Watch Rod Pampling JUST miss shooting a 59!

By Australian Golf Digest

By Evin Priest

THE putt slid agonisingly just past the hole. That elusive 59 narrowly escaped Rod Pampling at the first round of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.

For a guy who wasn’t even supposed to be teeing it up in Las Vegas, the 47-year-old Aussie veteran certainly made the most of the US PGA Tour’s administration error. He faced an 11-foot birdie putt on the 18th at TPC Summerlin to shoot a 59.

The Shriners field was supposed to be reduced to 132 players after it was moved from October to November to accommodate the Olympics. Pampling was one of the 12 who headed to TPC Summerlin’s par-71 layout unaware they weren’t exactly welcome, and the Queenslander proceeded to have his lowest ever round by three shots and almost become the second Australian after Stuart Appleby(though he did it at a par-70 course) to shoot 59 on tour.

Pampling’s sizzling round of 60 started with four birdies and an eagle to turn 6-under par, before picking up three birdies and an eagle on the back nine to close out with an 11-under round.

“When I hit it close on 16, that got my attention as to this is a really good round. The putt on 17 just fell short in the jaws and on 18 I gave myself a bad read. I thought it was straight, but it just had that little left-to-right. I would have loved to have made one for a 59, but it was just a good solid day all around,” Pampling told the PGA Tour’s Ben Everill.

It comes nearly a year after Pampling started the final round of the 2015 Australian Open 14 shots back of the lead before shooting a course-record 61 at The Australian Golf Club. His secret that Sunday was having a few Bundy and Cokes the night before with his former caddie in Sydney.

Pampling, enjoying something of a resurgence in his US PGA Tour career, is chasing his third tour victory and first since the 2006 Bay Hill Invitational.

Earlier this year, Jim Furyk became the first player to shoot 58