As might have been anticipated in the PGA Tour’s inaugural visit to Myrtle Beach, The Dunes Golf and Beach Club’s course record has been eclipsed during the Myrtle Beach Classic.
Thorbjorn Olesen of Denmark made 10 birdies without a bogey to post a 10-under-par 61 Sunday to break the course record of 63 set by Jay Sigel during the 1994 Senior Tour Championship and matched by Trace Crowe in Friday’s second round.
Oleson hit 15 of 18 greens in regulation and needed just 23 putts while making birdies on holes 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15 and 18.
He holed a 19-foot putt on 3, hit a bunker shot to 2 feet on the par-5 fourth hole, then rolled putts of 36-feet on six, 6 feet on seven, 20 feet from the fringe on eight, and 28 feet on the par-3 ninth to shoot a 6-under 29 on the front nine.
He added birdie putts of 12, 45 and 22 feet on holes 13-15 to reach 9 under with three holes to play, and thoughts of magic numbers in golf began to enter his head.
“I thought after 15, I thought actually there’s a chance of 59 here,” Olesen said. “Sixteen is a good birdie chance and 17 is quite tough, but there is a chance at least. That came into my mind on 16. . . . It just made it a lot more fun. Obviously I wanted to shoot a low round, but when you have a chance for that, it’s pretty special.”
He missed putts of 14 feet and 26 feet on the 17th before draining a 19-footer on the 18th to shoot a 4-under 32 on the back nine.
“It was great to finish on 18 with a birdie,” he said.
Olesen, 34, a participant in the 2018 Ryder Cup and 2016 Summer Olympic Games, is in his second stint on the PGA Tour. He joined in 2013 and played sparingly over a couple seasons and did not maintain his exempt playing privileges, so he returned to Europe and played several years on the DP World Tour (formerly the European Tour) before returning to the PGA Tour this season.
He’s made four of eight cuts with a tie for 14th in the Valero Texas Open his only top 25 finish this season entering the Myrtle Beach Classic.
“I haven’t been able to put a good round together over here, so it was nice to finally get it going and keep it going in the end, also,” Olesen said. “I’ve had good rounds and then sort of let it go in the end, and it was nice to just keep going today and shoot a really good round.”
Olesen was in the fifth group out in the morning and the 61 shot him up the leaderboard, though it remains to be seen if his 12-under total holds up for a top-15 or top-20 finish.
He gave his impressions of The Dunes Club and Myrtle Beach Classic in their PGA Tour debut.
“I didn’t really know what to expect. Never been here before. Happily surprised,” he said. “I think the golf course is great. I think there’s a lot of demanding tee shots out there. Conditions have obviously been good for us this week. It’s been fairly soft and stuff. But it’s a great golf course. I feel like you have to be on your game from tee, and it asks a lot of questions.”
Olesen hopes to keep the momentum from his 61 going next week in the PGA Championshp at Valhalla in Louisville, Kentucky.
“I haven’t played that well for the last probably couple of months, so it’s nice to finally see a good round or playing well all 18 holes,” Olesen said. “Hopefully I can take that confidence with me and hopefully have a good week.”
