David Skinns’ record-setting round at Sanderson Farms Championship misses 59 by just inches

The PGA Tour years ago produced a memorable TV commercial with golf pros hitting booming drives, precise iron shots, and perfect chips and putts that went in from every angle. There was lots of fist-pumping, lots of back-slapping and wild celebrating. At the end, you heard these words: “These guys are good!”

On a warm, sunny Thursday at Country Club of Jackson, they could have shot 50 commercials like that during the first round of the Sanderson Farms Championship. Heck, they could have shot seven or eight commercials just from David Skinns’ round.

“David Skinns?” you ask. Yes, David Skinns, a gray-bearded, 42-year-old journeyman pro from the United Kingdom who played his college golf two decades ago for Tennessee. All Skinns did was make 12 birdies en route to a career-best round of 60, which broke the course record at CCJ by a single shot. This is the 57th edition of Mississippi’s only PGA Tour Tournament. This was the lowest round in history of the event.

Skinns narrowly missed the magical number of 59, misfiring on a nine-foot birdie putt on his 18th hole, the ninth at CCJ. He missed the downhill, right-to-left putt on the low side, then made a 2-footer for the 60. That was one shot better than Will Zalatoris — a much more familiar name — shot three years ago in the second round of the Sanderson.

Of the putt that would have broken 60, Skinns said, “I played it a ball out on the right. If I had it to do over again, I’d play it a full cup out. Just broke way more than I thought.”

Skinns said he simply read the putt wrong, but added, “But there were a lot of them out there that I got right, so I am going to focus on the ones I got right.”

The question is: How will he focus on so much? He made 12 birdie putts totaling 167 feet, including a 54-footer on the par-3 seventh hole, his 16th. 

When that long one went in, Skinns knew 59 was a possibility. He just needed to birdie the last two holes. He took care of the first one, wedging to within two feet on the par-4 eighth and tapping that in. He then boomed a 307-yard drive on the ninth hole and hit another really good wedge shot that finished nine feet, one inch from the cup.

Remarkably, that was the shortest putt he missed all day. 

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These guys are better than really, really good. Understand, CCJ is not a pitch and putt golf course. No, it stretches out to almost 7,500 yards. The fairways are not abnormally wide and the Bermuda-grass rough is thick in most spots. Your average 6-handicapper at your local club would be lucky to break 100.

But as Thursday progressed, the low scores just kept coming. Michael Thorbjornsen, a 23-year-old former U.S. Junior champion, shot a 63. As these words are typed mid-afternoon, there already have been four 65s, three 66s and the birdies keeping falling.

Why?

“The greens are soft and there’s hardly any wind,” said Jackson native Wilson Furr, who practically grew up on this golf course and shot a 70 Thursday. “The greens are receptive and they roll perfectly. That’s a recipe for what you’re seeing out there today. I’m not at all surprised.”

Furr and Skinns are well-acquainted. Both graduated from the Korn Ferry Tour to the PGA after the 2023 season. 

“He’s a really good player,” Furr said of Skinns. “But honestly everybody out here is good. Am I surprised he shot 60? Maybe a little, but I’m not shocked. He’s a really good player. Everybody out here is capable of it. Everybody is really good.”

As this is written, 100 of the 132 players are under par.

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Golfing readers out there may wonder, as I, what it feels like to make 167 feet of birdie putts in one round of golf.

“Just a bit of a dream really,” Skinns answered when asked that very question. “Great to see a couple go in that maybe some days don’t. Just kind of catapulted me and I was able to keep the momentum going, which is what I was most pleased about, and I never really thought about the score too much, just where I was going to hit the next shot.”

Skinns won three tournaments on the Korn Ferry Tour, golf’s Class AAA. He won seven times on the old Hooters Tour. His best finish on the PGA Tour has been a tie for fourth place at the Cognizant Classic in Palm Beaches, Florida, last March.

The first-round 60 doesn’t change his game plan in Jackson.

“One hole at a time,” he said. “I am going to reset and concentrate on playing the first hole tomorrow.”

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