Michael Feagles' best round this season on the Korn Ferry Tour was a 65. In 10 starts he had only picked up three pay checks but on the opening round of the BMW Charity Pro-Am the 25-year-old blazed it round in 59 shots.
The second-year pro was playing at Thornblade Club and he did it in style, making birdies at the last five holes and finishing it off with a curling left-to-right 30-footer. It is the second 59 in less than two months, and ninth in the history of the tour, following Mac Meissner, who eagled the last, doing likewise in April in Florida.
Before that the last time anyone posted the magic number was back in 2017 – the lowest, a 58, came from Stephan Jaeger in 2016. Notah Begay III is the only player to post a 13 under with his 59 coming on a par 72.
Feagles, the nephew of former NFL punter Jeff Feagles, has a best finish of 25th this season but he reached the turn in six under (he started on the 10th) before then adding another six more circles on the back nine. His previous best had been a 60 in a casual game while he once shot a 61 in a tournament.
There were twice as many birdies as pars, unsurprisingly there were no bogeys, and Feagles revealed that nine of the dozen birdies incredibly came from inside five feet.
“If you kind of look at my scores as of late, you probably wouldn't see me doing this, but like it's just been golf,” Feagles said. “Honestly, golf's just been doing it to me. Certain weeks, parts of my game will feel really good and other parts will feel like I literally never played before so that’s difficult, but I finally feel like I’m piecing it all together. Obviously I pieced it together really well today," the 25-year-old said.
Feagles fires 59 🔥Michael Feagles last three holes that led him to carding in his first ever 59. pic.twitter.com/73uLdfFVY2June 8, 2023
Of his final putt of the day he stuck to what he'd been doing so well for the rest of the day.
“The first thing was, ‘Don’t leave it short.’ I knew I couldn’t leave it short. If I left it short, I would probably hate myself forever. And then the other thing was just like essentially what I've been thinking all day, like the thought I've been having of getting the clubface as square as I could at address and my process. It never was like, ‘Oh, no, this is for 59.’ It was basically just like, ‘OK, this is the line, hit it here and hopefully it goes in.’ It wasn't anything different.
“But honestly, like until the actual ball went in the hole, I was like, ‘I don't think this is going to happen,’ like, ‘There's no way this happens, right?’ People don't just shoot 59. And it did, yeah. Feeling great, feel great. Never really had a chance to shoot 59; that was like my first real chance, so I'm 1-for-1.”
Feagles went into the week in South Carolina in a lowly 143rd on the money list. He's surely to jump up after Sunday.
