BONUS Limerick Summary: Jim Furyk’s 58

Yes, I know what you're going to say: "Why does Furyk get a Limerick Summary for his 58? Stephan Jaeger shot 58 on the Web.com Tour a week or so back and you didn't give him one. And there are several other tours where official 58s have been recorded. So what's the deal?"

Let's be clear: I didn't give Jim this Limerick Summary simply because he shot a 58. What he did is more far-reaching than that.



Jim Furyk has become the only player on ANY tour to post TWO official rounds in the 50s. That is something special!

Lynn Marriott and Pia Nilsson, the founders of VISION54, have been trying to get golfers to change their mindsets for quite a while. They want them to think about making birdie on every hole and shoot a 54. And let's face it -- as cool as it sounds, it also sounds impossible.

After all, players rarely even shoot 60, let alone break into the 50s. To use the PGA Tour as an example, only six players have ever broken 60 in an official round of play.

• 10 June 1977 -- Al Geiberger
• 11 October, 1991 -- Chip Beck
• 24 January 1999 -- David Duval
• 8 July 2010 -- Paul Goydos
• 1 August 2010, -- Stuart Appleby
• 13 September 2013 -- Jim Furyk

I believe the figure they gave on TV was that 916,000 official rounds of golf have been shot since Geiberger posted that first-ever 59. And note that none of those players ever did it more than once. That's significant. After all, if breaking 60 is a once-in-a-lifetime act, how realistic is it to even think about shooting 54?

But now, not only has one man done it twice, but he has gone lower the second time. This in itself is a game changer. If a man can break 60 twice and go lower the second time, perhaps 54 isn't so unreachable after all.

But wait... there's more.

The man who did it was considered one of the least-likely players to do so! This wasn't one of the long-hitting youngsters who performed this never-before-seen feat. Instead, it was one of the short hitters -- his average drive around 280 -- who was 46 years old to boot. And perhaps we should consider that he shot both of these rounds within a 3-year period as well.

With his 58, Jim Furyk has changed the way we have to think about what kind of scores are possible. Jim missed at least two short putts that could have easily fallen, and he couldn't go after the reachable par-5 13th because his drive landed in a divot. With his short game, a chip from the front of the green -- instead of the wedge he had to play -- might have given him birdie there rather than par. It's not farfetched to believe that a 56 was within Jim's reach, even though he didn't get it.

For these reasons I award Jim Furyk a BONUS Limerick Summary. He has truly gone where no man -- or woman -- has gone before.

Both Pia and Lynn are ecstatic—
Jim’s making it look automatic!
He’s beat 60 TWICE!
It takes veins full of ice
To repeat an event that sporadic.

The photo came from this page at PGATOUR.com.