May 26, 2006. Adrien Mörk put his name in the golfing history books by shooting the magic number of 59 on the European Challenge Tour. It remains the only sub-60 round in the history of the European Tour, Challenge Tour and Senior Tour. And it included a double bogey.
In just his ninth Challenge Tour appearance and after a horrendous run of form during which he made just two cuts, Mörk started the second round of the Tikida Hotels Agadir Moroccan Classic with a birdie.
Then he made six more before the turn. A good day was most certainly on the cards. But wait, a double bogey on the second, his 11th. It puts him back amongst the pack, but an eagle at the par five third meant he snatched those two shots straight back.
With six holes to play and six more shots to pick up, surely a 59 did not even enter the Frenchman’s mind. Birdie at the fourth. Another at the fifth. Another. Another. Then the butterflies were unleashed within his belly.
“It was only then that I really thought about 59,” he said, “and that brought quite a lot of pressure because how many times will a golfer have the chance to do that?
“I managed to birdie the eighth and then on the last I just stiffed my approach to the green – it was a great pitch and it stopped about three feet from the hole. Now, those are the kinds of putts you want for a 59! I just made sure that I wasn’t going to miss it – there was no chance that I was missing that one.”
And so it was. Adrien Mörk became Europe’s Mr 59.
“It feels like a dream to have done this," he said afterwards. "I honestly can’t describe the way I feel because I do not think I fully realise what I have done yet, I just feel great, but also quite numb. I had never been that close to a 59 before. This is certainly the best I have ever played, and it is an honour to break so many records for European golf.”
He duly went on to win the golf tournament but the victory itself will ironically forever live in the shadows of that fateful Friday when history came knocking and Mr Mörk answered the call.
