The Greatest Round Ever? Mini-Tour Player Shoots a 55!

There are magic numbers in sports, milestones that represent accomplishments that seem almost unattainable. Wilt Chamberlin scored 100 points in a basketball game, Pete Rose had 4,256 hits, and Joe DiMaggio had a 56-game hitting streak.

For golf that number has long been 59. Several players have reached it in recent years, including a 58 in a Japan Golf Tour event, but it has remained the game’s holy grail of scoring. The idea of going much lower, unless of course you have the gifts of the late, North Korean dictator Kim Jong il**, were almost unimaginable.

Until last Saturday.

Rhein Gibson, an Edmund, Okla., resident who plays on the Golfweek National Professional Golf Tour, shot an incomprehensible 55 at River Oaks Golf Club, a par 71, in Edmund.

That’s not a typo.

12 birdies

2 eagles

0 bogeys

It adds up to a 16-under par 55, and Golfweek’s Jeff Babineau raised the possibility of it being the greatest round ever played, despite not coming in competition. One of Gibson’s playing partners, Ryan Munson, had a front seat:

“River Oaks happens to be Ryan Munson’s home course, and he is quick to emphasize that it’s “anything but a walkover track.” The group played from about 6,800 yards on Saturday morning, and the course was wet after receiving overnight rains. “There’s trees, water and out-of-bounds galore out there, and the wind is usually a good defense. You can score there, yes, . . . but this round was ‘crazy good.’ “

How good was Gibson’s round? He started on No. 10 and parred the opening hole. His next eight holes went eagle-birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie-birdie-birdie-birdie-birdie.

“It was like he was throwing a perfect game, and we were just trying to stay out of his way,” said Munson. When Gibson made his 13-foot right-to-left slider for birdie to go 10 under at No. 18 (his ninth), all silence went out the window. “We whooped, we high-fived and we did our ‘bro hugs,’ said Munson, a financial adviser who plays off scratch. “It’s the most phenomenal thing we’d ever seen.”

The 29 Gibson shot on the final nine holes included three lousy pars.

Gibson is 12th on the GNPGT money list through six events.

** As impressive as Gibson round was, it pales in comparison to the 34 Kim Jong il carded in 1994. Each of his 17 bodyguards vouched for the amazing round, which included 11 holes in one!!