Golf’s elite sub-60 club – only one major men’s tour yet to join

Catlin, 33, had posted nine birdies coming to the last, the par-5 18th and knowing that he needed an eagle ‘3’ if he was to create a first in the 59-year history of the Asian Tour.

The former triple European Tour winner and four-time Asian Tour champion, now LIV attached, lined-up his putt and got the read perfect, rolling in the eagle putt in an 11-under-par 59 at Macau Country Club.

Naturally, Catlin was ecstatic celebrating with his caddy and receiving congratulations from playing partners and fellow Americans Patrick Reed and Andy Ogletree.

“Yeah, I’m pretty much speechless,” said an emotional Catlin, who admitted later that he thought he would never break 60, even though all his passwords and also ‘X’ account end with 59.

“It’s pretty, crazy. It hasn’t totally sunk in yet. Wow. Yeah, the emotions are hitting me for sure. Just everything I’ve been through over the last two years. To be here. It’s pretty special.”

So, which male Tour is still without a 59 in under-50 competition?

Thanks to Wikipedia there are 24 players on five of the six main men’s tours to have posted sub-60 rounds.

The PGA Tour boasts 12 sub-60 scores including the first by Al Geilberger who won the 1977 Danny Thomas Memphis Classic, and the lowest being a 58 posted by Jim Furyk on the final day of the 2016 Travelers Championship, won by Scot Russell Knox.

England’s Ollie Fisher signed for the DP World Tour’s only 59 at the 2018 Portugal Masters at Villamoura.

In 2003 Masahiro Kuramoto became the first player to shoot 59 on the Japan Tour on day one of the Acom International. Seven years later on 2 May 2010, Ryo Ishikawa shot a 12-under-par 58 to win the Crowns tournament by five strokes while South Korean Kim Seong-hyeon matched that 58 in a 2021 Japan Tour event.

The Sunshine Tour celebrated a first 59 with South African Peter Karmis posted a closing 59 to capture the 2009 Lombard Insurance Classic. Four years later countryman Colin Nel matched that score finishing runner-up in the 2013 Nelson Mandela Championship.

American sensation Bryson DeChambeau has the honour of being the first to record a sub-60 score on the LIV Tour, shooting a 58 to win last year’s LIV Golf Greenbrier. Earlier this year red-hot Chilean-born Joaquin Niemann posted a sensational opening day 59 and went on to capture the LIV Golf Mayakoba.

That only leaves the Australasian Tour, standing alone without a sub-60 score.

Of note, former DP World Tour and PGA Tour player Peter Lonard became the first ‘down under’ player to shoot 59 in winning the Moama Masters, but this came on the over-50 Australian Legends Tour. The three-time Australian PGA champion and two-time Australian Open winner collected 12 birdies on his record-setting day and was even on for a potential 57 had he birdied the last, but had to settle for bogey after finding the greenside bunker.

The lowest score on the main men’s Australasian Tour is a score of 12-under 60 shared by three players.

Sydney-born Paul Gow has the distinction of being first to shoot a 60 on the opening day of the 2001 Canon Challenge at the Castle Hill course.  Gow’s effort bettered countryman’s Mike Harwood’s 61 during the 1993 Australian PGA Championship also in Sydney.

Ernie Els matched that score at the 2004 co-sanctioned Heineken Classic at Royal Melbourne and six years later Melbourne pro Alistair Presnell shot a phenomenal 12-under-par 60 to snatch victory in the Victorian PGA Championship on the Sandhurst course.

The 30-year-old equalled the Australasian tour record of 60 now shared with Ernie Els (2004 Heineken Classic, Royal Melbourne) and Paul Gow (2001 Canon Challenge, Castle Hill) with his 12-birdie round on the north course at Sandhurst, near Cranbourne.

I should mention the official lowest round in men’s pro golf is a 57 posted by Ireland’s David Carey in winning the 2019 Cervino Open on the third-tier Alps Tour and that score was matched earlier this year by Chilean Cristobal del Solar, who shot a first day 57 on route to a fifth place finish in the Korn Ferry Tour Astara Championship.

As an interesting footnote, your author has the ball Harwood used in shooting 61 as well as the ball used by ‘Gowie’ when shooting the first 60 in Australasian Tour history.