• Home
• /
• Global Sports

Ferrie shoots 60 at Andalucian Open

After an eagle and seven birdies in the first 17 holes of the par 70 Parador course, the 32-year-old needed to hole his six-iron approach to the 449-yard last for the magical 59 - and came within a few inches of it.

Ferrie though is just the 15th player to shoot 60 in European PGA Tour history, since the feat was first achieved by Italy’s Baldovino Dassu at the 1971 Swiss Open.

The Englishman had started the day seven off the pace and languishing in 45th place, but by the end of it he was at 11-under and just one stroke behind Scotland’s Paul Lawrie.

The 1999 British Open champion from Aberdeen had a five-under 65 to take sole control of the lead at 12-under.

England’s Mark Foster also settled for a 65 which left him in a share of second place alongside Ferrie.

Sweden’s Johan Edfors (65) was alone in fourth place a further two strokes back while last week’s winner in Italy, Raphael Jacquelin of France (65), was in a four-way tie at eight-under.

Ferrie said he was “ecstatic” about the 60 score, but then was at pains to say there was nothing extraordinary about it.

“It was unspectacular, but it added up to a spectacular score,” he said.

“You’d expect somebody with such a low score to have holed (long) putts and hit spectacular shots, but it was just a very steady round - lots of fairways, lots of greens and a lot of wedges to four or five feet which I managed to knock in.

“Some days you shoot 70 and you are doing cartwheels and are over the moon, but I don’t feel I did anything above and beyond.

“I realised that if I finished birdie-birdie-birdie it would have been 59, but 16 and 18 are strong holes and if you get out of position on them you are going to struggle to make pars.

“My six-iron at the last looked very good and when it landed I got a little bit excited, but I would gladly have taken 60 with three to play.”