Jim Furyk Sets New PGA Tour Scoring Record at Travelers Championship

CROMWELL, CT — The magic number on the PGA Tour has always been 59, a score accomplished just six times in competitive play.

One of those six low scorers has just set the bar even higher, or lower as the case may be.

Jim Furyk carded 10 birdies and an eagle in the final round of the Travelers Championship for a record-setting 58, giving him the lowest round since the PGA Tour's inception in 1929.

Coincidentally, Furyk had been the most recent player to shoot 59, in the second round of the 2013 BMW Championship.

The 2003 U.S. Open champion entered the final round near the bottom of the leaderboard at 1-over par 211, and teed off at 8:41 a.m. in the third group of the day, paired with Miguel Angel Carballo of Argentina.

After opening with a par, Furyk birdied the second hole, then holed out for eagle on the par-4 third. He followed with a birdie at 4 and parred 5, then birdied 6 through 9 for a front-nine 27.

He upped his consecutive birdie streak to seven at holes 10 through 12, then parred 13, 14 and 15, lipping out a birdie attempt at 15.

On 16, Furyk made a curling 22-foot putt for birdie, pushing him to 12-under for the day, which left him needing to par the remaining two holes to set the new standard.

He two-putted from 46 feet at 17 for par, then drove into the fairway on 18 and safely reached the green with his approach shot.

His first putt from 27 feet ran about two feet past the hole, then he cleaned it up with a par putt as the fans surrounding the amphitheater-type 18th hole roared with approval.

The amazing round pushed him to 11-under par for the tournament and into contention. The leader at 15-under is Daniel Berger, who is not scheduled to begin his round until 2 p.m.

Besides Furyk, other players to shoot 59 on the PGA Tour were:

• Stuart Appleby, 2010 Greenbrier Classic
• Paul Goydos, 2010 John Deere Classic
• David Duval, 1999 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic
• Chip Beck, 1991 Las Vegas Invitational
• Al Geiberger, 1977 Memphis Classic

Just last week on the web.com tour, Stephan Jaeger shot a 58 at the Ellie Mae Classic in Hayward, California. In a final ironic note, Furyk was wearing a web.com logo on his shirt during Sunday's record-setting round.

Photo credit: pgatour.com