Saturday at the “new look” Pebble Beach Pro-Am is just not the same

Saturday at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (and its previous incarnation, the Crosby) used to be special at the namesake course, Pebble Beach Golf Links. Since it’s the weekend, there are more fans, of course, and in the original format Saturday was the day that the three-course rota brought the biggest names among the celebrity amateur players to the home course.

On Saturdays Pebble Beach Golf Links would be teeming with fans who didn’t know a driver from a wedge; they came to see the beautiful views and to spot famous faces playing golf amongst those views. The golfers among the spectators reveled in the fact that many of those stars, even with their staff bags and top-of-the-line equipment, and their memberships at high-rent private clubs like Riviera, Bel Air, and L.A. Country Club, had golf games that they could relate to. They were thrilled to see the stars, and also happy to see them display their human side on a golf course.

All of that has gone by the wayside with the transformation of this unique classic event into one of the PGA Tour’s “Signature” events. In order to create a schedule of events that concentrate more players from the upper echelons of the Tour’s membership, the eight Signature tournaments on the 2024 schedule will have bigger purses (Pebble’s went from $9 million to $20 million), with a larger percentage to the winner; smaller fields (70 – 80) drawn from the top tier of the Tour’s members; and except for three player-hosted Signature Events – the Genesis Invitational, Arnold Palmer Invitational, and Memorial Tournament – no cut.

The Tour’s leadership seem to be of the opinion that a larger number of “big names” playing for four days straight will draw more fans to the course and the TV coverage, but to my mind these events represent a watered-down product with little of the drama inherent in the make-the-cut or-go-home tournament format that we have known for years.

Not everyone is unhappy about the new format, of course (see below.) There have always been the curmudgeonly grumps (usually folks from outside the area) who complained about slow play, amateur antics (see Bill Murray…), etc., but the original format is a tradition that stretches back to 1947 – and there are plenty of us who are sorry to see it go.

Still lots to talk about…

New format aside, there was still some good-to-great golf on display today. Reigning U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark put on a show, carding two eagles, nine birdies, and a bogey on the way to a course record* 60 and the lead in the clubhouse at 17-under. Friday co-leader Ludvig Åberg, playing five holes behind Clark, was sitting at 15-under when Clark tapped in for his 60, and was in good position to challenge for the lead, as was last week’s winner of the Farmers Insurance Open, Matthieu Pavon, at 14-under through fourteen holes.

A clutch of players at 13-under – Jason Day, Mark Hubbard, Sam Burns, and another Friday co-leader, Thomas Detry; and a couple of big names at 12-under, Justin Thomas and Scottie Scheffler – could all have been said to be in the hunt for the tournament title as Clark’s ball dropped for the historic 60.

As it turned out, the third round finished with a pack on Wyndham Clark’s tail. Ludvig Åberg made only his second birdie of the back nine on #18 to close to within a stroke at 16-under; Matthieu Pavon closed out a string of six pars with a birdie on #18 for a 15-under; former San Jose State golfer Mark Hubbard birdied 18 and joined Thomas Detry at 14-under, and Scottie Scheffler birdied #18 to join Jason Day, 2023 AT&T Pro-Am champ Tom Hoge, and Justin Thomas at 13-under, T6, four strokes back. Sam Burns rounds out the top 10 alone at 12-under – and five strokes back is the most a reasonable assessor would give any chance of being able to come from behind to steal a win.

The weather, though…

High winds and significant rainfall amounts are predicted overnight into Sunday morning, and as play wound down Chief referee Gary Young came into the media center and laid out the possibilities for the tournament’s finish: Weather conditions will be evaluated overnight, and a decision on Sunday play made at 5:00 a.m. Players will be messaged at 5:15 a.m. as to whether play will proceed; wind and rain conditions will determine whether play will take place. Due to the anticipated conditions, no spectators will be allowed on the course on Sunday.

If play starts on Sunday, but the round cannot be finished, a Monday finish is in play, but ONLY if play can be concluded on Monday. Current green speeds can sustain play in winds up to ≈40 mph, but a combination of the wind and the effects of additional rain on an already soggy golf course will determine how, and when, the event is wrapped up. Sunday conditions are expected to be the most severe, so fans will be allowed on the course on Monday.

Stay tuned, folks.

* Preferred lies were in play, so…

Friday is a Power-play day at the 2022 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am

At the end of the first round of play at the 2022 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Fargo, North Dakota native Tom Hoge stood atop the leaderboard after posting a 9-under 63 at Pebble Beach Golf Links—but as anyone who is familiar with this tournament knows, not all rounds are created equal here in the Del Monte Forest.

It is generally acknowledged that of the three courses in the tournament rota—Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill, and the Shore Course at Monterey Peninsula Golf Club—Spyglass Hill, with its more severe elevation changes and coastline to forest routing, is the toughest test of golf, with Pebble and the Shore Course trading off second and third depending upon the strength and severity of the wind.

That being the case, it was generally acknowledged among the cognoscenti that Hoge’s Friday 63 at Pebble, under clear skies and in calm conditions, had to take a back seat to the 8-under 64 put up by Irishman Séamus Power at Spyglass Hill in the first round. Starting on the tenth hole, Power opened with a 3-under 33 for nine holes, opened the front nine with another birdie and caught another gear toward the end of hit round, dropping a string of birdies in the last four holes to close out the round in style.

Teeing off at #1 at Pebble Beach on Friday morning, Power kept his foot down, coming out of the gate with another 3-under 33 on the home course’s front nine, with birdies at the second, sixth, seventh, and ninth holes, marred only by a three-put bogey at #5.

The momentum from his birdie at the intimidating par-4 ninth, the centerpiece of the three-hole string of cliff-top par fours—eight, nine, and ten—that sportswriter Dan Jenkins dubbed “Abalone Corner”, carried over to the next three holes as the course turned inland. Birdies on both of the back nine’s par-fives, 14 and 18, and the par-four 16th hole, rolled back by a tough bogey from a green-side bunker on the par-three 17th, brought Power home in 31, for back-to-back 64s, 16-under for the tournament, and a new 36-hole tournament scoring record of 128.

The previous holders of the 36-hole scoring record of 129, Nick Taylor (2020) and Phil Mickelson (2005), each went on to win the tournament.

Meanwhile, a mile or two or three down the 17-Mile Drive, first-round leader Hoge was slipping off the pace a bit with a two-under 69 at the par-71 Shore Course that dropped him to second, five strokes back of Power at 11 under, after 36 holes. Andrew Putnam, who posted a 6-under 65 on the Shore Course in the first round, carded a 5-under 67 at Spyglass Hill and moved up into a tie with Hoge for second; they were joined by Canadian Adam Svensson who followed a first-round 69 at Pebble with a blistering 8-under 63 at the Shore Course.

Power’s five-stroke lead after 36 holes ties another record; former Cal golfer Charlie Wi held a five-stroke lead after 36 holes in 2012—only to lose to Phil Mickelson, and Bob Rosburg held a five-stroke lead after 36 holes in 1958, but lost to Billy Casper (Rosburg would go on to win the Pro-Am in 1961.)

A five-stroke lead is nothing to sneeze at going into the third round, but there are some players not so far behind that are capable of putting up a low score late to pounce on any potential missteps that might be made by Power, Hoge, Putnam, or Svensson. Patrick Cantlay put up a second-round 68 at Spyglass to wrap up 36 holes at 10-under, T-5, while a resurgent Jason Day followed up Thursday’s 4-under 68 at Pebble with a 5-under 66 at the Shore Course and is currently seven strokes back—but with the tougher test of Spyglass Hill to come on Saturday.

Something to consider for a look ahead to Saturday’s round is the fact that Power, who seems to be thriving under the benign conditions that have prevailed so far, and which should continue through the weekend, will be playing the easier of the three courses, MPCC’s Shore Course, while his closest competitors, Hoge and Putnam, will be at Spyglass Hill and Pebble Beach, respectively.

That’s something to look forward to for Saturday/cut day at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

Thursday at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am: Who are those guys?

It’s a recurring theme at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am: the first round goes into the books on Thursday evening, and the universal reaction to the name at the top of the leaderboard is “Who?”

Mind you, I’m not talking about the fans walking back to their shuttle buses at the end of the day, or the punters propping up the bar at the 19th Hole—I’m talking about in the media center, where some of the finest minds writing about golf today are gathered to ponder, pontificate, and promulgate their wisdom via the various forms of media, social and otherwise.

This phenomenon has been known to extend through Friday and Saturday, and even persist to the final round—who can forget Vaughn Taylor in 2016; or maybe the ultimate “Who dat?” winner, Ted Potter, Jr., the Orlando Mini-tour King, in 2018? (Potter’s win is even more remarkable when you consider the group that tied for second behind him, which included Jason Day, and multiple Pebble Beach champions Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson.)

This year’s first-round leaderboard treated fans and the media to such well-known names as Knous, Hoge, Putnam, Malnati, Lipsky, and Eckroat. You can be forgiven for thinking that this lineup sounds more like a firm of auto-accident lawyers that advertise on local cable than the top of the leaderboard at a prestigious PGA Tour event.

To be fair, the absence of most of the biggest names in PGA tour golf has left the venerable Del Monte Forest beach bash awash in lesser-known players, so the odds are good that this year’s winner could be someone with a low recognition factor.

A veritable who’s-who of men’s professional golf, most of whom could have been reliably counted upon to be in the field here at Pebble Beach, decamped to Saudi Arabia to play for a smaller purse ($5M vs $8.7M) but big appearance fees (reportedly larger, in some cases, than the winner’s share here at Pebble Beach).

The list includes five-time Pebble Beach winner Phil Mickelson; two-time winner Dustin Johnson; Graeme McDowell, the winner of the 2010 U.S. Open, held here at Pebble Beach; and sundry other golf luminaries and recognizable names such as Bryson DeChambeau, Tony Finau, Sergio Garcia, Henrik Stenson, Ian Poulter, Bubba Watson, Patrick Reed, and several more.

The biggest names in the field this week at the Clambake are Jordan Spieth, who is among the stable of players affiliated with presenting sponsor AT&T; #3-ranked Patrick Cantlay, a California kid (if SoCal…) who acknowledged, but resisted, the temptation of Saudi gelt and came to Pebble Beach this week because he loves the place; Maverick McNealy, local boy and Stanford Men’s golf star who grew up in a house on Pebble’s 16th fairway before his family moved to Hillsborough; and former World #1 Jason Day, who showed some long-missing form at the Farmer’s Insurance Open at Torrey Pines last week before fading over the closing holes of the final round.

There is an old saying that goes: “The race doesn’t always go to the swift, nor the battle to the strong—but that’s the way to bet”, so the chances are good that one of the four names I mentioned in the preceding paragraph will top the leaderboard come Sunday evening. The odds are even better that, even if none of them do top the field, one or more of them will be in the hunt on Sunday, and will end up in the Top 5 after 72 holes are played.

As far as Round One went, an 11-year pro from North Dakota by way of Texas Christian University (“Go Frogs!”) named Tom Hoge (pronounced “hoagie”, like the sandwich) topped the leaderboard after 18 holes.

Starting on the tenth hole at Pebble Beach Golf Links under clear skies in a dead calm, Hoge opened with birdies at 10 and 11, carded another at 18, and went on a six-hole birdie run on holes 3 through 8 after pars at 1 and 2. His clean-card 9-under 63 is one off of the tournament course record of 62 that is jointly held by Dave Kite (1983 – win), David Duval (1997 – runner-up), and was most recently equaled by Patrick Cantlay in last year ’s first round.

Hoge is trailed by Irishman Seamus Power, who carded an 8-under 64 at Spyglass Hill, and NorCal’s own Austin Smotherman, a native of Loomis, CA, a small town straddling Hwy 80 just east of Sacramento, who carded a 7-under 65 at Pebble Beach, more than offsetting a pair of bogeys with eagles at the par-5 sixth and eighteenth holes. Swede Jonas Blixt, who played at Spyglass Hill today, is tied with Smotherman at 7-under.

Patrick Cantlay is the highest-place of the bigger names in the field, T-5 at 6-under after his opening round at Spyglass Hill; Jason Day is T-14, 3-under at Pebble Beach; Jordan Spieth sits at T-31 after a 3-under round at MPCC, and Maverick McNealy is T-51 with a 2-under round, also at MPCC.

Don’t give up on the 2021 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am

 Circumstances have really piled it on to the 2021 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Public health restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic mean that there will be no fans allowed on the property this year. There will be no amateurs—celebrities or CEOs— playing in the event, and the resulting reduction in the size of the field means that the scenic Monterey Peninsula Country Club Shore Course will be left out of the mix, leaving just the pros to duke it out on Pebble Beach Golf Links and Spyglass Hill. Not only that, but the field is not just lacking star power of the celebrity kind; for the most part the stars of the golf world are staying away, too.

Still, for the fans watching from home—which is all of them—there are still a lot of reasons to tune in Thursday through Friday. With a polar vortex and yet another oddly named winter storm pounding much of the country east of the Rockies, the prospect of seeing golf being played on your TV set against the backdrop of the picturesque coastal scenery of the Monterey Peninsula isn’t a bad thing to look forward to.

Of course, the weather is always a consideration here in Steinbeck Country in early February—they don’t call it “Crosby Weather” for nothing—but the forecast as I am writing this is calling for a chance of rain Thursday after sundown, partly cloudy skies Friday, another chance of rain Saturday, and partly cloudy conditions again on Sunday. Compared to the deep freeze most of the country is being subjected to, this forecast is heavenly.

But who are the fans going to be seeing this week? One of the criticisms that has been leveled at this year’s event is a less-than-stellar gathering of golf talent. The tournament could initially lay claim to only one player in the Top 10 of the World Golf Rankings, World No. 1 Dustin Johnson, a two-time winner of this event; the next highest ranked players in the field were #11, Patrick Cantlay; #15, Daniel Berger; and #17, Paul Casey.

With ranking points available in the event determined by the strength of the field, and Pebble’s points running down in the low 30s, the tournament was starting to look like an opposite-field event—one of those also-ran tournaments like the Puerto Rico Open or Puntacana that are put on against a WGC event to give the “other” players something to do that weekend.

The dearth of higher-ranked players can be partially attributed to the absence of the CEOs and other high-rolling hotshots that make this tournament a top-tier networking event. Pebble has always been a draw for Tour players who are on the lookout for corporate sponsorships to carry them over those hard times when the top-ten finishes aren’t coming thick and fast. The fact that Pebble is followed in short order by the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club, an event sponsored by Tiger Woods; and a WGC event in Florida is another excuse—oh, I mean reason—that has been cited by some of the higher-ranking players for taking this week off.

And then the somewhat weak field at this year’s event got even weaker with the withdrawal of Dustin Johnson, who cited jet-lag and a need to rest after winning a European Tour event in Saudi Arabia the previous weekend. Johnson’s withdrawal dropped the OWGR points for Pebble to 30—an all-time low.

Still, there are a number of players in the field that have drawing power for even the casual golf fan. Phil Mickelson, who shares the record for most wins in the event, at five, with Mark O’Meara, will be there. Jordan Spieth, who last week in Phoenix showed some of the fire that powered him to 11 wins in his first four years on Tour, including three majors: the Masters and U.S. Open in 2015, and the Open Championship in 2017, is in the field. Former World # 1 Jason Day, who has placed T5 or better in five of his last six starts in this tournament, is back, along with 2018 Open Championship winner Francesco Molinari. Both are looking to break long-running winless streaks. Perennial fan favorite Rickie Fowler is making his first appearance in the AT&T Pro-Am since 2012.

For Bay Area golf fans the chance to see some locally familiar names is also a draw. Former Stanford Men’s Golf standouts Patrick Rodgers, Maverick McNealy, and Joseph Bramlett are in the field, along with former Cal players Max Homa, and James Hahn, and San Jose State Men’s Golf alum Mark Hubbard.

It’s been a tough year since the previous AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, but I trust that the event that has weathered World War II, hail storms, tornados, and even a snow delay in 1962, will still put on a great show for golf fans this week.

Day One of the PGA Championship was a tale of two waves

The first round of the 2020 PGA Championship was a tale of two waves—and despite the proximity to the ocean of Harding Park, the San Francisco muni that is hosting this strange golf season’s first major, it wasn’t Pacific Ocean waves lapping at the shore that shaped today’s results, but the weather affecting the morning and afternoon starting waves, and who got to play when.

Australia’s Jason Day, though not much mentioned in the runup to this week’s PGA Championship, is co-leader after the first round, at 5-under 65. (Image © 2020 Darren Carroll/PGA of America)

Golf, being an outdoor game, is at the mercy of the elements, and never more so that when it is played near the ocean. In Northern California that can mean fog, overcast, blowing mist, or just plain wind, and while that famous line likening summer in San Francisco to a harsh winter was not actually written by Mark Twain, it has certainly persisted because there is so much truth in it.

The players in the field this week saw the accustomed mist and chilly weather; long sleeves, knit hats, and even rain gear (for warmth) were in evidence during practice rounds early in the week,  but players who went out in the morning wave on the first day of competitive rounds were greeted by high overcast, milder-than-expected temperatures, and virtually no wind. 

The friendly conditions for the morning rounds resulted in a spate of low scores, despite the lush rough and tightened fairways of the course’s championship setup. The absence of wind made it easier for players to hit those narrow fairways, and soft(ish), receptive greens meant that even fliers out of the sticky rough—a mixture of Poa annua, bermuda, and rye grass—stood a good chance of holding the putting surface.

Conditions changed for the afternoon wave, and though the later rounds were played under clear or only partially cloudy skies, the westerly winds that are usual in the afternoon on San Francisco’s west side made all the difference. Building steadily and gusting to 20+ mph by the late afternoon, the windy conditions made hitting greens a chancy proposition, as well as drying and firming up the putting surfaces.

The difference in conditions resulted in a scoring differential of nearly a full stroke from morning to afternoon, though the first-round co-leaders, Australia’s Jason Day, the 2015 PGA champion, and Brendon Todd, of Athens, Georgia, came from each group; Day playing in the morning and Todd in the afternoon wave. Day and Todd, each finishing with 5-under 65s, are followed by a group of nine players at 4-under—a group that includes defending PGA champion Brooks Koepka and 2010 PGA champ Martin Kaymer; and another eight who are two strokes back, at 3-under. Tiger Woods, who could tie Jack Nicklaus and Walter Hagen for the all-time PGA Championship victory record, at five, with a win this week, came in at 2-under.

With Friday’s forecast looking much the same as today’s, the tide will turn, and Thursday’s morning-wave players, though benefitting from a longer rest period and a chance to sleep in, will have their turn playing in the windy afternoon conditions. Today’s afternoon wave will be up at the crack of dawn on Friday, but if the golf gods smile upon them, they will get their chance to work the course in the mild, calm conditions that today’s early wave enjoyed.

However the conditions turn out, it is certain that golf fans, who have been spoiling for major-championship golf since April, will see another full day of exciting play on one of the Bay Area’s best-known and best-loved golf courses, highlighted by the beautiful views afforded by the broadcast’s camera-drones and the ubiquitous Goodyear blimp.

Saturday at the AT&T Pro-Am is two days in one

The unique format of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, which is played on three golf courses, dictates a major difference between this event and your standard, week-to-week Tour event: Saturday becomes cut day and moving day in one. Factor in the differences in level of difficulty between the courses – weather being equal, hardest to easiest: Spyglass Hill, Pebble, MPCC; and throw in the fact that Pebble is more likely to get windy, and is more affected by the wind, and Saturday becomes a real crap-shoot when it comes to predicting how the field will shake out at the end of the day on Saturday.

One could have been excused, then, for being only cautiously optimistic about 36-hole leader Nick Taylor’s chances of retaining the lead after 54 holes, with similar caution applied to Jason Day’s second-place position – each played MPCC and Pebble over the first two days in pristine conditions, and Spyglass Hill on Saturday. Phil Mickelson, who closed out 36 holes in solo third place, got there by way of Spyglass and MPCC, in that order, landing that sweet pick that puts him on Pebble for back-to-back rounds on Saturday and Sunday.

A third round at Spyglass has quashed more than one player’s chances over the years, but neither Day nor Taylor showed any signs of being slowed down by the Robert Trent Jones course about which Jack Nicklaus famously said, “…it makes you want to go fishing.”

Starting on the par-4 tenth hole at Spyglass, Taylor faltered early with an opening bogey and another at #13, a 460-yard par 4 that is the #1 handicap hole on the course, but recovered quickly with birdies at the 17th, second, and fifth holes, then put a little distance between himself and his big-name pursuers with an eagle-3 on the 549-yard par-five seventh hole. The Winnipeg native brought it to the house with a 3-under third round for a 17-under 54-hole total, which turned out to be good enough to retain his lead going into the final round.

Jason Day slipped back slightly while finishing at Spyglass Hill, carding a two-under 70, offsetting four birdies with two bogeys. He finished his Saturday in solo third at 14-under after having held a share of the lead earlier in the day.

Meanwhile, over at Pebble Beach, Phil Mickelson was being Phil, opening his round with a pair of birdies at holes one and two, then notching another bird at the par-5 sixth hole. Despite its daunting aspect, with a second shot that has to negotiate a looming cliff for a blind approach shot, has played easier than any other hole on the course in this year’s tournament.

The real “Phil-the Thrill” fireworks began at the next hole, the world-famous seventh, a jewel-like par-3 perched out on the tip of Arrowhead Point. His frankly mediocre tee shot caromed off the more-than-usually-firm putting surface into a fried-egg lie in the back bunker. Squaring up with a wedge, Mickelson hit a low pitch shot that would have run well past the flag if it hadn’t checked in the rough short of the green; instead, it pulled up at kick-in range for a par save that people will be talking about for quite a while.

After three pars to close out the front nine at 33, Mickelson continued with pars at 10 and 11 before making a slight misstep at the par-3 twelfth, landing in the front bunker, wedging out and two-putting for bogey.

At 13, the recently renovated 407-yard par-4, his tee shot went wide left, his second landed in the left-front bunker, followed by a highlight-reel chip-in for birdie. Similar drama followed at the next hole, the intimidating 582-yard par-5 fourteenth. Wide left off the tee – again, Mickelson’s second found the fairway some 90 yards short of the green. Coming up short when his approach checked up short of the flag and rolled back to below the false front of the green, his fourth, a back-foot chip-and-run drew a beeline for the hole, rattling the flagstick to drop in for his second consecutive birdie.

After par out of a left-of-the-fairway bunker on the fifteenth hole, a routine par at the sixteenth and a disappointing two-putt par from nine feet at the second most famous par-three on the course, #17, Phil found trouble right (for a change) with his second shot at the eighteenth hole.

After getting relief from an obstruction in the wood chips right of the green, he fired a skyhook flop shot that rolled past the hole by inches; he then drained the 4-1/2-foot putt for another birdie. After hitting nine of fourteen fairways, nine of eighteen greens and only 22 putts, Mickelson closed with a 5-under 67 to finish in solo second at 16 under.

Today’s round puts Mickelson in great shape to renew his oldest-winner title, and to share the back-to-back winner title with Sam Snead (1937, 1938), Jack Nicklaus (1972, 1973), Tom Watson (19777, 1978), Mark O’Meara (1989, 1990), and Dustin Johnson (2009, 2010). Most significantly, a win on Sunday will put Mickelson in sole possession of the “Most Wins in the AT&T Pro-am” title.

Mickelson and his amateur partner, former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Steve Young, are second in the Pro-Am contest going into the final round, behind Kevin Streelman and his amateur partner, Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald. They will tee off with third-round leader Nick Taylor and amateur partner Jerry Tarde, editor-in-chief of Golf Digest magazine, Sunday morning at Pebble Beach.

Friday at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am – Big Names, Big Moves

Friday at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am is different than Friday at almost any other PGA Tour event, and it’s not just about the amateurs in the field, a mix of high-powered business folks and figures from the entertainment world. What sets Friday at the AT&T apart can be seen from the official leaderboard – there’s no cut line.

Having three courses in the tournament rota means that the cut comes after three days of play, so that every pairing plays each course. Of course, a three-day cut means there is only one day left to make a move up the leaderboard – so, the golf gods giveth and the golf gods taketh away.

The upside of this format is the opportunity to play a bucket-list lineup of Monterey Peninsula golf courses – Spyglass Hill, the Shore Course at Monterey Peninsula Country Club, and, of course, Pebble Beach, with the added treat of playing Pebble again on Sunday if you make the cut.

The downside of the format is… well, when the weather is as nice as it has been this week, there is no downside.

While Friday at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am doesn’t have the cutline pressure of a standard tournament, some well-known names made big moves up the leaderboard today regardless.

Phil Mickelson, who already holds one record at the event – oldest champion, from his 2019 win at age 48; and co-holds another – most victories, at five, which he shares with Mark O’Meara, posted a seven under 64 at MPCC to move up nine places into solo third place after 36 holes. Mickelson went out in four-under 33, starting on the tenth hole of the Shore Course, and opened his second nine with a four-birdie run, only to stumble at the close with a bogey on his last hole, the par-three 9th.

Jason Day, who has been flying under the radar in recent years with health problems and personal issues, made his move – ten places, to solo second – playing at Pebble Beach today.

“I love everything about Pebble and the landscape that all  three courses are on. The people are great up here, so I    really enjoy my time every time I come back here.”

– Jason Day

After a first-round 67 at MPCC, Day carded an eight-under round today at Pebble Beach on the strength of six birdies, and an eagle on the long par-five 14th hole, where he chipped in from the apron short of the green. With the eagle on 14, and three birdies, the former World #1 romped to a five-under 31 on Pebble’s back nine. His eight-under 64 equals his best tournament round on the course.

Two-time (2009 & 2010) AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am champion Dustin Johnson jumped 18 places up the leaderboard to T6 with a six under 65 at MPCC; an unfortunate bogey on his last hole, the par-three ninth, dropped him out of a potential T4 finish.

Canadian Nick Taylor posted a 6-under 66 playing at Pebble Beach today, and will sleep on a 36-hole lead.