Comparisons of Tiger Woods’ recent crash to Ben Hogan’s 1949 crash are inevitable, but flawed

Not long after I first heard about Tiger Woods’ recent car crash, I began to dread the inevitable comparisons to Ben Hogan’s well-known crash, on February 2nd, 1949—and they weren’t long in coming. What I didn’t anticipate was a validation of their similarity, even with qualifications, from James Dodson, the author of one of the two most notable biographies of Ben Hogan. In response to queries of, “Isn’t this like history repeating itself?”, Dodson replied (in this column: With Crash Came Echoes of Hogan) with a qualified “yes”:

“…there are striking similarities in these tragedies as well as eerie echoes of each man’s struggle to reach the summit of the game only to pay a price for becoming the best in the world. In each case, though they were stars from very different eras, both also experienced something of a personal awakening—even redemption—along the way.”

(Insert face-palm emoji here.)

Right off the bat I take issue with the characterization of Woods’ February 23rd, 2021 crash as a tragedy. The injuries to his right leg, though serious, were not life-threatening, and no medical opinion has been expressed that casts serious doubt on his ability to walk or play golf again. There has been a lot of speculation about his ability to come back and play as well as he has in the past, but frankly, due in large part to his multiple back surgeries (the cumulative result of the violent lashing action of his swing over many years), his best years are well behind him, and have been for over a decade.

Woods’ crash can only be construed as a tragedy by sycophantic fans who consider him the be-all and end-all of the game of golf, and by any reasonable estimation can only be construed as being his own fault.

On the other hand, Hogan’s crash, which was entirely the fault of the driver of that Greyhound bus, came within a hairsbreadth of being a tragedy in the event, as only the last-second act of flinging himself across the seat to shield his wife preventing his being crushed against the back of the seat by the steering wheel and steering column of the car as they were shoved into the passenger compartment by the impact. There could still have been a tragic result in the aftermath of the crash, because his life was threatened by blood clots that formed in his damaged lower body and moved to his heart and lungs. Only timely intervention in the form of a complex, invasive surgical procedure, which saved his life but impaired the blood flow to and from his legs, prevented an ultimate tragic result for Hogan.

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I am also having a problem with the comparison related by the statement “…eerie echoes of each man’s struggle to reach the summit of the game only to pay a price for becoming the best in the world.”

How can Hogan’s crash be construed as “…pay(ing) a price for becoming the best in the world”? Don’t bother answering, I will: it can’t. It was the sort of thing that could have happened to anyone who happened to be driving along with all due care only to be victimized by the carelessness and poor judgement of another driver.

On the other hand, Woods’ latest automotive mishap, as well as the others, involved only himself (thankfully) and some combination of drugs and the consequences of his own bad judgement and bad behavior. Looked at in a certain way, refracted through a prism of fanboyish worship and a willful disregard for assigning fault, Woods’ most recent crash could be construed as arising from his well-publicized ruthless pursuit of perfection, and his frustration at not living up to his self-imposed goals. Entire books have been (and will continue to be) written about this.

The bottom line on that aspect of the issue is that Hogan achieved arguably his greatest professional and personal success after the car crash that left him with life-threatening complications. He was in the hospital for 59 days and at great risk of never being able to play golf again, yet he came back to rack up 11 wins (of which six were majors) in the six years following his accident, and this on a limited schedule—for example, in 1951 he played only five tournaments, and won three of them (including the Masters and the U. S. Open).

Woods’ return after the fire-hydrant incident and the subsequent implosion of his personal life and public reputation looked like this: two winless seasons in 2010 and 2011, then a mini-comeback with three and five wins, respectively, in 2012 and 2013 (playing 19 and 16 events in those years), before another round of back injuries and personal complications brought on the longest winless stretch of his career, from 2014 to 2017. 

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Ben Hogan’s personal awakening in the wake of his crash consisted of a man who had always been something of a loner realizing that he had fans, that people liked him and were pulling for him to recover from the horrific injuries he had suffered. It was a sea change in his outlook on life that helped him persevere through his recovery and subsequent return to championship form.

Woods’ personal awakening in the wake of either or both of his earlier traffic misadventures, to the extent that he had one, was more along the lines of, “Holy s**t, I may lose sponsors (reader, he did…) if I don’t get my act together!” Woods also engaged in rehabilitation for substance and sex addictions, as a well as a public (and painful) mea culpa as a bone thrown to the general public (and potential future sponsors).  

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Ultimately, the only similarity between the two events lies in the fact that they were vehicle crashes that involved a professional golfer; the differences are much more significant.

Ben and Valerie’s Cadillac was plowed into by a Greyhound bus when an inexperienced bus driver attempted to unsafely pass a truck, on a bridge, in foggy, low-visibility conditions, to make up time and keep to his schedule. 

Tiger’s crash took place at approximately 7:12 am on a clear sunny day, on a lightly traveled (in these pandemic times) road that was dry and in good condition. The physical evidence at the scene indicated that his vehicle continued in a straight line as the road curved gently to the right, crossing a low median divider and two opposing-traffic lanes (luckily, there were no other vehicles in those lanes at the time), exiting the roadway, taking out a tree, and flipping/rolling to a stop in the “natural area” adjacent to the roadway.

So what caused it? Was it impairment? Inattention? Speculation is rampant, and fueled partially by the actions (or inaction) of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department.

The LACSD declined to obtain blood toxicology information when Woods was taken to a local hospital, relying instead on the assessment of a deputy on the scene—a deputy who was untrained in the identification of clues of impairment—who said that Woods seemed lucid and in possession of his faculties in the aftermath of the accident.

Independent traffic-accident investigators who have reviewed the available information about the incident have questioned that decision, and late-breaking information about Woods’ responses, specifically  the fact that he twice told deputies on the scene that didn’t remember how the accident happened and didn’t even remember driving, have raised further questions.

Woods is known to have had issues with the sleep aid Ambien in the past, a medication which carries a warning about impairment a day after taking it, impairment that includes disorientation and memory loss.

Several articles published in the weeks following Woods’ crash have stated that investigators have sought access to the vehicle’s so-called “black box” (actually an event data recorder, or EDR), but that device is unlikely to tell them much that cannot already be gleaned from the evidence at the accident site. An EDR collects data such as vehicle speed, throttle position, brake application, airbag deployment, seatbelt use, steering angles and other data for a period of about 20 seconds before the crash, during the crash, and 20 seconds after the crash.

This type of information is used by vehicle manufacturers to determine if a mechanical malfunction was a contributing factor in a crash, but it is not necessarily going to be strongly indicative of human-error factors that may have precipitated an incident. For that, other avenues of investigation have to be pursued.

Phone records, and blood toxicity reports (if available), would allow investigators to determine if inattention or physical impairment were causal factors—and should be pursued. If another vehicle had been involved and innocent people in that car had been injured or killed these factors would certainly not have been ignored. Even lacking that complication the seriousness of this accident would warrant a thorough investigation to determine its cause in order to support a charge of DWI or reckless driving.

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I’ll be honest—I have never understood the rah-rah enthusiasm of Tiger’s fan base, which drove a frenzied outpouring of well-wishes and “thoughts and prayers” comments that has washed over social media like a tidal wave in the three weeks since he crashed that SUV. Of course only a sociopath wouldn’t wish him as complete a recovery as possible, if only for the sake of his future life as a parent to his two kids, but the level of grief and outpouring of emotion for injuries that weren’t life-threatening surpasses understanding in my book, especially when those injuries were his own fault.

Various columns that have come out since the crash have warned Woods’ fans not to expect a rousing comeback—an assessment that is based on: a) his age, and b) the pre-existing physical issues that have already taken their toll on his game, so the apex of their hopes, that he will equal or surpass Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 major victories, is essentially out of the question.

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To reiterate: the cold, hard fact of the matter is that the only commonalities between the crash that broke Tiger Woods’ leg and the crash that narrowly missed claiming the lives of Ben Hogan and his wife, Valerie, is that they were automobile crashes that each involved a professional golfer. The two men were in very different places in their careers when their respective crashes occurred, and the incidents happened under very different circumstances, for very different reasons—namely, Ben Hogan was hit by a bus, and Tiger Woods threw himself in front of one.

A handy gadget that’s good for your game – the Grooveit Wet Club Scrub

I can’t think of another game or sport which is as replete with gadgets as the game of golf, and all aspects of the game are involved, from practice to playing. From training aids that are guaranteed (guaranteed!) to fix your sliced/chunked/topped shots, give you ten more yards on your drives, or help you guide your putts unerringly to the cup; to data-gathering devices that work with an app on your phone (doesn’t everything work with an app on your phone these days?) to help you analyze the weaknesses in your game; to specially shaped tees that will straighten out your drives or add ten yards (there’s that ten-more-yards thing again…), there’s a gadget for everything.

I’m a mechanical engineer by education and vocation, and I like a handy device as much as the next person—but I am also something of a minimalist. While many of the gadgets and gizmos that are intended for on-course use fall, in my estimation, too much on the “intrusive” side of the “useful-to-intrusive” spectrum, I am always on the lookout for handy gadgets that makes a necessary task easier to complete. One such device is the GrooveIt Wet Club Scrub, which makes cleaning your club faces a quick and efficient task.

One of the most-often heard tips for getting the most out of your irons’ and wedges’ performance features is “keep your clubs clean”, and with the GrooveIt this vital little bit of on-course housekeeping is easy to accomplish.

The GrooveIt is basically a “T”-shaped brush which incorporates a spray bottle, which can be filled with water or a cleaning solution, in the handle (I use Windex in mine). Press the plunger button on the end of the handle a couple of times to spray the cleaning solution through the face of the brush onto your club, and a quick scrub will clear dirt and grass from the club face to help ensure that you get every bit of benefit from the grooves and milled textures that are put there to maximize ball-to-club interaction.

The GrooveIt is equipped with a spring carabiner to secure it to the accessories loop on your golf bag so it is always accessible. It is attached to the carabiner with a scarily strong self-aligning magnetic connector, so there is no need to work the spring carabiner every time you use the brush—just give it a yank to pull it away, and wave the connector-half on the brush in the general vicinity of the one on the bag to reconnect. To be honest, this magnetic connector impresses me as much as the spritz-and-scrub function of the brush, but I would be careful about allowing that magnet anywhere near electronic devices or your credit cards—I would fully expect it to play havoc with anything that is sensitive to strong magnetic fields.

Whether you carry, use a granny cart, or ride, the GrooveIt is a handy accessory that you will be glad to have clipped to your bag.

If you are going to gripe about the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, get your facts straight.

On the Monday after the final round of the 2021 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, a GolfWRX.com contributor named Ronald Montesano pulled up his soapbox and summed up the event, taking the opportunity to laud the absence of amateurs (thank you, COVID-19), take shots at the native Californians in the event who didn’t win, and generally pitch in his uninformed two-cents worth from a part of the country where golf courses lie sleeping under blankets of snow from October to May.

PEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 13: Tom Hoge of the United States plays his second shot on the ninth hole during the third round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am at Pebble Beach Golf Links on February 13, 2021 in Pebble Beach, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

I read his piece (Berger wins at Pebble, golf world wakes up) with much head-shaking, and considered scrolling down to the Comments section to set him straight on a few points—but then I decided that I would get a bigger audience here.

This is what I have to say to Ronald: 

“You really should do some research before you sit down at your computer in the frozen tundra of Buffalo, New York and start pounding, monkey-like, at the keyboard, Ron.

“Referring to the Crosby Clambake in your latest Tour Rundown article, you wrote, ‘That event went through an evolution, from a few friends in the California desert to a move to the coast, to a short stay in North Carolina (without the PGA Tour, of course) when AT&T took over the title on tour.’ This sentence runs the gamut from grossly misconstrued to factually incorrect, so let me enlighten you.”

The Crosby Pro-Am was never held in the desert. The event that we now know as the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am can trace its earliest roots to 1934, to an informal gathering of Bing’s celebrity friends at the Old Brockway Golf Course on Lake Tahoe’s North Shore. In 1937 Bing moved the get-together to Rancho Santa Fe, just north of San Diego, where he had a house on the back nine. This is when the pro-am really began, with Crosby pairing touring pros with amateur players drawn from the ranks of his show-business friends, and the member of the Lakeside Golf Club in Hollywood, where he was a member (and five-time club champion).

“The Clambake” as the event came to be called, named for the closing-night beach party, ran for five years in Rancho Santa Fe before the Second World War called a halt, but in 1947 civic leaders in Monterey convinced Crosby to revive the event and move it to the Monterey Peninsula, where it became the National Pro-Am Golf Championship. From the beginning of its run at Pebble Beach, the tournament was a charity event that supported local causes, and it has remained so for 75 years.

As for “…a short stay in North Carolina”, well, when AT&T took over as the presenting sponsor in 1986, dropping the Crosby name (and Crosby family involvement) from the tournament, Bing’s second wife, Kathryn Crosby, started a somewhat look-alike charity tournament in the Winston-Salem, North Carolina area called the Bing Crosby National Celebrity Golf Tournament. Running from 1986 until 2001, this event did feature both amateur and professional players, but they did not play together in pro-am pairings. (Kathryn Crosby was responsible for the sell-off of the naming rights to AT&T, for a cool half-million dollars.)

Of course, in this COVID-19 year all golf tournaments have looked different, with, as of this writing, only one—the Waste Management Phoenix Open—allowing spectators (and then only a fraction of the usual number), and the Pebble Beach Pro-Am was no different.

For the first time, there were no crowds of spectators lining the fairways and clustered around the greens, and not only that, there were no amateur playing partners—so the event was a “pro-am” in name, but not in fact. Cutting down the field to just the 156 pros brought in another change from previous years—the move to two golf courses, Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill, leaving the third course of recent years, the Monterey Peninsula Country Club’s Shore Course, off the roster.

Montesano had something to say about all this, too (another mixed bag of mostly bad takes):

“Should the amateurs return? In one word: No. We don’t love golf for the antics of the celebrities, and we don’t need to see corporate types […] play well on a big stage.”

While the 2021 event had a different look from its seventy-four predecessors, without the amateur participants it just looked like a better version of a regular PGA Tour stop (because, hey, Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill). The pros might have liked the (relatively) quicker pace of play and shorter rounds, but those who play this event regularly missed the networking opportunities that the tournament has always provided—many a lucrative sponsorship or other business relationship has had its beginning in a pairing at Pebble Beach.

And sure, this is no longer the Golden Age of radio, movies, and TV, and the celebrity roster has, in recent years, lost a bit of the glamour of the past. No longer do stars of the magnitude of Phil Harris, James Garner, Jack Lemmon, and Clint Eastwood stride down the fairways during the event, but there is a new generation coming up who have name recognition and a love for the game that matches the big names of yore.

The lone celebrity event that remained on the schedule this year, a Wednesday five-hole charity shootout, included stars of the worlds of movies and TV (Bill Murray, Alfonso Ribeiro, and Kathryn Newton), music (hip-hop recording artist Macklemore), sports (Arizona Cardinals WR Larry Fitzgerald), and even a former Miss America (Kira K. Dixon). This mini field of celebrity golfers all have stick, and put on a good show while raising a wad of cash for the event’s causes.

PEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 10:  Kira K. Dixon tees off on the 18th hole during the Charity Challenge at AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on February 10, 2021 at Pebble Beach Golf Links in Pebble Beach, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

And even the corporate CEOs and other deep-pockets participants have their place. Sure these folks are almost all members at swanky private clubs, and while they may play more golf than many of us, on better golf courses, they don’t play for a living like the pros they are paired with. Watching them play alongside a pro in this event allows us to vicariously put our games up against the highest standard in the world—and that chance at comparison has entertainment value.

The celebrity watching which makes Saturday of tournament week (when the biggest names are scheduled at Pebble Beach) the best-attended day of the tournament broadens the scope of attraction for this event beyond golfers. I have seen a bigger gallery following a pairing which included a San Francisco Giants pitcher than I think I have ever seen following any of the pros.

“Why might the amateurs stay? Some would point to the origin of the event, as the Bing Crosby Clambake. It’s the last event that folks from past generations (little dig there, I think – GKM) associate with a celebrity host; [no other event has] had that staying power.”

I can sum it up in one word: tradition. Bing Crosby invented this format, and while imitators sprang up over the years, the Pebble Beach Pro-Am—the original and the greatest—is the only one that still survives. The Bob Hope Desert Classic came closest to the format of the Crosby, but that event, and all of the rest of the celebrity-name events on the PGA Tour over the years have either morphed into something else or faded away entirely.

I grew up in Salinas, an inland farming community not far from Pebble Beach, and though neither I nor any of my friends or family played golf when I was growing up, everybody knew the Crosby, and watched it on TV on those January or February weekends in the ’60s and ’70s.

“The AT&T has the opportunity to reimagine its event, (to) make the bold decision to eliminate the Am portion of the event. Return the Monterey Peninsula (Country Club) Shore Course to the rotation next year (and) add even more professionals…”

Here Mr Montesano is off-base in more ways than one. As I laid out above, the amateur participants are a huge part of this tournament’s appeal, and an enduring tradition that has no counterpart in the world of golf. Eliminating that aspect of the tournament would change it into just another PGA Tour event, albeit an exceptionally beautiful one, as no other venue that the Tour travels to can provide such scenic vistas.

Yes, we look forward to the return of the MPCC Shore Course to the event; it is a beautiful and strategic seaside layout that takes good advantage of its location, and being private, its inclusion provides golf fans with an opportunity to see the course that they otherwise would not have. As for adding even more professionals—while going back to three courses and a 54-hole cut with no amateurs might make it feasible, schedule-wise, to bump up the standard 156-player field, such a move would require approval from the PGA Tour, and, I warrant, the Players Advisory Committee.

To sum up: While I admit to a certain bias, having grown up in the area watching this event on TV, and now, as a golf writer, having attended the event in a professional capacity for eight years in a row, I look forward to a return to normality (hopefully) for the 2022 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am; a return to throngs of spectators, and amateur playing partners—both celebrities and CEOs; a return to three courses and a 54-hole cut; a return to the traditions that make this tournament stand out, head-and-shoulders above the rest of the cookie-cutter events on the PGA Tour.

A return to all the things that make this tournament the one that we who love it still call “The Crosby”.

(References for facts presented in this article: Cover Stories, a publication of the Monterey Peninsula Foundation Book Project Staff, 2009; 18 Holes with Bing, by Nathaniel Crosby with John Strege, Harper Collins Publishers, 2016)

Daniel Berger seals the deal, in style, for 2021 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am win

The eagle must be Daniel Berger’s favorite bird—especially after he made four eagles this weekend at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, including two in the final round. The second eagle of the fourth round, on Pebble’s world-famous par-five 18th hole, was clinched by a 31-foot putt that cemented his victory when two putts would have done the job.

PEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 14: Daniel Berger of the United States celebrates his eagle putt to win on the 18th green during the final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am at Pebble Beach Golf Links on February 14, 2021 in Pebble Beach, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Local boy Maverick McNealy—very local, in fact, given that he grew up in a house overlooking Pebble’s 16th fairway before his family moved to Hillsborough, in San Mateo County—produced his fourth round in the 60s to take second, his highest finish on the PGA Tour.

Berger, who won at Fort Worth’s Colonial Country Club in the opening event of the post-lockdown return of professional golf last spring, trailed Jordan Spieth by two strokes going into the final round, but while Spieth wobbled to a two-under round of 70, Berger carded the low round of the day, a 7-under 65, to take the win.

An eagle three at the short par-five 2nd hole set the tone for Berger’s round, followed by birdies at the 3rd and 6th holes. The only misstep he made was a bogey at the notorious par-4 eight hole, where his approach shot landed long and left, on a slope above the green, leaving him a tricky pitch to a green that sloped away.

As Spieth and another contender, Patrick Cantlay, fell away in the latter stages of the round, journeyman pro Nate Lashley stepped up to challenge for the win. Lashley, whose sole victory on the PGA Tour is the 2019 Rocket Mortgage Classic, started the day in a three-way tie with Berger and Cantlay, two strokes back of Spieth. Four birdies on the front nine saw him briefly in the lead before Berger’s birdie on the par-4 ninth, then reclaiming the top spot with a birdie on the tenth hole.

Berger and Lashley remained tied, with Spieth and Cantlay struggling to right their ships and make a move, through the fifteenth hole. In the meantime, Stanford University alumnus McNealy put together a string of four birdies from holes 11 through 15 to make up ground on the two co-leaders, pulling within a stroke of the pair.

And then came the 16th hole. A downhill, left-to-right turning par-four with trees and a tank-trench bunker guarding the front of the green, #16 has rarely been cast in the role of a make-or-break hole in this tournament. Berger assayed the hole with a drive to the edge of the left rough, an approach to the bottom of the green and two putts from 25 feet—nothing special, nothing memorable. Lashley, on the other hand, will remember this hole for a long time; in fact, it may haunt his dreams for years to come.

Playing from good position on the upper tier of the fairway, about 150 yards from the flag, Lashley’s approach shot hit the back of the green just past the hole and bounded over the edge into the rough, leaving a touchy little punch-pitch to a tucked flag. His pitch back to the green rolled out to about 12 or 13 feet past the hole, from where he proceeded to putt one, two, three… and yes, four times before closing out the hole.

Just like that, the one-time real estate agent who is, appropriately enough, sponsored by Rocket Mortgage, played himself out of the running to win the tournament, and ultimately into a T5 finish that cost him $1,102,725 compared to a potential win, or $392,925 if he had parred in to finish tied for second with (as it turned out) Maverick McNealy. That’s $367,575 or $130,942 per putt, depending on the scenario.

With Lashley out of contention, Maverick McNealy, playing a group ahead, could potentially force a playoff with an eagle-three at the final hole. With the 18th hole playing from a more-forward tee position, the bold and the accurate were given the incentive they needed to risk a two-shot approach on the finest par-5 in existence.

McNealy did just that. After a 277-yard drive to the left fairway, he slung a high-draw three-iron shot (a three-iron!) 232 yards to the green, putting the club away with a flourish, like D’Artagnan sheathing his rapier, as he watched the ball soar toward its target through the California sky. That target is a 4,400-square-foot green guarded by bunkers and a cypress tree that looks like it was planted there by Mother Nature with her own two hands, and McNealy’s golf ball went after it like a lawn dart heading for your cousin Billy’s left foot.

Left with a 22-foot putt for eagle, McNealy narrowly missed his chance to force a playoff in the event of a birdie by Berger. His ball slid past the hole on the high side so closely that some of the left-side dimples were rolling over air, finishing less than a full turn outside the hole. He tapped in for a birdie and a mortal lock on solo second.

Now it was up to Berger. Taking on the right side of the fairway, as he had the day before with disastrous results, he squeezed his drive between the infamous fairway tree and the bunkers on the right, leaving himself a longer shot, at 253 yards, for his eagle try than McNealy had had just a few minutes before. What followed was, in Berger’s words, “…one of the best 3-woods I’ve ever hit in my life.”, a swinging draw that ended up 31 feet above the flag.

It was the type of finish that Tour pros dream of at night, tucked up in their Florida tax-haven mansions: two putts to win on the most famous finishing hole this side of St Andrews—and Berger played it like a boss.

For all its length it was a straightforward putt, straight down the fall line, as Johnny Miller used to say, and the young man from Florida who started out as a tennis player before switching to golf (which is a very Florida thing to do) rolled it in like it was the winning putt in a Saturday-morning Nassau.

The 2021 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am was one for the ages. For as much as we love this event, and the iconic landscape over which it is contested, it has produced some ho-hum finishes in the past—do you remember Ted Potter, Jr’s three-stroke win in 2018, or Vaughn Taylor in 2016? Neither does anyone else.

But despite the weak field, which had pundits (mostly of the sports-betting variety) wringing their hands and clutching their pearls in the lead-up to the event, and despite the lack of fans, and amateur playing partners for the pros, this year’s tournament had drama and pathos in equal measure: Jordan Spieth’s pursuit of a renewed grasp of his game, which had made a long-overdue reappearance the previous week in Phoenix; local kid Maverick McNealy’s dashing run for his first Tour victory, literally in his old backyard; and journeyman-pro Nate Lashley’s surge to the top and ignominious crash in four putts at the 16th hole, all eclipsed by Daniel Berger’s three-step climax—driver, 3-wood, 30-foot putt—on the most beautiful finishing hole in the game of golf.

A little rain, a little wind, a little luck—and once again Jordan Spieth sleeps on a 54-hole lead

Looking more and more like a man on the comeback trail since grabbing a 54-hole co-lead last week in the Waste Management Phoenix Open, Jordan Spieth took over the lead at the 2021 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am after the second round, 65-67–132, to lead by a single stroke over Daniel Berger, and two strokes over Patrick Cantlay. Memories of his final-round woes in Phoenix were coursing through people’s minds when he stepped up to the first tee this morning to start his third round, and for a while there it looked as though the spectre of the previous week’s collapse might be riding his shoulders.

PEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 13: Jordan Spieth reacts to his tee shot at the par-three 17th hole during the third round of the 2021 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. (photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

The short par-5 second hole at Pebble Beach generally plays as the easiest hole on the course, but a stubbed 5-iron approach and a woeful performance on the green left Spieth with a bogey six, on a hole that players expect to birdie, and which, in fact, played nearly a half-stroke under par in the third round.

He appeared to set things right with birdies at the par-four 4th, where he drove just short of the green, chipped up to 7 feet below the hole and sank the putt; at the long par-five 6th, where he just missed an eagle three from the right-hand greenside bunker; and at the notorious par-four 9th, where a beautiful approach shot from 110 yards set him up for an 8-foot below-the-hole birdie putt.

Then came the turn. Strictly speaking Pebble makes the turn between 10 and 11, reversing course from SSW to NNW, and on days like today, turns into the chill, blustery wind. Pebble’s tenth hole, the final stanza in the three-hole stretch of rigorous par-4s that the late, great sportswriter Dan Jenkins dubbed “Abalone Corner”, is frequently to be found in the #1 spot when the course handicap is tallied—as it did today, playing to a stroke average of 4.209.

Number Ten started the string of holes where Spieth gave back the birdies he had earned on holes 4 through 9, with bogeys at 10, 12, and 14. Bad shots, bad judgment, and what appeared to be a growing level of confusion as to how hard to rap his putts set him back to where he had been when he walked off of #2—plus-1 on the day, and looking up at the top of the leaderboard from a few steps below where he had started in the morning.

Then came 16. One hundred and sixty-odd yards out in the fairway, two strokes behind Daniel Berger, wind in from the right and a bit of mud on the ball. He took eight iron, and slung it up and into that quartering wind and, in his words, “…kind of let the wind and the mud do most of the work.”

Mother Nature’s factors did a wonderful job, and as seen on the television coverage, the ball described a great tilted arc through the afternoon sky, slamming into the green about a flagstick’s length above the hole before trickling down ever so slowly, until, with its last erg of energy, it dropped into the hole for his second, and most impressive, chip-in eagle of the tournament.

Tied now with Berger, Spieth split the par-three 17th with his fellow 27-year-old, both making pars.

At 18, fate stepped in again. With Spieth in good position in the fairway, Berger’s tee ball rode that WNW wind far to the right, bouncing from turf to cart path to OB, effectively sealing his fate. Spieth laid up to a solid number short of the green, threw his approach above the hole, and two-putted his way to another 54-hole lead.

Sunday’s weather is forecast to be cool, dry, and breezy, with the winds increasing in the afternoon—the usual pattern. Speaking after Saturday’s round, Spieth sounded prepared for what he, and the rest of the field, will be facing in the final round:

“…it’s almost two different golf courses when the wind blows out here with that kind of out and in. But I think it’s a good lesson for tomorrow that there’s going to be some … guys are going to make runs and I just got to stay really patient, recognize that setting a goal for myself and sticking to it is important because things can change quickly out here.”

Like when your playing partner ties it up by slinging a banana-ball from 160 yards out for an eagle-two with two holes to play. Just ask Daniel Berger.

Young guns rule after 36 holes at 2021 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am

After the first round of the 2021 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am was played under a gloomy grey overcast, blue skies predominated for most of the day on the Monterey Peninsula during Round 2, but at the cost of breezy conditions. At Spyglass Hill, where 14 of 18 holes are sheltered by the massive pines and cypress trees of the Del Monte Forest, the average score increased by less than a full stroke from Day 1 to Day 2, but at Pebble Beach Golf Links, which runs in a narrow out-and-back band right along the shore of Carmel Bay, the scoring average jumped by a little over two strokes.

Pebble Beach, California – February 12: Jordan Spieth on the eighth tee at Spyglass Hill in the second round of the 2021 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

Statistically speaking, players who drew Pebble in Round 1 and Spyglass Hill in Round 2 enjoyed a one-stroke advantage over those who went the other way, a fact that is borne out by the composition of the top of the leaderboard after 36 holes. Of the 13 players between 1st place and T8, 11 played Pebble/Spy. After a lot of adding and subtracting and squinting at the numbers, the conclusion that comes out of all this is that Spyglass is harder than Pebble, but Pebble gets harder, by more, when the wind blows.

Another conclusion that jumps out from a long, hard look at the scoreboard is that the young guns are pretty much in charge of this tournament.

Of those top 13 players I mentioned before, one is 19 years old, five are in their 20s, five are in their 30s, and two geezer-codger 40-somethings snuck in there when no one was looking. Looking at the full field, players in their 40s that finished above the cut line were as rare as affordable housing in Carmel; Jim Furyk, at 50, is the elder statesman of the weekend crew, followed by 49-year-old Brian Gay. Furyk’s position comes as little surprise, though; he won the PGA Tour Champions event here last September, taking home a little more than what a two-way tie for 5th will net this weekend.

The name at the top of the leaderboard today, Jordan Spieth, is one that was much spoken of coming into this tournament. Spieth wowed PGA Tour fans and sent the golf-betting tyros back to their spreadsheets last week at the Waste Management Phoenix Open when he went 67–67–61 before losing the plot and closing with a 1-over 72. Despite the stumble in the final lap, that performance showed that his long search for the game that abandoned him after seeing him to eleven wins in his first four years on Tour, including three majors, is finally bearing fruit.

On the strength of the showing in Phoenix, and keeping in mind that he is a past champion of this event, in 2017, there were high hopes for his performance this week. After closing out the first round with a more-than-respectable 65 at Pebble Beach, which was still three strokes behind 18-hole leader Patrick Cantlay’s record-tying 62, Spieth backed it up with the low round of the day today, on either course, a 5-under 67 at Spyglass Hill, for a two-day tally of 12-under.

First-round leader Cantlay found Spyglass Hill a more difficult proposition than Spieth did, having a much tougher day there than he did on Thursday at Pebble. After opening his round with a double-bogey six at the 10th hole, he could only set three birdies against the double and two bogeys, to card a 1-over 73, leaving him leaning heavily on his first-round 62 to keep him within three strokes of the new leader, Spieth.

The third twenty-something in the top four is 27-year-old Daniel Berger. Playing the tougher Spyglass/Pebble draw, Berger managed to better his first-round score by a stroke at Pebble, even in the breezy conditions, bucking the trend that saw Pebble play two strokes more difficult today, on average, than it had on Thursday. His 67-66–133 sees him in second-place behind Spieth, whom he will join in the final grouping, along with third-place Henrik Norlander, tomorrow.

The other Spyglass/Pebble player who bucked the scoring trend today was Paul Casey, who posted 68-67–135 to share T4 with Cantlay, fellow Brit Tom Lewis, and Scotsman Russell Knox. Casey also bucked the youth trend as the only player over 40 sitting T4 or better after 36 holes.

Rounding out the under-30s at the top end of the scoreboard are Stanford alum Maverick McNealy, 25, and 19-year-old Akshay Bhatia, of Wake Forest, North Carolina.

McNealy, the oldest son of Silicon Valley tech legend and Sun Microsystems co-founder Scott McNealy, put together rounds of 68 and 69 at Pebble Beach and Spyglass, respectively; at 7-under he heads into the weekend five strokes back of leader Spieth.

Bhatia, who joined an elite group that includes Jack Nicklaus and Davis Love III when he hit all 18 greens in regulation at Pebble Beach in the first round, found Spyglass Hill a tougher row to hoe in Round 2, carding a 1-over 73 to put up against his first-round 64. Bhatia and McNealy are tied with Americans Brian Stuard, Nate Lashley, and Tom Hoge, and 46-year-old Aussie Cameron Percy, in 8th place going into the weekend.

With no amateurs in the event this year, and only two courses in play, the usual 54-hole cut is by the board, and Saturday and Sunday will see all 69 players remaining in the field playing Pebble Beach Golf Links both days. Saturday’s forecast is for intermittent light-to-moderate rain in the morning, clearing but turning breezy in the afternoon—conditions that do not bode well for players who are hoping to make a move up the leaderboard before the final round.

Dustin who? Patrick Cantlay leads after a record-tying first round at Pebble Beach

Sixty-two is a magical number in golf. Maybe not as magical as 59, but when you put up a 62 at Pebble Beach in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, you’re in pretty good company, sharing that distinction with the likes of Tom Kite and David Duval. Patrick Cantlay did it today in the first round, putting up the kind of stats that generally result in a spot atop the leaderboard: 16 greens in regulation, 18 putts, leading the field in strokes gained tee-to-green, and T4 in strokes gained putting.

PEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 11: Patrick Cantlay of the United States plays a shot from a bunker on the fourth hole during the first round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am at Pebble Beach Golf Links on February 11, 2021 in Pebble Beach, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Another record-tying performance was turned in today by 19-year-old  Akshay Bhatia, who joined Jack Nicklaus, Peter Jacobsen, Tom Lehman, Davis Love III, and Ryan Palmer on the roster of players who have hit all 18 greens in regulation in a round at Pebble Beach. Bhatia, a native of Northridge, California, currently resides in Wake Forest, North Carolina. He was an accomplished junior player who played on winning Junior Presidents Cup and Junior Ryder Cup teams before deciding to pass up college golf and turn pro.

Bhatia, who weighs in at a wispy 6-feet tall and 130 pounds and may be in trouble if the winds pick up over the weekend, capitalized on his record-tying tee-to-green performance, posting a final score of 64 to close out the day tied for second with Swede Henrik Norlander.

Another player who has the eyes of the golf world watching him closely this week is Jordan Spieth. The young Texan, who notched up 11 wins in his first four years on Tour, including three majors, has been laboring under the twin burdens of a two-way miss off the tee and an on-and-off ice-cold putter, resulting in a winless drought since his 2017 Open Championship victory at Royal Birkdale. 

Spieth raised the hopes of his fans last week at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, posting a third-round 61 at TPC Scottsdale after opening with a pair of 67s. Tied for the 54-hole lead with Southern California’s Xander Schauffele, Spieth couldn’t muster the magic on WMPO Sunday, staggering home in 1-over 72 to finish T4, his best finish since his solo 3rd-place at the 2018 Masters, and one of only eight top-ten performances in that time.

Today at Pebble Spieth showed some more of the spark that was on display through 54 holes last week, carding a 7-under 65 on the strength of six birdies and an eagle against a lone bogey, the result of three putts on the notoriously difficult eighth hole. The eagle came two holes later, when his approach from 113 yards out landed just past the hole, checked up, rolled back, and dropped in the hole for a two. Spieth currently sits T-4, three strokes behind Patrick Cantlay.

Overnight rain in the area is expected to clear off before sunrise tomorrow, with Friday forecast to be partly cloudy and slightly breezy, with even windier conditions anticipated for the weekend. The wind is Pebble’s best defense against low scores, so we may not see any repeats of today’s record-tying performances.