Spanish tour pro Alejandro Del Rey made professional golfing history at the Swiss Challenge today (October 1), carding a 14-under-par 58 – the lowest-ever score to par on a major golf tour.
Del Rey joins an exclusive club of golfers who have carded rounds of 58 on major tours, adding his name to the list alongside Jim Furyk (PGA Tour, 2016), Stephan Jäger (Korn Ferry Tour, 2016), Ryo Ishikawa (Japan Golf Tour, 2010) and Kim Seong-hyeon (Japan Golf Tour, 2021) – all of their rounds were 12-under-par on par-70 courses.
In the European Challenge Tour’s 32-year history just two rounds of 59 had been carded, with Adrien Mörk and Nicolò Ravano reaching the magic number in 2006 and 2016 respectively, while on the European Tour, a score of 59 has been achieved just once – by Oliver Fisher in 2018 at the Portugal Masters.
The Spaniard was 16 strokes better than his first round, starting the day two-over-par at Golf Saint Apollinaire. Beginning his round on the 10th hole, the 23-year-old made a fast start to the day with a birdie and back-to-back eagles on his first three holes, making the turn in 29. After five birdies on his first six holes on the front nine a 59 was in sight, but he went one better with an eagle on the par five ninth hole, signing for an historic 58.
Speaking after his record-breaking effort, Del Rey said: “It was just great golf all round and for a round like that you need a couple of good bounces which I got today. I definitely managed to drop some putts out there, but I think the key was that my driving was just great today. I hit every fairway super deep and every hole I managed to hit wedges in and managed to hit some chips, it was just a great all round golf performance.”
He added: “Tomorrow is a whole new day, I shot a 74 yesterday, and 58 today, which is kind of crazy. I’m just going to go out there and shoot as low as possible.”
Del Rey currently sits three shots off the lead held by Germany’s Marcel Schneider, who is on 15 under par after an opening 61 and four birdies in the first 12 holes of his second round.
For the live leaderboard, click here.