Scheffler cards 59, but this one puts him in PGA Tour's elite club

(Reuters) - Scottie Scheffler became the newest member of the PGA Tour's 59 club on Friday and later said he actually reached the magical number in a round with friends this year and did not realize it until after leaving the course.

Scheffler, whose 12-under-par 59 at The Northern Trust was the 12th sub-60 round in PGA Tour history, said he also reached that number during the PGA Tour's three-month COVID-19 hiatus.

The 24-year-old PGA Tour rookie said he played a socially distant round of golf with friends in Texas where he made a 20-foot eagle putt at the 18th for a 59 but walked off the green that day oblivious to what he had just accomplished.

"I didn't know I shot 59 at the time. We were riding home and I was like, kind of adding everything up -- because we were playing well. I wasn't thinking about the score," said Scheffler.

"I was just kind of going out and playing, and we were thinking about it on the way home and I counted it up like 10 times probably.

"I texted the guy who kept the score, and he actually got my score wrong on 17 and I had something else wrong at the beginning of the round. So I don't know how we both messed it up but figured it out later."

That was far from the case on Friday with plenty at stake in the FedExCup playoffs opener where Scheffler got up and down from 87 feet for birdie to join the exclusive club and set the TPC Boston course record in the process.

Perhaps luckily for Scheffler, his round on Friday was played in somewhat similar conditions to that in which he hit his first 59 given TPC Boston was closed to spectators because of the virus.

"There was nobody out there watching our group until I think 17 some cameras showed up," said Scheffler. "So we were pretty much just out there having fun, hanging out. Just playing golf, really. There was not too much thinking going on for us.

"We were just kind of -- everybody is in their own little world trying to do what they are doing. Wasn't too

much activity."

(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto, editing by Pritha Sarkar)