On Thursday the 8th of February 2024, Chilean golfer Cristobal del Solar made history by shooting an incredible round of 57 at the Astara Championship in Colombia. The world number 259 played some incredible golf and his round represented the lowest ever at an event sanctioned by the PGA Tour.
Del Solar could (perhaps should) have gone even lower too, given he parred the final three holes. Brian Campbell, who eventually finished second to Kevin Velo after a play-off, must have felt pretty hard done by after he found himself four shots off the pace after an opening 61! The event took place at altitude, which means the ball flies further due to the thinner air. Moreover, the Pacos course is the shortest used on the Korn Ferry Tour, essentially the second division of the PGA.
The Chilean golfer’s 13-under par total included two eagles and nine birdies and will be a round the 30-year-old will remember for a long, long time. Sadly he could “only” follow his opening salvo up with the terrible scores of 69, 75 and 63, his 264 total, 19 under, leaving him three shots shy of a play-off place. His work on the Thursday though was incredible, but just how does his 57 rank in terms of the lowest-ever rounds of professional golf?
Del Solar Joins David Carey in the Pro 57 Club
Del Solar’s feat at the Astara Championship is the joint-lowest score ever made in a full, professional event. Whilst many fans solely focus on the PGA and DP World Tours, and now to a lesser extent LIV, there are various other pro circuits as well, some at lower levels and others in different parts of the world.
The only other player to score a 57 in a professional tournament is Ireland’s David Carey. Carey, who was born in 1996, managed his low score back in 2019 on the Alps Tour, which is two levels below the full European Tour. His 57 came at the 2019 Cervino Open which is played near the Matterhorn not far from the Swiss-Italian border. As with the Pacos course in Bogota, this is a short layout at altitude, so conducive to low scoring. Another similarity is that Carey, like Del Solar, could have gone lower, as he finished his round with back-to-back pars.
To date, Carey and Del Solar are the only players to have managed a 57 on a pro tour. That said, if we were to send the battle of the 57s to the judges’ scorecards, extra time, or, to use a more fitting analogy, a play-off, Del Solar would come out on top. The Korn Ferry Tour is a higher level than the Alps Tour, for one thing. But for another (more important) thing, Italy’s Cervino Golf Club measures just 5,801 yards and is a par 68. So, whilst Carey shot an impressive 11 under, he is trumped by the 13-under score of Del Solar at the 6,254-yard, par-70 Pacos.
Lowest Round on the PGA Tour – 58
If we move from second and third division golf to the pinnacle of the sport, the lowest round ever shot at a PGA Tour event is Jim Furyk’s 58. The American recorded a 12-under score at the 2016 Travelers Championship at the TPC River Highlands course in Connecticut. Measuring 6,841 yards, the par-70 design represented a much sterner test than either Pacos or Cervino. The feat of Furyk, winner of the 2003 US Open and also the 2018 US Ryder Cup captain, was all the more impressive because he was 46 years old at the time!
His incredible 18 holes came in the fourth round of the tournament after 54 holes that were so-so at best. Furyk began the final round 16 shots adrift of the lead on one over par, ranked 70th of the 73 players that made the weekend.
He soon started charging up the leaderboard though, as he birdied the second (having missed a makeable birdie putt on the first) and then eagled the third. Five birdies in the next six holes took him to the turn in 27 shots, eight under. He rattled off a further three in a row to make it seven consecutive birdies and at that stage must have been wondering just how low he might go. However, the Florida resident played the final five holes in just one under to finish with his incredible 58.
Almost eight years on that remains the lowest score on the PGA Tour, although several players have managed a 59. In fact, since Furyk’s 58, there have been five totals of 59, with nobody quite able to match him. The first 59 came back in 1977, whilst Furyk himself recorded one in 2013 at the BMW Championship, proving his ability to go really low before he struck out by himself as the low-round record-holder.
In terms of the best score in relation to par, 13 under is the benchmark. Four of the 12 scores of 59 (or better) made on the PGA Tour have come at par-72 courses, with Al Geiberger (1977), Chip Beck (1991), David Duval (1999) and Adam Hadwin (2017), the golfers to have notched that unlucky-but-they’ll-take-it tally.
Other Lowest Rounds
Whilst Furyk is the only player to have managed a 58 on the PGA Tour, there have been other professionals to have managed the feat in competitive action over the years. As recently as August 2023 the Marmite figure Bryson DeChambeau shot 58 in a LIV event.
Before that there had been 58s made on the Japan Tour by both Ryo Ishikawa and Kim Seong-hyeon. There have been further 58s on lower-tier tours, such as the Challenge Tour and Web.Com Tour too.
The lowest round by a female golfer in a top-tier tour came from the legendary Annika Sorenstam, who managed a 59 in 2001 on the LPGA Tour. 59 is also the record low managed on any senior tour, both Kevin Sutherland and Miguel Angel Martin accomplishing that impressive feat.
One Player Stands Alone at -14
Looking across just about every pro tour and event at all levels, including men, women, seniors and sub-elite tours, as far as we know there has been just one score of 14 under par. That came in 2021 on the Challenge Tour at the Swiss Challenge (again at altitude) and Spaniard Alejandro del Rey was the man to do the business. Del Rey clearly has talent, and like Jon Rahm represented the Arizona State team, where he is second to his compatriot in a number of records/stats. Born in 1998, Del Rey is ranked 250th in the world as of February 2024, but he could be one to watch.