Chico’s Kurt Kitayama leads after two rounds at AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am

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.

Journeyman Ted Potter, Jr. stares down past champions to take AT&T Pro-Am title

At the close of play Saturday at the 2018 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am the scene was set for a Jack-the-Giant-Killer scenario – World #1 Dustin Johnson, a two-time winner in this event, in 2009 and 2010, surged to the top of the leaderboard with a 64 at Pebble Beach, but a few miles away, past the Lone Cypress, around the curve of Cypress Point along 17-Mile Drive, Ted Potter, Jr. was making some magic happen at Monterey Peninsula Country Club, carding a 9-under 62 to jump up onto the top step with DJ for Sunday’s final round.

2018 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am winner Ted Potter Jr. speaks to the media after holding off a pack of higher-ranked pursuers to collect his second PGA Tour win.  (photo by author)

Opening with a 6-under 30 on MPCC’s back nine, Potter bid fair to do the same on the front side, but after a bogey-bogey stumble at the last two holes he had to settle for 9-under 62 and a share of the tournament lead going into Sunday’s final round.

Ted who?

They say that even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while. Sunday at Pebble Beach Potter, a one-time “Central Florida mini-tour legend”, did just that. He has five Top 10 finishes in 84 PGA Tour starts, including a win at the 2012 Greenbrier Classic. Take out that 2012 win and his average PGA Tour paycheck is $22,000. For this win his paycheck is $1,332,000.

After a near record-breaking performance Saturday at MPCC, the 34-year-old from Ocala, Florida, who last played in a final group on Sunday in 2011, in the Web.com Tour’s Soboba Classic, came out swinging on Sunday morning with four birdies and a bogey in the first seven holes, while co-leader Johnson stuttered his way through the same stretch at 1-under.

DJ made another bogey at the wicked-hard par-4 eighth hole after his second shot found the bunker behind the green, dropping him to T-3 alongside Troy Merritt, as Chez Reavie moved past him into solo second with birdies at 8 and 9.

Meanwhile, Ted Potter Jr. was waltzing through the latter stages of the biggest finish of his pro-golf career like it was one of the Central Florida mini-tour events he used to dominate. A nerveless par from a scary spot above the hole on #11, the worst position on the slipperiest green on the course, was typical of his play to that point.

With a pack that included Phil Mickelson, Chez Reavie, Kevin Streelman, Dustin Johnson, Troy Merritt, and Jason Day in pursuit, Potter – the “Ocala mini-tour legend” – coasted in while the #1 player in the world, a former #1, and a host of much higher-ranked players tripped over themselves in a vain attempt to chase down the 246th-ranked player in the world.

All efforts came to naught, however, as the field trailed the mini-tour legend from Central Florida to the finish. Phil Mickelson’s 67 fell three shots short, as did Chez Reavie’s 68.

Jason Day made a dramatic effort with driver off the deck for his second shot at #18, only to see the ball ricochet off the seawall left of the fairway, leaving him a third shot from the eponymous pebble beach behind the scoreboard. He knocked that one over the green into the front bunker, chipped out and made a 17-foot putt for what was probably the least likely par in the history of the 18th hole at Pebble Beach. Day closed with 70 to join Mickelson, Reavie, and Johnson in a tie for second place.

Potter played the final hole with two fairway woods, and a 9-iron to 14 feet, lagging to two inches from there and tapping in for a 69 on the day, 17-under for the tournament, and a three-stroke win.

The win jumps Potter from 117th to 15th in the FedEx Cup rankings, and earns him a two-year exemption on the PGA Tour and an invitation to the Masters.

“(My goals for the year) will definitely have to change now,” Potter said in a post-round interview. “I’m just happy to be where I am right now.”

NorCal player results

Among players with a Northern California association, Fresno’s Kevin Chappell and former Stanford Men’s Golf star Patrick Rodgers brought home the best result, T-8. Chappell posted a 5-under 67, with three birdies in his first nine, and two bogeys bookending four birdies in his final nine, for his best finish in this event since 2009, when he was T-6; Rodgers closed with a 1-over 73.

Walnut Creek’s Brandon Haskins made the biggest move of the day, closing with a 6-under 66 that rocketed him 45 spots up the leaderboard to finish T-15.

James Hahn of Alameda fired a 4-under 68 to close out the tournament at 7-under, T-26 – a 33-spot move up the leaderboard. Sacramento’s Nick Watney carded an even-par 72 to close at 4-under for a T-47 finish.

Bryson DeChambeau struggled to a 3-over 75 for a final score of 3-under and a T-55 finish. Stockton’s Ricky Barnes finished T-62, at 2-under.

2018 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am: Big charge in final holes pays off for Fresno’s Kevin Chappell

It’s an acknowledged fact that things start getting serious at Pebble Beach Golf Links when you are on the ocean holes – four through ten, seventeen and eighteen. Kevin Chappell, a 10-year pro from Fresno, California, felt the bite of those seaside holes in Saturday’s third round, when a double-bogey on #4, the scenic par-4 fronting Stillwater Cove, put his chances of making the cut in jeopardy.

Kevin Chappell sinks a birdie putt on the 6th hole at Pebble Beach Golf Links in the third round of the 2018 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the first in a string of four birdies that cemented his advancement to the final round.

Chappell came into the third round 2-under, and after starting on #10, improved to 3-under with a birdie at #14, the long par-5 with a dining-room-table sized green, in the midst of a string of pars. A tough three-putt bogey at the first hole dropped him back to 2-under before getting the stroke back with a birdie at #2, another par-5.

After a par at #3, Chappell found a left-side fairway bunker off the tee at #4, then overshot the green with his second, leading to a penalty and a drop in the native area behind a bunker. A chip from the long grass and two putts added up to six, and all of a sudden he was in the hole with a lot of territory to make up as the cut hovered around at 3- or 4-under.

After parring the picturesque par-3 fifth hole, Chappell faced a tough closing stretch, six through nine. His second shot ran through the green, but a delicate chip to 18 inches and a birdie putt started him off right. A tight approach at #7, the iconic short par-3 on the very tip of Arrowhead Point, led to another birdie – back to red numbers for the round and 3-under for the tournament.

Number eight, the dramatic cliffside par-4 which Jack Nicklaus calls “the greatest second shot in golf”, saw Chappell above the hole with a short, but testy, downhill putt – never a comfortable proposition at Pebble Beach. The ball slid in for another birdie, getting him over the line to play on Sunday – tough work over three unforgiving golf holes.

With Sunday play fairly well in hand, Chappell took on the toughest par-4 on the course, the most difficult hole in the stretch that golf scribe Dan Jenkins calls “Abalone Corner” – 7 through 10. Smoking a 345-yard drive to great position right of center in the fairway, he stiffed his 141-yard second shot to a yard above the hole, sinking the birdie putt with (apparent) casual aplomb to add a bit of cushion to his bid for Sunday play.

By the time the final scores were in the cut stood at 3-under, and Chappell was in for Sunday with a two-stroke cushion.

Chappell has made the cut six times now in nine appearances at Pebble Beach. The UCLA graduate’s best finish in the event is a T-6 in 2009, his first appearance in the tournament. That finish was a big boost, he says, due in large part to the financial freedom it gave him. “It allowed me to go chasing Monday qualifiers out here; I ended up getting status on the Web.com (Tour) through those Monday qualifiers, and the next year I parlayed that into a Tour card.”

Chappell will tee off Sunday morning at 7:45, again from #10 tee, in a group with Sam Saunders (Arnold Palmer’s grandson) and his amateur partner Brian Ferris, and 2015 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am champion Brandt Snedeker.