18-Hole Record-Breakers: PGA Tour's First 62, 61, 60, 59 and 58 Scores

How has the PGA Tour's 18-hole scoring record progressed over the years? That's the question the drove us to research this article. You might know that the current 18-hole scoring record on the PGA Tour is 58. But who was the first golfer to shoot, say, 62? And then who lowered the record to 61?

That's what you'll find below — how the PGA Tour scoring record got to its current 58. Let's trace that history by figuring out which golfers scored the tour's first 62, the first 61, the first 60, the first 59 and the first 58.

First 62: Walter Hagen, 1923

"The Haig" is by far the biggest name on this list but, then, he's one of the biggest names in golf history: 11 major championship victories, credited with 45 PGA Tour wins. And he always had a flair for the dramatic.

At the 1923 Florida West Coast Open (sometimes referred to as the West Coast of Florida Open), Hagen carded the first 18-hole score of 62 in any tournament recognized as a part of the PGA Tour. It happened on March 17, 1923, in the third round.

Hagen went out in 33 and came home in 29 at Belleair Heights Golf Course in Belleair Heights, Florida. He finished the tournament at 276, winning by 10 strokes, and lowered the course record by four strokes. Hagen's 62 wasn't matched until Ben Hogan did it in the 1941 Oakland Open.

First 61: Dow Finsterwald, 1950

Dow Finsterwald was still an amateur, a 21-year-old senior at Ohio University, when he teed off in the 1950 St. Louis Open. And the scores he posted in the first three rounds — 69-77-75 — at Algonquin Golf Club gave no hint of what was to come in the fourth round.

What Finsterwald did in the fourth round was, finally, break the tour's 18-hole scoring record of 62. He carded the tour's first 61 in the final round, scoring 30 on the front nine and 31 on the back nine of the par-70 course. That was 14 strokes better than he'd done in Round 3, 16 strokes better than his Round 2 score.

Finsterwald had three birdies on the front nine plus an eagle on the par-4, 400-yard ninth hole. On the back nine, he added four more birdies.

Finsterwald finished at 282, in 20th place for the tournament, but four strokes ahead of Frank Stranahan for low amateur honors.

First 60: Al Brosch, 1951

Just one year after the first 61, Al Brosch was the first to score 60 in a PGA Tour round. It happened during the third round of the 1951 Texas Open, played at Brackenridge Park Golf Course in San Antonio. The date was February 10. And because Brackenridge was a par-71, it was also the first score of 11-under par in a PGA Tour round.

The 29-year-old Brosch was a club pro in New York who had never won a PGA Tour event ... and never did. But he held or shared this scoring record for more than 25 years. He is the only golfer on this list who did not win a major championship.

Brosch had six birdies and a score of 30 on the front nine, five birdies and a score of 30 on the back nine. He birdied the last three holes to hit 60. Brosch had rounds of 69-69-60-70 for a 268 total, and finished in fourth place.

First 59: Al Geiberger, 1977

Twenty-six years after Brosch's first 60, the PGA Tour had its first 59. Al Geiberger, winner of the 1966 PGA Championship, carded that 59 during the second round of the 1977 Danny Thomas Memphis Classic, played at Colonial Country Club in Cordova, Tennessee.

That par-72 course was 7,193 yards, a long course in its day. Years later Curtis Strange, who was in the field that day, talked about how shocked by Geiberger's score the rest of the golfers there were, just based on how tough a course it was.

In fact, Geiberger didn't break 70 in any of the other three rounds. That makes him the last golfer to win a regular (non-major) PGA Tour event without shooting in the 60s. His scores were 72-59-72-70. He finished at 15-under 273, winning the tournament by two strokes over Gary Player and Jerry McGee.

Geiberger's 59 happened on June 10, 1977. He started on the 10th tee, and on holes 10-18 (his first nine), Geiberger had six birdies for a 30. He eagled the first hole to start his second nine (Holes 1-9), and added five more birdies for a 29. His 59 was 13-under par. The next 59 wasn't recorded until 1991.

First 58: Jim Furyk, 2016

The current record for lowest 18-hole score on the PGA Tour is 58, and Jim Furyk is the golfer who finally bettered the 59s scored by Geiberger and others that followed him. Furyk's 58 happened in the final round of the 2016 Travelers Championship (video above), played at TPC River Highlands, a par-70 course, in Cromwell, Connecticut.

In the first three rounds, Furyk posted scores of 73, 66 and 72. It was a low-scoring tournament, so Furyk was not in contention. His final-round 58 produced a final score of 11-under 269, good for a fifth-place tie.

Furyk had a 27 on the front nine, including a hole-out eagle on the par-4 third hole. He had one eagle and six birdies on that front side. In fact, Furyk birdied every hole from No. 6 through No. 12, seven in a row. His back-nine 31 included four birdies.

By the way, Furyk didn't just break Geiberger's record, but his own: He was already one of the golfers who had recorded a 59 since Geiberger first did it. That makes Furyk one of just a few PGA Tour golfers with multiple rounds of 60 or lower.

Will there ever be a 57 on the PGA Tour? That sounds unlikely, doesn't it, and yet there was a time when Walter Hagen's 62 in 1923 seemed very unlikely, too. And there has been a 57 (sort of) scored on one of the world's pro tours.