Golf Central

On this day in 1999, something was definitely happening behind the wraparound-shaded eyes of David Duval. For it was on this day that Duval shot a final-round 59 at the Palmer Course at PGA West in the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic.

And we're going to argue that Duval's 59 was the best competitive round of golf in the modern era. He started the round seven shots behind the leader, hit pin-seeking iron shots all day, made every putt he needed to make, and topped it off with grand theatre ... a proper hero shot - a balls-to-the-wall 5-iron laced over treacherous water to within eight feet for an eagle on the last hole. And he made the eagle putt to win by one shot. Duval's 59 didn't happen in a major, but for drama it certainly can't be beaten ...

Certainly, Duval's round is in the record books, along with Al Geiberger's 59 from Memphis in 1977 and Chip Beck's 59 in Las Vegas in '91 as the lowest scores recorded in PGA Tour history. But say what you will. Other players - Palmer, Nicklaus, Hogan, Tiger - have shot low rounds in majors that may be said to be among the greatest of all time, but Duval's 59 had the greatest showmanship. He needed every precious bit of that 59 to win the tournament by one shot over Steve Pate ...

It was a masterclass in being on fire: Playing golf with precision that may not be matched for years to come ...

"It was like pitching a perfect game," Duval said, and he was right. The statistics are stunning: En route to his 11 birdies and closing eagle, Duval only needed a combined 52 feet of putts. That, ladies and gentlemen, is called hitting it close.

We're into cool stuff and stats from time to time at IGWT, but a shot-by-shot recap of Duval's 59 is always worth looking at again. You never know when you'll see another one of these again:

• No. 1, 426 yards, par 4: Driver. Pitching wedge. 5-foot birdie putt. 3
  
• No. 2, 514 yards, par 5: Driver. 4-iron. Chip with sand wedge. 3-foot birdie putt. 4
  
• No. 3, 180 yards, par 3: 6-iron. 3-foot birdie putt. 2
  
• No. 4, 396 yards, par 4: 2-iron. 9-iron. 2-putt from 15 feet. Tap in for par. 4
  
• No. 5, 233 yards, par 3: 5-iron. 5-foot birdie putt. 2
  
• No. 6, 562 yards, par 5: Driver. 5-iron. Sand wedge. 2-putt from 30 feet. 1 1/2-foot putt for par. 5
  
• No. 7, 439 yards, par 4: 2-iron. 7-iron. 2-putt from 40 feet. 2-foot putt for par. 4
  
• No. 8, 358 yards, par 4: 3-wood. Sand wedge. Chip with 3-iron. 6-foot putt for par. 4
  
• No. 9, 451 yards, par 4: 3-wood. 8-iron. 8-foot birdie putt. 3
• Out: 31
  
• No. 10, 453 yards, par 4: 3-wood. Sand wedge. 4-foot birdie putt. 3
  
• No. 11, 512 yards, par 5: Driver. 4-iron. Pitching wedge. 4-foot birdie putt. 4
  
• No. 12, 207 yards, par 3: 6-iron. 2-foot birdie putt. 2
  
• No. 13, 447 yards, par 4: 3-wood. 7-iron. 2-putt from 12 feet. Tap in for par. 4
  
• No. 14, 569 yards, par 5: Driver into bunker. 5-iron. Sand wedge. 10-foot birdie putt. 4
  
• No. 15, 156 yards, par 3: 8-iron. 1 1/2-foot birdie putt. 2
  
• No. 16, 364 yards, par 4: 2-iron. Sand wedge. 6-inch birdie putt. 3
  
• No. 17, 130 yards, par 3: 9-iron. 2-putt from 20 feet. 5-foot putt for par. 3
  
• No. 18, 543 yards, par 5: Driver. 5-iron. 8-foot eagle putt. 3
  
• In: 28 Total: 59
  

Regardless of what he does for the rest of his oddly scrawled career, Duval signed for the best 59 ever ...

And speaking of history, today was the day in 1848 that a gentleman with a fine moustache and a sense for adventure was hiking around the hills of Sutter's Mill in northern California, and found a gold nugget. The man's name was James W. Marshall, and his discovery set off the frenzied gold rush of '49, which helped build California into the great state that it is today ...

And today was also the day in 1908 that the first Boy Scout troop was organised in England by Sir Robert Baden-Powell. Scouts' honour it was ...

And not like a proper Boy Scout would care, but today was also the day that the first canned beer went on sale, in 1935. That's right, the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Co. in Richmond, Virginia chucked 2000 "units" of their Finest Beer and Cream Ale into cans. An amazing 91 percent of Richmond's thirsty souls gave their approval to the tinned brew, making Homer Simpson (a faithful Duff beer drinker) and legions of Stella-guzzling chavs happy ever since ...

Sir Winston Churchill passed away at the grand old age of 90 on this day in 1965; and another man was born again, for on this day in 1972 a truly bizarre tale had its coda: Sergeant Shoichi Yokoi, a rifleman of the Imperial Japanese Army who had been fighting World War II for 28 years without knowing the war was over, emerged from the jungles of Guam and finally gave up. This story had a happy ending: Yokoi lived out the rest of his life in relative happiness back home in Japan until his death in 1997.

That said, it's Otanjou-bi Omedetou Gozaimasu!, as they say in Aichi Prefecture, to the ancient veteran Oscar-winning actor Ernest Borgnine (91, who was in the US Navy fighting against Yokoi's mates in 1944 and '45); to crackly voiced pop legend Neil Diamond (67, now on a stage near you with special dates added by "astounding demand"); to pearly-voiced Aaron Neville (66), one of the Neville brothers whose birthdays scarcely pass without being mentioned in On This Day; and the British keyboardist and television empresario Jools Holland (50).

It also would have been a birthday for the much-remembered Roman emperor Publius Aelius Traianus Hadrianus (Hadrian, b. AD 76), well-known especially between Carlisle and Newcastle, had he not found out that all walls come crumbling down eventually in AD 138.

'Til tomorrow ...