Pebble Beach Golf Links, and indeed all of the Monterey Peninsula, on and off the three golf courses where the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am is taking place this week, is utterly spectacular in bright, sunny weather. In gloomy, overcast weather like today, with a little bit of light rain and drizzle thrown in, it takes on an entirely different aspect—calm, quiet, and conducive to introspection and deep thoughts.
OK, enough of that—let’s talk about golf.
Today’s light rain and drizzle—though it led PGA Tour officials to launch a preemptive strike and call for “lift, clean, and place” for the first three rounds, despite Thursday being mostly clear and dry—did not impede play at any of the tournament’s three courses: Pebble Beach Golf Links, Spyglass Hill, and MPCC Shore. The 8:30 opening tee times went off without a hitch at all three, and play was never stopped or delayed over the course of the day.
The stiff onshore breeze that was bending the flagstick on Pebble’s shore-hugging 18th hole late Thursday afternoon died down overnight; only a moderate surf breaking against the rocks at the water’s edge broke the calm.
First-round leader Hank Lebioda, who opened with an 8-under 63 at MPCC Shore on Thursday, started his morning with a birdie at the daunting par-four 10th hole at Pebble Beach, solidifying his lead, while a posse of other players, including Chico, California’s Kurt Kitayama, Harry Higgs, and England’s Justin Rose, moved up to 8-under.
Rose, playing at Spyglass Hill, went out in 32 on the back nine, on the strength of two birdies and an ace—at the par-three 15th hole—with another birdie, at the 3rd hole, pulling him to within a shot of the leader, but two late bogeys dropped him to 6-under and T-11. Harry Higgs carded two birdies and an eagle, at Pebble’s par-four 4th hole, with a bogey at the par-five 6th—after excursions to the left rough, the right rough, and a right greenside bunker—marring his card, also dropping to 6-under and T-11.
The wind came up after lunch, most noticeably at Pebble Beach, but it appeared not to faze Kitayama, who closed his second round at the 9th hole, a tough cliffside par-four, after rolling in a birdie at #8 to tie Lebioda at 9-under.
After moving to 10-under and the solo lead earlier in the day after a birdie at #2, the shortish par-five which has played the easiest today relative to par, Lebioda dropped back to 8-under with a double-bogey 5 at the fifth hole. Designed by Jack Nicklaus and put into play in 1998, number 5 is a deceptively difficult par-three that is playing second-toughest in the tournament to date with an average score of 3.58. Recovering one of his lost strokes with a birdie at the long, intimidating par-five 6th hole, a bogey at #9 dropped Lebioda to 8-under, T2.
With that slip by Lebioda, Kurt Kitayama inherited the lead going into the weekend.
Kitayama’s lead headlines a strong halfway-point showing by NorCal golfers. San José native and Stanford Men’s Golf alum Joseph Bramlett went around the Shore Course at Monterey Peninsula Country Club in 4-under 67 today to close the day at 8-under, T-2; Brandon Wu, another Stanford Men’s Golf alum and a native of Danville, joined Bramlett at T-2 after completing his second round, also at MPCC Shore.
Martin Trainer of Palo Alto sits T-12 at 6-under; Maverick McNealy, who narrowly missed a win in this tournament two years ago, sits at 1-under after two rounds, T-57, as does Nick Watney of Davis. UCLA graduate Kevin Chappell, a native of Fresno, is even par going into the third round, and James Hahn of Alameda is at 3-over. Hahn, who notched his first win at the 2015 Northern Trust Open at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, recovered from a 6-over first round at Spyglass Hill with a 3-under 69 at MPCC Shore today.
Tomorrow’s forecast is showing rain, with high winds in the afternoon prompting a one-hour bump in the starting tee times. First balls will be in the air at 7:30 a.m. at the tournament’s three courses, in hopes of concluding play before the worst weather moves in.
No comments:
Post a Comment