Phil Mickelson’s Brush with 59: Dissecting Golf’s Most Enigmatic Record

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: February 19, 2013

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The enigma we can simply call “59” awoke recently in Arizona following a three-year hibernation.  Its capacity to breed hysteria remains formidable.  Even in a context as undramatic as the first round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open.  

That Phil Mickelson was involved ensured the drama would be disproportionate to the event.

Golf is a game where better shots can produce crueler outcomes.  Mickelson might have slept better had his 25-foot birdie putt for a 59 never threatened the hole.  As most know, it horseshoed around the edge without dropping.

Golf Channel commentator Frank Nobilo proclaimed, “In a weird way, this is so Phil, isn’t it, through his career?”  That sentiment was seconded by The Sport Network's Kevin Currie. He wrote that Nobilo had "summed it up perfectly" and called the putt "a cruel twist of fate."

Mickelson has known his share of disappointment.  There are those convinced that a tragic subtext threads through his career.  For these individuals, even the slightest hiccup becomes further evidence of that tragedy. 

Mickelson himself added to the hyperbole.  After the round he called the near miss “crushing” and “heartbreaking.”   

Mickelson would have become the sixth player in PGA Tour history to shoot a 59.  Tying a record held by five others is not exactly the stuff of legend.  Disappointing, yes. 

But heartbreaking? 



The history of “59” is the study of a record atypical in its evolution.

It was Al Geiberger who famously shot the first 59.  It came during the second round of the 1977 Danny Thomas Memphis Classic.  The lowest round to that point had been 60, shot seven times between 1951 and 1957.  That Geiberger became and remains “Mr. 59” is the chi...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Golf

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