The ball isn't spinning on these wet greens. These guys are getting killed thinking the ball will bite like normal on pitches.
That was truly some of the worst Sunday golf I've ever seen from a final threesome - and it was Fowler, Kuchar and Thomas, not a bunch of scrubs. I know conditions were dodgy, but these guys were missing big greens with short irons. Re: Fowler's triple-bogey, after he chipped into the water, he went straight to the point of entry and didn't even consider replaying the same shot (with a stroke-and-distance penalty). That's always an option, and apart from the psychological burden of having to replay a shot you just hit into the water, surely that was an easier chip than the one he left himself over the bunker, with no green to work with. And of course there's no way the "at rest" ball would have rolled into the water, not that he would have (or should have) factored that into his thinking. Sometimes I don't think the pros even realize the stroke-and-distance option is available to them.
There wasn’t any video of Sergio damaging the greens that resulted in his DQ, but here he is the day before losing his mind in the bunker.
Gonna be a sloppy, cold, damp week at Pebble. High for the week might be low 50's . It has been raining for much of the last week, continuing today. With a break, and then a couple more bouts of rain during the tournament. I don't think they'll have the near hurricane force winds they had at times late last week (78 MPH) Heck if the radar is to believed its been snowing a bit south down in Big Sur today.
Pretty awesome story about Gretzky's "Gordie Howe" putter: https://www.pgatour.com/equipmentre...die-howe-putter-at-t-pebble-beach-pro-am.html
Neat putter, must be from the peak Cameron era if it’s light too. You can just barely see the lead tape DJ put on the sole in one of the photos. In other famous putter news: apparently Tony Romo has Tiger’s old Nike Method gamer in his bag. If I’m mathing correctly that thing rolled 8 tour wins and around $15M in earnings. It’s not the Newport or TeI3 but still a nice little collectible.
In other Romo news, he almost holed out from the patio on of a hospitality tent. Put it to 3 inches for his 3rd straight birdie.
Former Masters Champ Mike Weir is down in Panama with Rob, where it he’ll at least make the cut after shooting 66-73. Weir is now ranked #1702 in the world. Looks like he didn’t get a sponsor’s invite to Pebble, which he had played 21 years straight prior to this week.
I'm just bitching. I knew picking him 1st was stupid, but I wanted to root for him. But only one start so far this year and tempering my happiness.
Something is up with his swing/back... he's hitting 3/4 punches on everything now. Meanwhile Phil is asking to be able to finish in the dark.
I don’t blame Casey either. Surprised he had the stones to shut it down when Phil wanted to continue.
Yeah they both actually handled it well in the interviews. Both were right from their perspective and Phil admitted Casey made the right call from Casey’s POV.
Haven’t seen that side of Phil, was fantastic. Agree they both were in the right, fun to watch it unfold.
COme on , everyone wants to get up on a cold raw morning, and walk right on to the tee at 17 then 18 at Pebble. A couple nice lose and easy tee shots there
I wonder if Gary McCord got to go home last night, given that play is done at the 16th - and given that he was openly lobbying to be able to leave last night during the broadcast.
It's worth mentioning that every other group finished. Now, I'm not sure who caused them to be out of position, but if Phil is three up on 18 when the horn sounds, they finish. Given the unique nature of this tournament, it's entirely possible that the amateur partners were the reason for the slow play. I'm still surprised that no one pointed out how far behind they were.
I’m not sure they were out of position. I believe the group ahead of Phil finished after the horn blew. 17 is a par 3. My guess is while Phil’s group was finishing on 16 and deciding what to do, the group ahead of them was finishing on 17 and they ran someone to 18 to put a ball in play before the horn blew giving them the opportunity to finish.
It became noticeable to me on 11 (I think) so they had been out of position for some time when the horn went. Again, I’m not making the comment to skewer Phil. (Especially because I think Casey was the culprit, as he needed a couple of rulings.) But I stopped watching minutes before the horn sounded and I had been wondering for a while if/when it was going to be mentioned that they were out of position. Edit: You do make a good point, which is that if the group ahead of them has just teed off 18, they weren’t finishing in any case. So maybe just one of those things.
Scott Piercy in the last finishing group 3 putted 18 from the back fringe in the pitch dark, giving Max Homa a back door top ten and a spot in next week’s Genesis.
Phil with a tap in for par on 17, 2 solid shots on 18 and has a wedge into the 18th green with a 3 shot lead for the win. This certainly won't reduce any hype for him going after the US Open title.
You're right that it won't...but any similarities between AT&T Pebble in February and USGA Pebble in June are purely geographical. (Just to give one obvious example: the drive Phil hit at #10 yesterday would have bounced maybe twice and disappeared over the cliff under normal conditions in a California summer, let alone US Open conditions.)