Fossil Ridge’s Austin Barry shoots improbable 59

EATON – There are those certain feats in sports that make you turn your head and do a double take.

A 50-point game in basketball, a 500-yard passing performance on the gridiron or a perfect game on the diamond. But there is one rarified number that most sports enthusiasts will tell you is the Holy Grail.

59.

That is just what Fossil Ridge senior Austin Barry shot on Tuesday afternoon at Fort Collins’ Harmony Club.

“Feels great. I was walking down No. 15 and I realized that if I birdied my last three… I birdied 16, then stuck it to four feet on 17, made that, then hit a really good shot on 18, ” Barry after his ho-hum 3-under-par 69 on Thursday afternoon at Eaton Country Club. “And I had a putt for 58 — something like 12 feet — and I ended up two-putting for 59. I was really stoked about it.”

And for all you naysayers out there, who might be quick to question the legitimacy of such a score, or the course in question, don’t bother. It was all good. The one eagle and 11 birdie round came on a course setup at over 6,700 yards and is now the course record from the black tees at the home of the Colorado State Rams golf team. There has been another 59 at the course, from the back gold tees by Sam Saunders. If you don’t recognize that name, he was a former professional and is the grandson of the legendary Arnold Palmer.

Barry, whose previous career low was a nifty 64 at Collindale in the state tournament last year, had it going on the outward nine on Tuesday. After opening with two pars, he went 5-under on his next four holes – an eagle and three birdies – and the closed out the front nine with two more birdies to shoot 29.

“But things weren’t really serious until 14 when I birdied that hole and then I was ‘geez, I could shoot 59 today’,” he said. “So I kept going and going and made a few more birdies.”

Barry said his playing partners, including Windsor’s Kellen Ball – who fired an impressive 62 on Thursday at Eaton Country Club – were all just shaking their heads at what they were watching.

After a par on 15, Barry knew what he had to do and was more than aware of the rarified air he was in. Birdie No. 9 came on the 432-yard 16th hole and it was a remarkable shot on the lengthy par-3 17th that set up for the magical finish on the par-5 18th. He had a 200+ yard blind approach to the final green and both he and Sabercats coach Jaime Menefee watched and knew it was going to be close.

”I had a good feeling going in, there are a bunch of slopes out there that feed down towards the hole and if you miss the greens, you can get into some pretty tricky spots,” said Barry, who was enjoying the fist-bumps and the myriad of questions about the round from his playing companions all day on Thursday. “But I was just able to take advantage of the slopes and was hitting my wedges really well and I was just hitting it close every time.”

Thursday was just another round of golf for Barry, who joins a small list of PGA professionals to ever shoot 59 — and only Jim Furyk has gone lower at 58 in a professional event — and Barry, “just treated it like any other round. I know 59 is a once-in-a-lifetime round and I’m not going to be in that position too many times.”