To say Aldrich Potgieter’s game can be a little erratic is an understatement. Last year on the Korn Ferry Tour, the South African won in only his second start as a tour member to become the circuit’s youngest-ever champion at 19. But then he notched only two other top-10 finishes, still earning his PGA Tour card despite missing more cuts (13) than he made (11).
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As a rookie in the big leagues this season, Potgieter missed the weekend in his first two starts, and then shot an impressive 67 on the Torrey Pines South Course in the third round of the Farmers Insurance Open to get into the final pairing for Saturday’s last round. To which he responded with … a 78.
We’ll cut him some slack. Potgieter is, after all, playing on the tour at 20 when most young prospects are still balancing math class and bunker practice. He also is a most prodigious driver of the golf ball, having led the KFT in driving distance average last year at 336.5 and is on top in that stat this season at 328.7. “Drive for show …” comes to mind.
But, boy, can the kid light it up under just the right conditions, and in the second round of the Mexico Open in Vidanta Vallarta on Friday, Potgieter could have smoothly shot the second 59 on his pro career if he’d only taken advantage of the holes you’d think would be the most vulnerable for him.
After shooting a 29 on the front nine that included five straight birdies, Potgieter had three par 5s to attack on the back, but he birdied only one of them, including making par at the 18th when he needed an eagle there to shoot 59. On that hole, he hit into a fairway bunker on the drive and greenside bunker on the second shot, eventually missing a 21-foot birdie putt. A 10-under-par 61 still put Potgieter alone as the clubhouse leader at 16 under as play continued in the afternoon.
Potgieter became the youngest pro to shoot 59 when he did so last February in the KFT’s Astara Golf Championship. (He followed with 73-71 to tie for 20th.) As noted on Friday by stats guru Justin Ray, Potgieter claimed another milestone by becoming only the fourth PGA Tour player in 40 years to shoot 61 or lower before the age of 21. The others are Nick Dunlap (60, 2024 The American Express), Tom Kim (61, 2022 Wyndham Championship) and Patrick Cantlay (60, 2011 Travelers Championship).
“Started off really good with five birdies in a row on the front nine and that helped a lot to get momentum,” Potgieter said. “Made a really good [21-foot] chip-in for par on 10 [after driving into the water] to keep the momentum going. I knew on the back nine there was a couple of par 5s—three par 5s that I still had available to me. just tried to birdie those three and come up with a good score. Yeah, made some bonus birdies and didn’t birdie the par 5s, which were unfortunate. Yeah, really happy with today.”
Potgieter’s one par-5 birdie on the back was a jaw-dropper. At the 12th, he blasted a 331-yard drive into the fairway, and with 325 yards to the flag, he chose to hit driver off the deck and basically blasted it just as far off the grass, giving himself a 22-foot eagle putt, which he missed.
“I’ve been practicing doing a drill on the driving range with teeing it really low and hitting it really good with the driver that way,” Potgieter explained. “I was telling my caddie, I was, like, let’s just do the same thing. It was a perfect number, so yeah, hit the perfect shot and had an eagle opportunity that I didn’t make. But it was good, yeah.”
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
