McKINNEY, Texas (AP) — Si Woo Kim just missed out on a 59 at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson on Friday, bogeying the final hole when a par would have given him the 16th sub-60 round in PGA Tour history.
The 30-year-old South Korean put himself in position to break 60 with a curling 17-foot birdie putt from the fringe on the par-3 17th hole at TPC Craig Ranch. It was his 12th birdie of the day, putting him at 12 under on the par-71 layout.
Kim was in the fairway
on the 18th, but blasted his second shot over the green. His chip coming back stopped about 19 feet short of the hole, and his putt for par lacked pace and broke to the right for his only bogey of the day. Kim shot 11-under 60 for a five-shot lead at 18-under 124 after two rounds.
The 18th hole at Craig Ranch — about 30 miles north of Dallas — is a par 4 for the first time in the six Nelson tournaments it has hosted. A $25 million overhaul designed by Lanny Wadkins changed it from a par 5, and it has played as the hardest hole on the course through two rounds.
Most of the rest of the holes are as easy as they've been in the past — despite more bunkers along the fairways and contours on the greens. Part of the the reason is soft conditions from a rainy opening day and calm winds that aren't supposed to pick up on the weekend, either. Because of the rain on Thursday, players were still allowed to lift, clean and place their golf balls in the fairway.
Kim, playing with world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and five-time major winner Brooks Koepka, took full advantage.
The four-time PGA Tour winner who lives in Dallas already had seven birdies through 10 holes when he put his 166-yard approach shot at the par-4 11th inside 3 feet.
Needing just one birdie over the final three holes for a 59, Kim missed by inches on the par-4 16th. Hopes dimmed with his tee shot on the stadium hole at 17, until he dazzled by far the biggest of any of the galleries on the course with a perfect putt.
“I hit it great and putted great,” Kim said. “So everything was perfect, other than the last hole. I’ll still take it. Sixty is hard, but I was a little bit of thinking about the 59 after I make that on 17. It was a little bit of like adrenaline.”
Jim Furyk has the PGA Tour's 18-hole record with his 58 from the 2016 Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands. A 59 has been recorded 14 times, including by Furyk and Scheffler, who shot his at TPC Boston in 2020. That was two years before the first of his 20 tour wins, and four major victories.
“I definitely wasn’t going to tell him anything about his round today as we were out there,” Scheffler said. “I would say it would definitely be in poor taste to remind somebody they’re on 59 watch.”
The 59 watch overshadowed Scheffler's 8-under 63, which included a stretch where he was 5 under over four holes with a 45-foot eagle putt.
Scheffler was five shots back in second place, tied at 13 under with Kim's fellow South Korean, Sungjae Im, Japan's Kensei Hirata and Wyndham Clark. Im aced the par-3 seventh and shot 61.
“I feel like, when you’re watching somebody like Si Woo, especially when you’re paired with him, just watching somebody birdie every hole and you feel like the tournament is getting further and further away from you,” said Scheffler, who had a runaway eight-shot victory at his hometown Byron Nelson last year. “I think I did a good job of staying patient and not forcing things.”
Kim said he chose a hard 6-iron over a 5-iron for the approach on 18, and said the chip might have been too clean because it had too much spin and stopped sooner than he hoped.
“Yeah, it was a tough shot,” Kim said. “But I’ll take it still — 60.”
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