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One year ago, Justin Thomas became youngest player in Tour history to shoot 59

By T.J. Auclair
Published on
One year ago, Justin Thomas became youngest player in Tour history to shoot 59

The official one-year anniversary of the 59 Justin Thomas shot at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu is Friday, Jan. 12.

But, since it happened in Round 1 of the 2017 Sony Open in Hawaii and Round 1 of the 2018 event begins today, we're celebrating a day early.

What Thomas did that day was amazing. Just four days removed from winning the Tournament of Champions in Maui, Thomas hopped islands and kept the momentum going strong.

RELATED: Players who have recorded sub-60 rounds in PGA Tour history

It all started with a chip-in eagle on the 10th hole (his first of the day). He made the turn in 29 and needed a 30 on the back side for the sub-60 round.

As he teed off on the par-5 ninth (his final hole of the day), it was clear that Thomas would need to eagle the hole to -- at age 23 -- become the youngest player in PGA Tour history to shoot a 59.

As was the case for most of 2017, Thomas delivered in a big spot, knocking down a 15-foot eagle putt.

The round included eight birdies, the bookend eagles and a bogey on the par-70 Waialae. Thomas hit eight of 14 fairways, 14 greens and only needed 23 putts.

Thomas's playing partners that day were Jordan Spieth and Daniel Berger.

Months later, Berger would witness something else pretty special with Spieth -- but this time it came at his expense. That's when Spieth holed a bunker shot on the first hole if a playoff in the Travelers Championship that would best Berger.

The ensuing celebration was one of the most memorable from 2017:

Back to Thomas... his 59 was just the seventh in PGA Tour history and the first of two in 2017. Incidentally, the year's second 59 would come one week later when Canada's Adam Hadwin had a 13-birdie 59 at La Quinta Country Club in the CareerBuilder Challenge.

Thomas would go on to win the Sony Open that week.