Golfer Makes History As First Woman To Shoot 60 In College Event

A North Carolina State golfer has become the first female player to shoot 60 in college golf history.

Mexican Lauren Olivares Leon achieved the feat in the opening round of the Cougar Classic at Yeamans Hall Club in South Carolina.

Her round included 13 birdies, and it could have been better were it not for back-to-back bogeys on the 13th and 14th holes. 

Olivares Leon began her round on the 10th hole and got off to an excellent start with her first birdie of the day on the 339-yard par 4. She followed that up with a par on the 11th and another birdie on the 12th before the two bogeys took her back to even par heading into the sixth hole of her round.

At that point, there was little sign of the fireworks to come, but her third birdie of the day on the par 4 15th offered more encouragement, and she headed to the turn after a par-birdie-birdie sequence to leave her three under with nine to play. 

The next six holes also resulted in birdies to give her a run of eight in a row, before that came to an end with a par on the seventh hole. Two more birdies completed her round to leave her with 28 on the front nine and her history making 60.

While five women have carded rounds of 61 in collegiate events, the achievement of Olivares Leon, who is 182nd in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, sees her stand alone in the women's game. 

At one point, it had even looked as though she had carded 59, when Golfstat’s live scoring had suggested she had achieved the 12-under score thanks to a run of 11 successive birdies. However, it had mistakenly attributed a birdie to the seventh hole, which she parred, and the score was marked correctly on her card. 

That means she drew level with 17 male golfers who have matched the score in college golf, one of whom is LIV Golf player Paul Casey, who did so in 1999 while at Arizona State in the Pac-10 Championship in Seattle.

As for Olivares Leon, who had one win in 2023 in the Briar’s Creek Invitational heading into the tournament, her work wasn’t finished there. She then went back to the 10th for the start of her second round in a 36-hole day. That shaped up to be an altogether less remarkable affair as she headed into the turn on even par.