2014 DSGO: Kevin Sutherland En-Joies a Record 59 in the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open!

When I arrived at the media center around noon for Round Two of the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open and checked the leaderboard I saw Kevin Sutherland was 6-under par after five holes. Hmm I thought pretty good start. My plan was to write for a few hours, watch the leaders John Cook and Olin Browne tee off with Steve Lowery at 1:31 pm and then have a spiedie and wait for them to come around and walk with them on the back nine. Then the Champions Tour rookie continued his birdie barrage with three more on Nos. 6, 7 and 8. It was time to go! Nine-under through eight holes, this is more than a 59-watch! Like when your wife tells you it is time to go to the hospital, I thought it might be time to see a 59 or lower birthed on the senior tour.

When  arrived at No. 9 green I saw a ball not far from the green and two back in the fairway. As the players lined up with their ball I realized the one nearer the green belonged to Kevin Sutherland Thinking he somehow had to chip out of the woods and lay up I was informed that it was his drive. Impressive! He pitched up from about 70 yards to a back hole location and missed the putt. Ugh oh maybe I was going to jinx him like it seems so many television broadcasters do when they make a point that a player hasn’t missed a  3-footer in the last zillion rounds and he misses one. Kevin would say later in his interview that “I missed it, so my first par of the day but I turned at 9-under, so I wasn’t griping.”

I was surprised when the guy who shot 71 in the first round and is now on fire walked by me and continued down the road along billboard alley going countercurrent to a slew of spectators heading from the clubhouse area to the golf course. His playing partners Jeff Hart (71-70) and Gene Sauers (71-70) headed to the first fairway and opted to walk to the 10th tee (double tee with No. 1) inside the ropes. I could sense everyone, caddies included, except his own caddie Billy Lewis were giving Sutherland his distance. Everyone knew what was at stake but no one was saying anything to acknowledge it. In some way I thought of him being in a self imposed quarantine, a positive one, not like the ebola virus.

Sutherland nailed his hybrid on No. 10, lobbed up and made a 10-footer to get back on the birdie train. On eleven he pulled an 8-iron but drained the 45-footer like the bombs he made on the front side at Nos. 2 and 4. Other good memories of the front side for Kevin included a 6-foot eagle putt made on the par-5 fifth hole and a hole-out deuce from a difficult downhill lie in the bunker at No. 7. A bunkered drive on the par-5 twelfth hole dictated a layout and a missed a 25-foot birdie putt after a mediocre wedge. A missed 10-footer on No. 13 and all of a sudden it is three pars in a row with only five holes left to make the two birdies needed to shoot a 59. I watched him pass the Lupo spiedie girl on the way to the 13th tee. Lupo’s has the best spiedies in the Southern Tier and it is their custom to provide the local culinary creation on a complimentary basis to players, caddies and media. While Kevin said “No thanks, I am fine” to the smiling Jan Nolis I said “sure” and indulged in my  childhood favorite to the extent I wasn’t quite sure, when I saw from a distance, Kevin make a short putt on the 13th green if it was for birdie or par?

It was for par. Four holes remaining, two birdies needed. Still good odds considering the scorecard up to this point included one eagle, four pars and nine birdies. On No. 15, the hole local hero Richie Karl birdied to beat Bruce Crampton in a playoff in 1974, Kevin hits an aggressive driver, then sand wedge to ten feet and drains the putt. Using the backboard on the approach shot, the rebound roll caught his full attention until the ball came to a rest safely above the water line near the front hole location. Better to drain a birdie putt than an approach wedge. Three holes left, only one birdie needed to shoot 59.

With a booming high fade drive, the fifty-year old drives the green on the short par-4 16th hole. It’s a good thing when a player takes his putter out of the bag on the tee after teeing off, especially on a par-4. Though a difficult 35-foot eagle putt missed he clanked in the 4-footer for birdie and now only needed two pars for the 59. A 6-iron that released over the ridge on the 17th green to tap-in birdie brought a light moment on the tee when Richie, the Golf Channel cameraman let him know it was only one foot away. Keith responded that he would take a 3-footer. Deuce made, par 18 for a 58 to start a new and better club than the 7-some in the professional Club 59.

Though only a one-time winner on the PGA TOUR in the match play World Golf Championship, my observations of Sutherland was that of a seasoned finisher- walked slowly though usually off the tee first, kept to himself with a little distance from the pack of players, caddies, scorer, standard bearer and honorary observers and typically on the inside away from the gallery side (though walking to the 10th tee was an exception). Though he would say later he knew exactly where he was in relation to 59 after the eagle on the 5ht hole but thought nothing of his place on the leaderboard in terms of the 2014 Dick’s Sporting Goods Open. His use of a white towel, pre-shot and putting preparation seemed routine. Frequent use of chap stick, two trips to the port-a-john on the 12th and 15th tees, and interaction with his caddie all seemed normal and supportive of a horse that does not fade until the finish line is crossed.

With a 58 on the par horizon and at worse a Champions record 59 with a bogey he drove right to avoid water left on the dog-leg-right home hole at En Joie GC. Fairly deep in the trees and 110 yards to the front of the green he had a good angle from a bad position on the inside of a dogleg. How would the guy who I remember seeing in a wild playoff loss to Vijay Singh in the 2008 Barclays FedEx Cup playoff event at Ridgeway CC respond? On the first playoff hole Sutherland faltered and marked a 6-footer for par to watch Sergio first, then Vijay attempt rather lengthy birdie putts to win. Sergio drained his 27-footer with gusto and Kevin not only picked up his mark but seemed to congratulate Sergio on the victory. Singh, as patient as Olazabal on the 17th hole at Brookline in the Ryder Cup after Justin Leonard’s bomb goes in, made his 26-footer and won on the next playoff hole.

Sutherland played  his role to perfection with a recovery shot that stopped just four feet off the front of the green. This was his moment in golf history for sure, the only question was how big of a moment will it be? Chip putt in from 40 feet for a 57 and it is unthinkable, a less-than-four-minute-mile. Get it up and down for a par and 58 and it is huge, a new level of performance in professional golf. BE a bit nervous and roll it seven feet by the hole and miss the comeback putt for 59 and it is a remarkable feat. And that is what happened, a bogey on the last to shoot 59!

Sutherland takes a one-stroke lead over Steve Lowery (66-65), two strokes over John Cook (65-67), three strokes over Scott Hoch who shot the day’s second best round, a 64, five strokes worse (69-64) and four strokes over the ever present, consistent and competitive Bernard Langer (67-67).

This is Kevin Sutherland’s moment. He is in the 59 club with the original ‘Mr. 59’ Al Geiberger, Chip Beck, David Duval, Annika Sorenstam, the only woman to do so, his buddy Paul Goydos, who with fifteen other golfers watched the grand finale on the 18th green, Stuart Appleby and Jim Furyk.