Golf

Pro golfer inexplicably leaves final putt for round of 59 an inch short

May 18, 2015, 3:00 PM UTC

Roland Thatcher said he was “ashamed” to come up one inch short of firing a 59 Sunday at the Web.com Tour’s BMW Charity Pro-Am.

Needing a birdie from 12 feet above the hole to shoot the magic number, the 38-year-old veteran bent from the waist holding his head after his ball slipped just left of its target.

“Honestly, I just didn’t think you could leave it short,” the three-time Web.com tour winner told GolfChannel.com after carding a 60 and finishing in a tie for second. “I was just trying to pick the line. I’m actually ashamed of myself that I left it short for a chance at 59 … I just thought if I got it on the right line, it would tumble down there.

“Halfway [to the hole], I thought I had done it,” Thatcher said, “but it just went back up the rise there and fell right across the front edge.”

Hoping to become the sixth Web.com Tour player to post a round under 60 and just the 14th in all of professional golf to do so, Thatcher’s flawless final round at South Carolina’s Thornblade Club included an eagle and nine birdies. He began Sunday’s finale 10 shots off the pace in a tie for 28th.

After Golf Channel cameras began following his stretch drive, Thatcher made par from a green side bunker on the par-5 16th and came close to holing a short chip on the par-3 17th. Needing that final birdie, Thatcher’s solid approach left him staring down that 12-footer.

“The zone is real,” Thatcher, whose playing partners gave him his space as if he were a pitcher in the midst of a no-hitter, told PGATour.com. “The bubble, the zone, whatever you want to call it; it’s real. I was certainly in it.

“I was calm and comfortable; there wasn’t a situation out there that made me think twice. I was decisive and I knew what I wanted to do,” he said. “Unfortunately for guys like me, guys that have been up and down, we don’t find the zone as often as the other guys. But I think the feeling is probably the same.”