Unheralded Englishman Oliver Fisher on Friday fired the first round of 59 in the European Tour’s 46-year history on the second day of the Portugal Masters.
The 30-year-old tapped in for par on the final hole to complete an astonishing 12-under-par round featuring 10 birdies and an eagle, after his long birdie putt for a 58 grazed the edge of the hole.
“It feels great, I started great and I kept it going,” Fisher said. “Just pleased I two-putted from 40 feet on the final green.”
Fisher’s feat at breaking a record that has stubbornly stood for 46 years and 690,000 rounds of golf prompted congratulatory messages from his peers.
“I woke up here in Atlanta and all the boys were talking about it, so I flicked on the Golf Channel and watched him hit his second shot into the last and two-putt for the Tour’s first 59,” Justin Rose told reporters at the Tour Championship.
“It was really cool and could have easily been a 58, so I give Oli a 58-and-a-half, as his first putt was a great putt,” he added with a grin.
“A 59 was always going to happen and I am surprised, given it has happened eight times on the PGA and Jim Furyk has shot a 58, along being one of those to shoot a 59, why it has taken this long,” Rose said.
“The European Tour can play some short courses, but I am so pleased for Oli; he was able to do it and he’s a lad who is very popular on Tour and we’re all very happy for him and the Tour,” he added.
Fisher, who was regarded as a possible future star as a teenage amateur, is ranked No. 287 in the world and had missed 11 cuts in his 22 previous events this season.
He also had to battle to save his tour card at the same tournament two years ago, but scaled heights that thousands of players had failed to reach before with his efforts on Friday.
“Two years ago I was on the same green just trying to keep my card, so I was keeping that in the back of my mind and trying to remember that it could be worse,” Fisher said.
His round put him on 12-under for the tournament and gave him a seven-shot lead over compatriot Eddie Pepperell.
Fisher started the day eight shots off the lead on even-par, needing a strong round just to make the cut.
However, he carded five birdies and an eagle in a seven-under front nine of 28, before starting the second half with three straight birdies to raise hopes of making history.
“Going out today I certainly didn’t expect to shoot such a low score, but after the start, coming onto the back nine it was in the back of my mind,” Fisher told Sky Sports.
“I said to my caddie on the 16th green: ‘[Let’s] just to try and enjoy it and get those two drives away,’ and thankfully I managed to get that lucky number,” he said.
Two other men had come close to the magical number at the Portugal Masters: Scott Jamieson and Nicolas Colsaerts missed putts to break 60 in 2013 and 2014 respectively.
INJURY TURMOIL: Despite stunning French Open champions Paolini and Errani to advance, Chan was forced to pull out after her partner’s tearful women’s singles defeat Last year’s mixed doubles champions Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan and Poland’s Jan Zielinski on Monday crashed out of the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, leaving the Taiwanese star focused on pursuing a fifth women’s doubles title in London, while a partner injury forced compatriot Chan Hao-ching to give up on her doubles campaign. Hsieh and Zielinksi, who last year also won the Australia Open title, narrowly lost their opening set 7-6 (9/7), before Britain’s Joe Salisbury and Brazil’s Luisa Stefani stunned the former champions 6-3 at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. The Taiwanese-Polish duo had been dominant in the first two
Real Madrid’s FIFA Club World Cup quarter-final against Borussia Dortmund had taken three crazy turns during nine minutes of second-half stoppage time when Marcel Sabitzer chested the ball and sent a right-footed volley toward Thibaut Courtois’ post. Courtois leapt to his right, extended the long arm on his 2m frame and just managed to get his gloved fingertips on the ball, knocking it down. Courtois hit the ground as the ball bounded up. He looked skyward, planted his right hand to regain his balance, grabbed the ball with both hands on the second bounce and fell onto it with his chest. Sabitzer turned
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has overturned French Olympic fencer Ysaora Thibus’ four-year suspension for doping, ruling that her positive test for a banned substance was caused by kissing her then-boyfriend, American fencer Race Imboden. Thibus, a silver medalist in team foil at the Tokyo Games, had tested positive for ostarine, a prohibited muscle-building substance, during a competition in Paris in January last year. However, CAS concluded there was no intentional wrongdoing, finding it scientifically plausible that repeated kissing over several days with Olympic medalist Imboden — who was taking ostarine at the time — led to accidental contamination. The court
‘SU-PENKO’: Hsieh and Ostapenko face a rematch against their Australian Open final opponents, the same duo Hsieh played in last year’s Wimbledon semi-finals Taiwanese women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei and Latvian partner Jelena Ostapenko on Wednesday survived a near upset to the unseeded duo of Sorana Cirstea of Romania and Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya, setting up a semi-final showdown against last year’s winners. Despite losing a hard-fought opening set 7-6 (7/4) on a tiebreak, the fourth seeds turned up the heat, losing just five games in the final two sets to handily put down Cirstea and Kalinskaya 6-3, 6-2. Nicknamed “Su-Penko,” the pair are next to face top seeds Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and Taylor Townsend of the US in a reversal of last
RSS