When a golfer shoots a 58 and someone else IN THE SAME foursome grabs a portion of the headline (What did the other guy do, drive with a fishing pole?), you know it was truly one of the most unbelievable rounds since a three-wood was truly made out of wood.

Justin Otto fired the 13-under-par score at the Llano River Course, and playing-partner Casey Landers made a hole-in-one on the 17th hole.

The Otto File: Began playing in 1991 at the not-very-young age of 21; moved to Llano in 2001; has battled his way around the Tight Lies Tour, the Adams Golf Pro Series, and the Canadian Tour, plus he’s competed in the Denver and Colorado Opens, the Texas and San Antonio Opens. He won in San Antonio in 2005. He’s had glimpses of the Nationwide tour, which is one rung below the hallowed PGA cathedrals.

“I’ve always been competitive,” Otto relates, “and when you start playing golf, you either love it or hate it, and I loved it.” Sure is a tad less dangerous than motocross racing which was his final athletic link to attacking the links.

On the first hole in Llano on this historic April 8, Otto used an eight-iron for his second shot on the 492-yard par five. He got to within 12-15 feet and made the eagle putt. His seven-iron on the 162-yard par three second was 10 feet from the cup and he nailed that for a birdie. A par four followed, so after three holes, Otto’s nine strokes found him three under par.

“Since I didn’t start playing at a young age, it’s not second nature for me,” Otto advises his listener, “so I have to chip a lot and putt a lot and play a lot; I have to work extra hard at the game.”

On the fourth hole, Justin made a 25-footer, his longest putt of the day. This was good for a birdie three. He stumbled once in the round, and it came on the 212-yard, par-three fifth. His seven-iron missed the green, and his six-foot putt failed to drop.

Otto shook that off with a birdie four at six that was almost an eagle. He made his par at seven with his third consecutive four--this “nasty” string would not be repeated the rest of the day.

“Whatever I make in one tournament,” Otto says, “it goes to help pay the bills so I can play again. It’s tough, and I owe a lot to my dad (Harold) for the faith he has in my chances to succeed.”

No golfer needs to take a quiz on the challenges which come with every club selection. Curtis Strange won the 1988 and ‘89 U.S. Opens and never claimed another PGA event; Colin Montgomerie is a star in Europe, but he’s never won here, and he’s never captured the British Open. David Duval DID win the British, and so did Ian Baker-Finch, but what happened to their games?

Back on the river, Justin Otto got birdie threes on the eighth and ninth holes to complete the front side with a magnificent score of 30, six under par. He’d have to go six under on the back to break 60, a number he has carded twice in Llano and once in Grand Junction, Colorado.

Otto’s swing incorporates a loop at the top that resembles the quirky, outside-to-inside routing Jim Furyk employs. Furyk won the 2003 U.S. Open.

The man we’re following settled for a par four at ten when he missed a 15-foot putt, but he rebounded by making a putt of that length on the par-three 11th. He was seven under with seven holes left, and he had to go five under on the rest of the landscape to paint a Mona Lisa like 59. Remember when Al Geiberger did it in Memphis in a PGA tournament in 1977? It has been matched since but never broken on the Tour.

“You don’t ever want to think about a 59,” Otto disclosed. “You try and block it out. Did I tell you I wasn’t even going to play this round? I didn’t have my golf shoes, so I used Nike running shoes.” What else are we going to learn--that he used just four clubs and a baseball bat?

A good drive was necessary at the par-four, 346-yard, 12th hole, and Otto hit it real well: just short of the green. He chipped up and got his birdie. He had now gone 3-3-4-2-3 the last five holes, and he admitted he was NOW thinking “59.” Of course this meant he struggled at 13, but he got his par four. The man chasing greatness was eight under, and a superb stretch was just ahead.

“When you have rounds like this, you just try to stay out of your own way. You just try and let good things happen naturally.”

And did they ever. Otto scorched his drive on the 337-yard, par-four 14th, 30 yards shy of the putting surface. He chipped to within six feet and got his three. The signature moment may have come at 15 when he needed just a six-iron for his second shot on the 446-yard, par five.

It landed six feet beyond the hole, and he knocked in the tricky, downhill, left-to-right putt.

Three holes awaited, and Justin Otto was 11-under par. He needed one more birdie and a pair of pars to break 60.

“I had birdied these holes before in a round,” Otto observed, “so I said to myself, ‘let’s do it again.’”

He used a three-iron off the tee of the par-four 16th, and the drive left him with 143 yards to the pin. His nine-iron shot landed within five feet. “I knew I had to make it, and it went right in the middle of the hole; that took off a lot of pressure.” Otto was two pars away from the magical score.

Llano River Course greenskeeper and assistant pro, Casey Landers, was on his way to a pretty fine 66, and he took out a nine-iron on the 164-yard, par-three 17th hole. His ball landed safely on the green and rolled down a hill. Its final destination was unknown to the foursome which included Gary Gatliff and Steve Griffin.

Otto’s mission was just to get a three; his eight- iron was also a fine shot, but again, no one knew where it had concluded its journey. The golfers knew one, or maybe both, (are you KIDDING me?) had made an ace.

Landers became more than a footnote to the story when it was discovered Otto's ball was on the green, and Landers’ was “missing.” It was in the cup, and the 1994 Llano High School graduate had the fourth hole-in-one of his life. “It was plenty exciting,” Landers said, “so I started calling people,” and he also mentioned, on his cell, “by the way, Justin is shooting lights out.”

Otto got his birdie two, so all he had done is play holes 14 through 17 in 11 strokes, five below par. A bogey at 18, for goodnesssakes, would give him the 59.

That didn’t happen. In fact he almost got another birdie, but he missed a 10-foot putt. The par four meant he had shot a 30-28 for a 58, the first-ever-below-60 round in the Llano River Course’s history.

Birdies and Better: Otto’s round was a collection of two eagles, 10 birdies, five pars and one bogey. There are three twos on the scorecard, eight threes and seven fours. Between the eighth and 17th holes, he made seven birdies and an eagle.

Gatliff also fired a 66, and Steve Griffin’s not-too-shabby 73 was beaten by a cumulative 29 strokes!

“I have nothing but confidence,” Otto says about his game, “and I feel I get better every year. This is already in the past, though; I have to concentrate on what’s in front of me--that’s what athletes do. I feel very fortunate to have shot a 58; I put a lot of hard work into my game.”