Piece of history: Goydos describes every hole of his 59

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Jul. 8, 2010
By PGA TOUR staff

Here is Paul Goydos' commentary on each hole of Thursday's PGA TOUR record-tying 12-under 59 at the John Deere Classic at TPC Deere Run. For complete coverage of Goydos' 59, click here

Hole-by-hole commentary from Goydos

Hole	Par, distance	Goydos' result
1	Par 4, 395 yards	Par
GOYDOS: "First off, I hit driver and the 9-iron. We had 135 yards, and I hit it about -- I hit a good shot, about 10, 12 feet left of the hole and hit an okay putt, but I didn't read it well and missed it left and made par."
2	Par 5, 561 yards	Birdie
GOYDOS: "I hit driver down the left side of the fairway; I hit 3-wood in the front bunker, and it really wasn't a bad spot. It wasn't as easy as I thought it was going to be. Hit a pretty good bunker shot out about five feet past the hole, maybe a six and made that right in the center of the hole; good putt, good speed. Again, those are times where early in the round good things happen. That's exactly how I envisioned the putt going in."
3	Par 3, 186 yards	Par
GOYDOS: "I probably made my worst swing, I hit a 4-iron and kind of whiffed it over to the right, but I hit so much club and I got up there, birdie short of the hole and two-putted with a tap-in."
4	Par 4, 454 yards	Birdie
GOYDOS: "I hit a really good tee shot up the right side, hit 9-iron to about, I'd say, 15, 18 feet and hit it dead center. Perfect speed."
5	Par 4, 433 yards	Par
GOYDOS: "Five was probably the hole that kind of kept things going. I drove it bad. I drove it right. It was really dumb to drive it right. If you hit it in the left bunker, you can play. You cannot play from the right -- right side of the fairway you can get blocked up and it's really dumb. I lost it right and hit a tree for sure; I heard the bang. We get down there, and I had a pretty good lie in the rough and it had gotten far enough right where I could actually go right of the tree line and knock it up on the middle of the green, which is getting very lucky, and I hit 7-iron from about 160. "That's the other thing. Last year with square grooves I don't know that I could have gotten 7-iron to the green. The flyer helps you. And I couldn't get 8-iron there no matter what. But with the square groove I don't know that I could have gotten 7-iron to the green either. But with the V-grooves I caught a flyer and knocked it on the back part of the green, had a pretty tough putt, knocked it about eight feet behind and made it. Really hit a very poor tee shot, didn't hit a great lag putt, but I think making that putt really kind of kept things going in the right direction."
6	Par 4, 367 yards	Birdie
GOYDOS: "I hit 3-wood, 8-iron to about 25 feet on the fringe and made it. Didn't think I made that putt. I actually started walking and I misread it a little bit, and it broke pretty good left the last two feet and went in the right side of the hole."
7	Par 3, 226 yards	Birdie
GOYDOS: "I hit 3-iron to about 15 feet left of the hole and hit a really good putt there, again, right in the center."
8	Par 4, 428 yards	Par
GOYDOS: "I hit driver, 4-iron to 30 feet, two-putted, pretty easy two-putt and tap-in."
9	Par 4, 503 yards	Par
GOYDOS: "I hit driver, 4-iron to about 25 feet, hit a good putt, just kind of missed it on the left side of the hole and tapped in for par. 4-under 31 is a good score. To be honest with you, I was standing at the 8th fairway right before the British at 29. I think 59 is obviously iconic, but for nine holes 29 is good, too. And I've done that 10 or 15 times in my life."
10	Par 5, 596 yards	Birdie
GOYDOS: "A downwind par-5, and on the best day you can actually get there in two. I hit driver, 3-wood and had 107 yards to the hole, and the pin was kind of in the back of the green with the slope there, and that's really pitching wedge, but if I hit pitching wedge, I'm going to fly 110 yards and suck it back 25 feet, so I decided 9-iron, chippy little 9-iron. And I flew that about, I'd say, 15 feet past the hole and came back to about four feet and I made that."
11	Par 4, 432 yards	Birdie
GOYDOS: "I hit a good drive and an 8-iron, had it between clubs and pin's in the back and I landed on the green. I don't want to hit it off the green. You gotta be somewhat smart about things. And I hit probably 20 feet short of the hole, but probably spun back 20 feet, and I made it. Again, I hit this putt, I'm kind of watching. It's up the hill, straight up the hill and I'm like, this is really uphill, and that's really not my strength in my putting in my opinion. But this ball went dead center. Again, just like, wow, 10 feet from the hole I'm kind of going, wow, which was nice."
12	Par 3, 215 yards	Birdie
GOYDOS: "I hit a 4-iron probably about 200 yards to about 15, 18 feet straight down the hill. I couldn't have hit the putt harder than maybe a 2-footer, which was just kind of weird because it stayed there. How did the ball stop here if I had to hit it two feet to make it go 15. And that putt went right in the middle."
13	Par 4, 424 yards	Birdie
GOYDOS: "I hit driver, 6-iron to about 25 feet, and that's when I hit that putt, and I didn't really think I hit a great putt. I hit it solid, but I ... just didn't feel like a great putt. I looked up and I'm watching it, and I'm going, oh, no. This putt went dead center. I thought, this is getting ridiculous. There was a piece of me at that time kind of obviously feels a tad guilty. I mean I am making everything. And again, they're not playing -- Jay Byrd and Cliff aren't playing any worse than me tee to green. ... Every good thing that could possibly happen I was just stealing from them."
14	Par 4, 361 yards	Birdie
GOYDOS: "I hit 3-wood, sand wedge to about six feet, and finally missed that one, but I made that one, too, hit a pretty good putt there."
15	Par 4, 484 yards	Par
GOYDOS: "I hit a good driver and a 5-iron and missed the green left, but I hit 5-iron was probably a little too much club. I thought I had to just murder the 6-iron to get there and I thought short's not good here. If you hit the ball 25 feet past the hole here, it's not that bad, that's really where your penalty is, a little bit left and a little bit long and I missed it a little bit left and a little bit long and it stayed up and rolled down the hill and I chipped it to about five feet and made that. I hit a good putt there, and it was like, okay, now we get a little bit of a walk."
16	Par 3, 158 yards	Birdie
GOYDOS: "One of the things I mentioned is that Cliff Kresge birdied 15. So he gets the tee on the par-3. So I get to see a shot on the par-3, which helps a little bit, too. His birdie there helped me in a sense. I knew what I was going to hit. I didn't think it was a big deal, but again, a little bit of reinforcement is not going to hurt. And I told myself, I need to birdie the last two holes, you shoot 59. You don't get many opportunities. This is not the time to not think about it. This is the time to go do it. Let's see what you can do, at least see if you can -- see what your game kind of responds. I hit an 8-iron, pulled a little bit on the left fringe, but it wasn't at the worst spot. It was probably only 15 feet up the hill. And I thought it was a pretty straight putt. I was kind of aiming maybe left edge, and I pulled it maybe a ball out and it broke more, right in the middle."
17	Par 5, 569 yards	Birdie
GOYDOS: "It ... can be reachable, but I hit a good drive and couldn't get anywhere near it. Hit 4-iron and then a pitching wedge from about 108 yards, and that's the opposite of No. 10. 10 the pin was in the back and I didn't want to spin it. Here the pin was closer to the bunker. Hitting it in the air 15 feet past the hole you can use it to spin and get the ball close or take the bunker out of play, hit the pitching wedge there and spun it back to about 12 feet. "And Cliff had hit his ball, again, he had 12 feet, 6 inches. I didn't have to move my coin, but just about. And he hit his putt, and I was just kind of watching. I wasn't really necessarily worrying about it. I want to see how balls are rolling around the holes and watch his ball roll down. When I say that, I'm not one of those guys who looks behind. I'm actually looking for about 90 degrees perpendicular to the line. He's got his back to me, and I'm standing back here, and I can kind of tell by the way it's rolling. And they're both going to go to the right, and I'm like, OK, I went down and looked at it, and I was like, that broke a lot more than it looked. I had just seen what it was doing and I think I hit a very similar putt to what he hit. It looked like it had a chance to miss low, but it had enough speed to hang in there."
18	Par 4, 476 yards	Birdie
GOYDOS: "And then driver, 7-iron from 175 or 74 on 18 and made, like I say, 7 feet, 3 inches, if ShotLink is to be trusted. And again, that putt I couldn't have hit a better putt. Couldn't have gone more in the center."