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Country Club buzzing about teen’s 57
Published 6:40pm Friday, July 30, 2010SELMA — Bobby Wyatt is not from Selma, but his potential world record golf score has the Selma golf community buzzing.
Wyatt shot a 14-under par 57 in the Alabama Boys State Junior Championship in Mobile.
Alabama Golf Association president and Selma Country Club member David Pearce was at the tournament, and witnessed the round.
“It was unbelievable to watch,” Pearce said during his own round Friday at the Selma Country Club. “There were business people coming out of their offices to watch it. I have no idea what the odds on that score would be, but it would have to be in the trillions.”
Wyatt, who will play for the University of Alabama, recorded 12 birdies, an eagle and five pars to win the tournament for the fourth straight year. He lipped out a birdie putt on the 18th hole. In all, he took 23 putts on 18 holes.
Wyatt birdied every hole on the front nine except No. 3, but eagled No. 7 to finish with a nine-under par 26.
“I thought (the score) was a screw-up,” SCC president Mike Reynolds, who was playing with Pearce, said. “I thought it was supposed to be a 36 not a 26. That’s an impossible score.”
Pearce said the crowd at the Country Club of Mobile had grown so large, and so many people congratulated Wyatt that he had to take extra time before making the turn to get refocused on playing.
“Usually when you see people start shooting their career-best, they get tight because they’re out of their comfort zone,” Pearce said. “He doesn’t have a comfort zone. He just shoots the best he can.”
Also playing a round Friday was Donnie Blanton, who has won numerous tournaments across Alabama and is in the Selma Country Club Circle of Champions, said he has played the course several times, and only broken par a couple of times.
“The course is hard,” Blanton said. “It’s got woods and lakes, and the greens are tricky. With that being in the tournament, they have the greens set up hard.”
Pearce said the previous course record was 63, and it has been played by some of the best golfers in the world.
“People are saying it must have been a pitch-and-putt course, but it’s not,” Pearce said. “Stewart Cink said it was very demanding.”
Cink, a six-time winner on the PGA Tour, including the 2009 British Open who is from Huntsville, posted a link on his Twitter account about Wyatt’s score and tweeted a personal voucher of the course’s toughness.
“CC of Mobile is a course I know well.” Cink posted on Twitter. “One of my favorites. Not a pushover by any stretch of the imagination.”
I would love to try to beat that score… how can I become a member? Do you have to be white? Oh yeah…
No, you have to be invited.
WoW!!! I would have loved to watch his “short iron” play. Unbelievable.