Many pros spend a lifetime dreaming of hitting golf’s magic number – a round of 59, while, arguably the greatest player of all time, Tiger Woods, has only managed it once.
According to the PGA Tour of Australasia, though, one of its members Peter Wilson hit rounds of 59 in successive days at Lang Lang Golf Club in Victoria in what could be the first time in the sport’s history a player has shot back-to-back 59s in a full-length course.
The 45-year-old Australian is currently ranked World No.881, so he wouldn’t appear to be the most obvious candidate to manage it once, let alone twice, but that relatively low ranking proved to be no hindrance to his incredible achievement .
Wilson’s first 59 on the par-70 course began unassumingly enough, with pars on the opening two holes. There was a hint of what was to come in the following two, though, where Wilson hit back-to-back birdies, and he closed out the front nine with two pars either side of an eagle on the par 5 seventh.
That 31 was impressive enough, but on the back nine things really took off. Two more pars caught Wilson in the zone before he completed his round with seven successive birdies.
While that 11-under would be enough for most players to tell anyone who would listen for years, the next day, he shot identical front and back nine scores to give him a story for the ages. This time, birdies at two, three, six and seven were dotted between five pars on the front nine, while a further seven birdies followed on the nine holes that closed out his round, with only the 12th and 18th resulting in pars.
Of course, Wilson’s achievement doesn’t get him into the exclusive list of players to shoot below 60 on either the PGA Tour or DP World Tour. However, given it’s thought to be the first time it’s happened in the game’s history, it’s likely his feat is even more unique.