SILVIS, Ill. — Hayden Springer posted the 14th round of 60 in PGA Tour history on Thursday, joining a rapidly growing list of eagle-birdie finishes at the John Deere Classic in 12-under 59.
What earned him was a two-shot lead over Sami Välimäki at TPC Deere Run in a rain-soaked scoring hazard that only 13 players out of the 156-player field qualified.
Springer shot a 27 on the front nine and tried to block shots of 59 or better. He then made five straight pars and thought the opportunity was gone until he holed a 55-yard eagle shot on the par-5 17th.
Needing a birdie to get golf’s magic number, his approach caught the slope and left him 12 feet short, and the putt was true all the way.
“It’s almost at a loss for words about being able to do that,” Springer said. “I feel like that’s one of the rare things in golf, so to have that opportunity and pull it off, it feels pretty special.”
The PGA Tour record is Jim Furyk’s 58 at the Travelers Championship in 2016. Furyk is also among 13 players with 59.
Any score that starts with 5 is always special, although it’s not as rare as it used to be as players get better each year. Springer became the second player in three weeks to break 60. Cameron Young also had a 59 at the Travelers Championship.
On the world tour, it was the eighth-under 60 round. The lowest was a 57 by 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 only one shot that year — Steve Stricker shot 60 the same day and made it.
Valimaki, playing in the afternoon, saw off Springer’s 59 as he played on the front nine.
“I think it was my seventh hole,” Valimaki said. “I was like, ‘Okay, I need to keep shooting down and down.’ I didn’t catch it, but it’s a good round.”
Eric Cole was 62, and the 63 group included Florida sophomore Luke Clanton, who tied for 10 last week at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. Lucas Glover, on the wrong side of the postseason bubble with five weeks to go before the FedEx Cup playoffs, shot a 64.
Players are allowed to lift, clean and place golf balls on short grass.
Still, Springer had reason to believe early on that this would be a special day. He holed a 12-foot eagle putt on the second hole and chipped in from 60 feet for birdie on the next. He bogeyed the next three holes, then closed the front nine with birdie putts of three feet and 7 feet.
It was a birdie putt from 15 feet from the edge of the sixth hole that made him think he might sink.
“I was like, ‘Okay, I feel like I’m not going to miss today. I’m pretty good looking at any putt I’m looking at,'” he said. “So that may have been a factor in saying, ‘Okay, we can go much lower.’
Springer had missed five straight balls, putting him at risk of losing his card. He played a Korn Ferry Tour event during the week of the US Open — tied for 54 — and spent time with his longtime golf coach before registering a tie for 10th last week in Detroit.
If that was progress, this was a giant leap.
But then, Springer knows how to handle tough times. Her infant daughter, Sage, was diagnosed in 2021 with Trisomy 18 — also known as Edward Syndrome — in which babies are born with three copies of chromosome 18 instead of two.
Such children usually do not make it for 72 hours. Sage was 3 years old when he died on Nov. 13, just a month before Springer faced Q-school. He had enough nerve left to earn his PGA Tour card, and is now in the record books with a round under 60.
“I don’t know if it gives me inner strength, but it tests you and you have to find ways to deal with it and move forward,” said Springer. “A lot of that is our faith in ourselves, just relying on that and knowing that we are protected from that.
“There are challenges that have happened,” he said. “But at the end of the day I want to compete and I love doing that.”
Kevin Chappell was among those at 64. Conditions were so conducive to scoring that 12 players from the morning wave were 65 or under. Jordan Spieth was not among them. He was due for a 69, and his first move on Friday will be to make the cut.
As for Springer, he was fourth on the PGA Tour with a 59 in the opening round. Justin Thomas (Sony Open 2017) and Brandt Snedeker (Wyndham Championship 2018) went on to win. The exception was Goydos in the John Deere Classic.
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