Stuart Appleby Makes History With A 59 and Wins The Greenbrier Classic

[riffjim4069]

I cannot locate any statistics, but shooting a 59 in a PGA Tour event has got to be just as rare as tossing a perfect game in the MLB. There have been a total of twenty (20) perfect games tossed in the past 100+ years, but there have only been a total of five (5) scores of 59 posted in a PGA Tour event (since 1960?). Offhand, I have no idea how many games were pitched or how many rounds of golf were played...but Stuart Appleby's feat todays is impressive nontheless.

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Australian Stuart Appleby carded only the fifth round of 59 in the history of the PGA Tour to win the Greenbrier Classic in scintillating fashion on Sunday.

The Orlando resident, seven shots off the pace at the start of the day, took the Old White Course at White Sulphur Springs by storm to finish on 22 under par - one shot ahead of young American Jeff Overton.

Appleby, whose last win came at the Houston Open four years ago, carded nine birdies and one eagle to surge up the leaderboard and claim his ninth PGA title.

The victory books the Australian's place at the US PGA Championship at Whistling Straits on August 12-15.

 

[AntAltMike]

There are presently 162 team-games/season x 30 teams =4,860 opportunities per season. Up until 1961, there were 154 x 16 opportunities per season, or 2464 opportunities, with the number creeping up as the season expanded to 162 games in 1961 and 1962, and both leagues gradually expanding. If we figure 50 years at 2464 games, and a weighted approximation of 3600 a year for the 50 years since, I roughly calculate that to be about 300,000 pitcher opportunities to throw a perfect or any other kind of game.

In PGA golf, I would guess that there are close to 40 sanctioned events per year, with all roughly 150 invitees playing two rounds, and the roughly half the field that survives the cut playing four rounds. So each week, you have roughly 75 x 4, plus 75 x 2, or 450 opportunities to post a given score. 450 times 50 years times 30-40 tournaments works out to 675, 000 900,000 opportunities.

And just to subject myself to ridicule, I'm going to post this off-the-top of-my-head, first draft, without even testing it so if I did something dumb in my calculation, you can all have a good time with it.

BTW, how many of the five 59s were attained under the "clean amnd place" rule. I remember that Al Geiberger's was. The other memorable thing about Geiberger's is that he didn;t have any rounds in the 60s. Johnny Vandermeer, he wasn't.

 

[Ramy]

Very rare to win a tournament on a 59

 

[riffjim4069]

There are presently 162 team-games/season x 30 teams =4,860 opportunities per season. Up until 1961, there were 154 x 16 opportunities per season, or 2464 opportunities, with the number creeping up as the season expanded to 162 games in 1961 and 1962, and both leagues gradually expanding. If we figure 50 years at 2464 games, and a weighted approximation of 3600 a year for the 50 years since, I roughly calculate that to be about 300,000 pitcher opportunities to throw a perfect or any other kind of game.

In PGA golf, I would guess that there are close to 40 sanctioned events per year, with all roughly 150 invitees playing two rounds, and the roughly half the field that survives the cut playing four rounds. So each week, you have roughly 75 x 4, plus 75 x 2, or 450 opportunities to post a given score. 450 times 50 years times 30-40 tournaments works out to 675, 000 900,000 opportunities.

And just to subject myself to ridicule, I'm going to post this off-the-top of-my-head, first draft, without even testing it so if I did something dumb in my calculation, you can all have a good time with it.

BTW, how many of the five 59s were attained under the "clean amnd place" rule. I remember that Al Geiberger's was. The other memorable thing about Geiberger's is that he didn;t have any rounds in the 60s. Johnny Vandermeer, he wasn't.

That's actually a pretty good "ballpark" estimate. I think it is fair to say that shooting a 59 on the PGA tour is about as perfect as it gets.