Despite the best efforts of the PGA Tour in bumping tee times up by an hour in the face of forecast high winds, Mother Nature took the wheel today at the 2023 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, as increasing winds led to a weather delay being called just after 12 o’clock. Conditions didn’t improve (not that any of the old Crosby hands expected them to…) and play was called at 2:30 p.m.
The current plans announced by the PGA Tour are to return Sunday morning at 8:00 to finish the third round, with final-round play expected to start at 12:30. Amateurs are not required to return for the completion of Round 3 (but are welcome to, if they choose), and only the pros will be playing in the final round. A pro-am champ will be announced after the completion of 54 holes. With the amateurs being excised from the field for the final round the cut will move to the Tour’s normal 65 and ties, from this event’s usual 60 and ties when the pro-am teams are competing.
Chief Referee Gary Young explained that the delay was predicated upon conditions experienced at holes 9 and 15 at MPCC Shore, where the exposed conditions led to instances of unacceptable ball movement on the greens. In multi-course events of this type, every effort is made to maintain identical playing conditions at each course for each round. A minor relocation of a hole, of no more than a yard or so, can be made if necessary, but conditions at MPCC were such that the amount of change in the hole locations that would have been required to mitigate the situation was deemed to be unacceptable.
Before the weather moved in with a vengeance, Saturday morning had gotten off to a good start for NorCal golf fans, as overnight leader Kurt Kitayama of Chico was quickly joined at the top of the leaderboard by two fellow Northern Californians, and Stanford Men’s Golf alums, Joseph Bramlett, of San José, and Brandon Wu, of Danville. Bramlett and Wu played at Pebble Beach Golf Links today, while Kitayama was at Spyglass Hill.
Wu quickly stepped up to the solo lead with a birdie at his fifth hole of the morning, Pebble’s long par-four 14th, and was joined there minutes later by Bramlett, who rolled in a 32-foot birdie putt at the Jack Nicklaus-designed par-three 5th hole.
Bogeys in tough, windy conditions at holes 9 and 10 (#9 is playing hardest today, at nearly half a shot over par) dropped Bramlett back to 9-under, but he got one of those shots back at #11, a strategic uphill par 4 that takes the course routing away from the ocean. He had this to say about the weather conditions after play was suspended:
“Just one of those days. You take it as it comes. We got to play Pebble Beach, so it was a blessing in that regard. But the weather was wild. It was fairly calm for maybe our first seven, eight holes. Then when we got to nine it started blowing and then it’s survival mode.
Q. What are the biggest challenges with the wind? How difficult was it?
“It’s just trying to predict what the ball’s going to do. I had 136 yards to the pin on No. 9 and I hit a full 8-iron short of the green. Then I had 210 yards up the hill on 14 and I airmailed the green with an 8-iron. So it’s a guessing game.”
Bramlett had completed 13 holes and was over the green at 14 when play was suspended, and had returned to 10-under and T-2 after going bogey-birdie at holes 12 and 13.
In the meantime, Kurt Kitayama was back at 9-under, T-4, through nine holes at Spyglass Hill, and Brandon Wu had slipped back to 8-under, T-6, after completing 13 holes at Pebble. The remaining NorCal players in the field are Kevin Chappell, T-63 at 1-under; James Hahn, T-88 at 1-over; Nick Watney, T-101 at 2-over. Maverick McNealy has withdrawn from the tournament.
Wind, rain, and even sleet and snow are not unknown at this event. The 1962 tournament was delayed by snow; in 2019 a brief but intense squall blanketed the greens with sleet, and windy conditions have plagued the Peninsula courses may times over the years—it’s all part of the heritage of what locals still call “the Crosby”.
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