PGA Tour rookie narrowly misses history at Mexico Open but joins exclusive club in process

When Aldrich Potgieter gets hot, almost no course is safe.

The 20-year-old PGA Tour rookie’s ability to get blistering hot was on full display on Friday during the second round at the 2025 Mexico Open at VidantaWorld. The South African prodigy went out in 29, including five straight birdies to close his front side. With three par 5s in front of him on the back nine at Vidanta Vallarta, Potgieter had a chance to shoot 59 and become the first player to shoot in the 50s on both the PGA Tour and the Korn Ferry Tour. Potgieter shot 59 in the second round of the 2024 Astara Golf Championship in Bogota, Colombia.

But history was not in the cards as Potgieter only birdied one of the three par 5s on the back nine and wound up shooting a 10-under-par 61. However, the lone par-5 birdie Potgieter carded on the back nine was impressive. He hit his drive on the 661-yard par 5 331 yards. Potgieter hit driver off the deck for his second, hitting it 323 yards to the green, which gave him 22 feet for an easy two-putt birdie.

While Potgieter did miss out on joining the PGA Tour’s 59 club, his 61 did place him on an exclusive list.

Per golf stats guru Justin Ray, Potgieter became just the fourth PGA Tour player in the last 40 years to shoot 61 or lower before the age of 21. Patrick Cantlay (60 at the 2011 Travelers Championship), Tom Kim (61 at the 2022 Wyndham Championship) and Nick Dunlap (60 at the 2024 American Express) are the others.

“Started off really good with five birdies in a row on the front nine and that helped a lot to get momentum,” Potgieter said after his round. “Made a really good chip-in for par on 10 [after driving it into the water] to keep the momentum going. I knew on the back nine there was a couple of par 5s — three par 5s that I still had available to me. I just tried to birdie those three and come up with a good score. Yeah, made some bonus birdies and didn’t birdie the par 5s, which were unfortunate. Yeah, really happy with today.”

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Potgieter missed the cut in his first two starts as a pro before popping at the Farmers Insurance Open with a third-round 67 that put him in the final group. However, Potgieter melted away on Sunday, shooting a final-round 78 to finish in a tie for 15th.

The young South African will look for a different result this weekend at Vidanta Vallarta. Potgieter knows that even if he doesn’t hold onto his four-shot lead over the weekend, a good result will be a massive boon to his chances of keeping his card.

“Last year [on the Korn Ferry Tour], I had that win early, played pretty good at the start of the year, and then disappeared a little bit. I don’t want to be in that position to be playing for my card in the last event of the year again,” Potgieter said, referencing his 29th-place finish on the KFT despite winning the Bahamas Great Abaco Classic. “Yeah, just trying to put a good result up this week and keep the momentum going forward to the other weeks.”