Australian golfer Rhein Gibson sets new record for lowest round

The Australian professional golfer Rhein Gibson has provisionally set a new world record for the lowest round in golf.

Australian Associated Press reports that Gibson shot a 16-under-par 55 while playing with two friends at the River Oaks Golf Club in Oklahoma, a course he considers his 'local' having gone to college at the nearby Oklahoma Christian University.

Gibson, 26, produced what SkyNews Australia describes as an "incredible round" last Saturday, knocking in 12 birdies and two eagles.

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"I am trying to think myself what happened … I just kind of got hot I guess and every putt I hit went in," Gibson is quoted as saying.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation explains that only one other player has ever shot a 55 before.  He was Homero Blancas, a PGA Tour player from the 1960s, who was playing on a par-70 course of just 5,000 yards.  The news service adds that Blancas' score was taken out of the record books after harder qualifying rules were set.

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Fox Sports says that Gibson's round falls into the record parameters and, once cleared, will be a new world mark.

 Gibson currently plays on the Golfweek National Pro Tour, where he’s made US$16,000 in winnings this year, according to The Score.

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