Chappell threatens 59 at the Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic

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Stan Badz/PGA TOUR

After shooting 61 in Round 1 of the Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic, Kevin Chappell is looking for his second victory of 2010.

Kevin Chappell turned 24 on Thursday. He came close to giving himself a gift for the ages.

As Paul Goydos was about to enter the PGA TOUR record book at the John Deere Classic with his 12-under 59, Kevin Chappell was posting the lowest round of the year relative to par on the Nationwide Tour and threatening to break the magic 60 barrier himself at the Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic in Canada.

Two 59s in one day would have been something.

Unfortunately, the 24-year-old former NCAA champion and college player of the year out of UCLA came up a little short. He shot an 11-under-par 61, narrowly missing birdie putts on two of his last four holes. Goydos' 59 was 12 shots under par.

"My putter was hot. It's not like I was hitting it inside the leather all day. I kept leaving myself 15-footers for birdie and the hole looked really big," Chappell said after his round. "I did miss a couple of putts inside of ten feet coming down the stretch but that happens regardless of how well or poorly you play."

Starting on No. 10 tee at the Raven Golf Club at Lora Bay in Thornbury, Ontario, Canada, Chappell reeled off eight birdies in the first nine holes (all but the par-3 15th). The Fresno, Calif. native parred the first three on his incoming nine, birdied the next two, then made one more birdie on No. 8. He had no bogies on his card.

Chappell had good looks at two birdies coming in. A 5-footer on No. 6 was a "brutal lip out" according to his caddie and his 10-footer on the 9th, his final hole, hit the lip but had too much speed to go in.

"The thought of shooting 59 obviously crosses your mind but the goal isn't to shoot 59, it's to win the golf tournament," he said. "We still have a long way to go to accomplish that but it's nice to start off with a clean scorecard while keeping the foot on the gas pedal."

The lowest 18-hole score in Nationwide Tour history is 59. There have been three -- Notah Begay III (1998), Doug Dunakey (1998) and Jason Gore (2005). Goydos' 59 joined Al Geiberger (1977), Chip Beck (1991) and David Duval (1999) in the PGA TOUR record book.

Goydos is a Nationwide Tour alumnus who played the Tour full time in 1991 and 1992, winning once, the 1992 Yuma Open, before joining the PGA TOUR in 1993.