Lakewood Ranch man accomplished something that only 14 PGA Tour players have ever done

Fourteen PGA Tour players have carded the rare sub-60 tournament round.

A Lakewood Ranch resident made the club with a course-record 59 at the Esplanade at Azario Lakewood Ranch on Tuesday.

Kyle Rodes had 13 birdies and five pars for the 59 during the two-day North Florida PGA Stableford Championship. Rodes won with the tournament with 112 points.

The previous course record was 61.

Rodes said he was swinging with freedom and accepting wherever it went before he hit each shot.

“One of my swing thoughts (Tuesday) was to just feel good about the shot I’m choosing to hit and then just fully let it go,” he said.

Lakewood Ranch mans sets golf course record

Rodes, a 29-year-old Plymouth, Michigan native, holds course records at two Michigan tracks and Sarasota’s Laurel Oak Country Club’s Player Course. The latter was a 61.

He’s also had a 58 at the Ritz-Carlton Members Golf Club in East Manatee, but that’s an unofficial record as it was a practice round.

Coming into this week’s Mallard-Perez Stableford Championship, Rodes said he had been hitting it well. Playing the Esplanade at Azario Lakewood Ranch course from 6,700 yards, Rodes rode his ball striking to 18 greens in regulation and a hot putter to rack 13 birdies up.

“Nothing is guaranteed and you’ve still got to execute the shot,” Rodes said. “Birdies will not be handed to you.”

Before the round was over, a two-hour, 30-minute lightning delay could have zapped his momentum. He was 11-under through 15 holes at the time.

“You’re fully aware of the situation and people are telling you to finish strong,” Rodes said. “The argument would be you don’t want to think about it. You want to just play. But everything was just kind of working. ... Things just seemed to be going my way. The putts that sometimes sit on the edge and miss, they were sitting on the edge and going in.”

Aiding in his scorching round was his Spotify playlist. The NFPGA allows phone use and players use carts during the round. Rodes had a cart to himself and decided to listen to songs, ranging in genres such as rap, country and rock.

Rodes said he tried getting songs stuck in his head, so he wouldn’t think too much about what he was doing and just letting it happen.

It worked.

“So the song I had stuck in my head was ‘Good Things Fall Apart,’ and it was just so ironic to me,” Rodes said. “I’m like, ‘Wow, why am I singing this right to myself saying good things fall apart.”

They didn’t due to the free-flowing thought process.

Another way he’s locked in on the course is through marathon running. Rodes completed his second marathon in February, and it’s improved his mental game on the golf course.

“It directly translates in my golf game, because when you’re late into a 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15-mile training run or the marathon itself, the mind wanders,” Rodes said. “It starts to go to a dark place. It’s a bit different than golf in that you’re fighting off pain ... but it’s the same with your mind wandering. So you have to improve your ability to focus on the present moment.”

With the form he’s in, Rodes said he plans to play the Korn Ferry Tour’s Qualifying School. If he’s successful, he’ll join a tour with direct promotion to the PGA Tour.

Q-School is scheduled for Dec. 12-15 in Ponte Vedra Beach.