Matt Wallace fires nine birdies in a row in stunning 60 at DP World Tour Championship

Matt Wallace said he was not even aware he had had a chance to break 60 until marking his ball a foot from the hole at the culmination of an extraordinary third round at the DP World Tour Championship.

His bunker shot, which shaved the edge of the hole, had been the 59th stroke of sensational day for the Englishman at Jumeirah Golf Estates.

He birdied every hole of the back nine, finishing on 12-under for the day. It gave him the clubhouse lead at 16-under and a shot at winning the tour’s season finale for the first time on Sunday.

“I knew the last was for nine [birdies] in a row,” Wallace said. “If I’d known it was for 59 I think it would have chanelled me in a little bit more.

“I honestly didn’t know. I marked my ball and looked at the leaderboard and thought, ‘Hold up, I’m at 11-under so that would have been 13. That was for a 59? Oh well.’”

What a difference a week makes. Seven days earlier, Wallace had seemingly played himself out of even competing at the Earth Course this week.

A 5-over-par 77 in the third round at the Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa had him tumbling down the Race to Dubai rankings, only for him to repair the damage just in time, by shooting 10 shots better a day later.

His tied-15th finish at that event meant he sneaked into the 50-player field for the DP World Tour Championship. It has also allowed him to make history: no other player has birdied every hole of a front or back nine on the European Tour.

“I had to shoot 5-under the next day in tough conditions round that golf course which is tough, just to even get here,” Wallace said of his experience at the Nedbank.

“Now we are here and in with a chance of lifting the big one, this one. It is brilliant. I needed something like that to get