world. The lowest was 57 Cristobal del Solar of Chile at the Korn Ferry Tour event in Colombia.
Springer tied the record at TPC Deere Run. Paul Goydos shot a 59 in the first round of the 2010 John Deere Classic. Goydos had a one-shot lead that year — Steve Stricker shot a 60 the same day and went on to win.
Valimaki, playing in the afternoon, spotted Springer’s 59 while playing the front nine.
“I think it was my seventh hole,” Valimaki said. “I was like, ‘OK, I’ve got to shoot lower and lower.’ I didn’t catch it, but it’s still a good round.’
Eric Cole had a 62, while the 63 group included Florida sophomore Luke Clanton, who tied for 10th at the Rocket Mortgage Classic last week. On the wrong side of the postseason bubble with five weeks left in the FedEx Cup playoffs, Lucas Glover shot a 64.
Players could lift, clean and place their golf balls in the short grass.
Still, Springer had reason to believe it could be a special day. He hit a 12-foot eagle putt on the second hole and birdied the next hole from 60 feet. He birdied the next three holes before closing out the front nine with birdie putts of 3 feet and 7 feet.
It was a 15-foot birdie putt on the fringe at the sixth hole that had him wondering how low he could go.
“I was like, ‘OK, I feel like I’m not missing today. I pretty much muck every putt I look at,” he said. “So that putt was probably the trigger of, ‘OK, we could go super low.’
Springer missed five straight cuts, putting himself in danger of losing the card. During the week of the US Open, he played on the Korn Ferry Tour — finishing tied for 54th — and spent time with his longtime swing coach before registering a tie for 10th in Detroit last week.
If this was progress, then it was a giant leap.
But then Springer knows how to handle the toughest times. His daughter Sage was diagnosed in 2021 with trisomy 18 – also known as Edwards syndrome – in which babies are born with three copies of chromosome 18 instead of two.
Such babies usually do not survive 72 hours. Sage was 3 years old when she died on Nov. 13, just a month before Springer faced the school Q. He had enough emotional capacity left to earn a PGA Tour card and now sits in the record books with a round under 60.
“I don’t know if it gives me inner strength, but it definitely tests you and you have to find ways to work through it and keep moving forward,” Springer said. “A lot of it for us is our faith, just leaning into it and knowing that we’re confident in it.
“We’ve had some tough things happen,” he said. “But at the end of the day, I want to compete, too, and I enjoy doing it.”
Kevin Chappell was among those with a 64. The conditions were so favorable for scoring that 12 players from the morning wave had 65 or less. Jordan Spieth was not among them. He had to climb to 69 and his first step on Friday will be the cut.
As for Springer, he became the fourth player on the PGA Tour with a 59 in the opening round. Justin Thomas (2017 Sony Open) and Brandt Snedeker (2018 Wyndham Championship) won. The exception was Goydos at the John Deere Classic.