A pebble from Pebble was the key for Rose

February 06, 2023 by Art Spander in articles, golf

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — He had arrived too late for a practice round, so to get the feel for the course, Justin Rose climbed down the bluff to the sand, reached down and picked up — what else could it be at Pebble Beach — a pebble, a gift for his son.

That was a week ago Monday, and then after the nasty weather and his great golf, eight days later on the most recent Monday, Justin Rose grabbed the first-place trophy for the 2023 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

The man has a sense of theater. And as we know, of financial promotion.

For a while, there he was, the spokesman for Morgan Stanley, appearing in commercials while he was struggling to reappear in the winner’s circle.

But the struggle has ended, in a tournament that because of weather delays -- rain hail and high wind, if not all at once -- the sun shined brightly over the final 18 holes.

Pebble looked spectacular. Rose played effectively.

A last round that began Sunday, for him and the others who went the full 72 holes — and you’d be amazed that some who made the 54-hole cut decided to skip out and head to Phoenix — concluded with Rose shooting a 66 for a total of 269, and three shots ahead of Brendan Todd and Brandon Wu

Rose, 42, has had a career that’s lacked very little. Born in South Africa and moving to England at age 5, Rose was not quite 18 when, still an amateur, he holed out a shot on the 18th at Royal Birkdale and finished fourth in the 1998 British Open, two shots a playoff.

In a land seeking heroes, he became one instantly. It was the best thing to happen, and also the worst. Rose immediately turned pro — and missed 21 straight cuts. But the talent was there. As was the persistence.

“It was something that I felt like I was going to be remembered for, forever more,” Rose said once. “That one shot that I hit there, that’s the one shot that I have had to try to live up to. For a long time that shot became a little bit of a burden to me, because I did have a tough start to my professional career, and you never quite know where things are going to go from there.”

After a time, from a learning period on the British Tour, they went quite well. Rose won the 2013 U.S. Open at Merion, a gold medal in the 2016 Rio Olympics and was the leading money winner. Still no matter what’s been accomplished, a golfer in his 40s has his doubts.

Especially the way things were going, or really not going, whether he would be back at the Masters, where in 2017 he lost a playoff to Sergio Garcia.

“I've been one of the players that's very fortunate to have done very well at the game of golf,” Rose said, reflecting. “Hope to win. Hope to put myself in the situation. My game hasn't produced many of those opportunities of late. But I still have had that belief that it's possible”

A pebble for his thoughts.

Aaron Rodgers grabs the “Am” in Pro-Am

February 05, 2023 by Art Spander in articles, golf

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — It is called a Pro-Am, isn’t it? The people who pay to play, the amateurs, have been as important as the ones who play to get paid.

Maybe considering the tournament grew on the backs of Bing Crosby’s pals from the entertainment industry, at the end of the Great Depression before there was a PGA Tour, made it more important.

So there was something positive about a guy who is famous for what he has accomplished in another endeavor — if pro football could be so listed — as a partner on the successful team.

That would be the quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who grew up about 250 miles north, went to Cal, won a Super Bowl with the Green Bay Packers and once was overlooked by the 49ers, who now wouldn’t dare sign him. Or would they?

Because of weather that, seemingly as tradition dictates, gave us (and the tournament) hail for a few minutes Sunday morning, rain for a few hours Saturday night and strong wind all day Saturday, the pro part is uncompleted, leading to yet another Monday finish.

Through 63 holes of the scheduled 72, Justin Rose was in front, 15 under par and two ahead of Peter Malnati, who also had played 63; Brandon Todd and Denny McCarthy were also tied for second. Kurt Kitiyama, who is also from Chico as is Rodgers, had a bad front nine and fell out of contention.

Perhaps it is fitting, if unfortunate, that for a few hours at least the biggest name in the tournament is Rodgers. After he watched the AT&T before in his acquired celebrity status, he was invited to play.

Now a 10-handicap, Rodgers was partnered with Ben Silverman, who until a couple weeks ago was as little known as Rodgers is well known. A 35-year-old from Canada, Silverman missed the pro cut by a shot, but that almost was secondary.

“Well, Silverman just happened to land one of the headliners as a playing partner — Green Bay Packers (for now, at least) quarterback Aaron Rodgers,” reported a story on SportsNet Canada. “Not bad for a guy who lost his PGA Tour card in 2020 and then relinquished full status on the Korn Ferry Tour over the last year.”

No matter what happens this week, Silverman is in great shape to retain his PGA Tour card next year as the top 30 Korn Ferry players at the end of the season graduate.

Rodgers, who has said winning the AT&T was on his bucket list, offered appreciation to Silverman.

“I felt good about the partnership this week,” said Rodgers. “Ben's such a great guy. I knew we were going to have fun. Playing with Darius Rucker, I've known (Ben) for over a decade. He's a fantastic guy. You know it's going to be a great week.

“Then we put together a couple good rounds. The first two (Sunday), especially the last 10 holes, I was in my pocket and my partner picked me up.”

So he could pick up the victory.

At the AT&T, Mother Nature laughs away

February 04, 2023 by Art Spander in articles, golf

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — That howling down by the ninth hole? You think it was the wind? Nah, it was that feisty lady, Mother Nature, cackling away.

“Think you’re going to hold a golf tournament here in February? Won’t you ever learn?”

It’s dog-bites-man stuff. Ancient history. Yes, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am went, shall we say, head to head against the best (or worst) of climatological conditions

And as so often happens, the tournament was the loser on Saturday. So, in a way, was CBS, which in this dead-of-winter situation, a week before the Super Bowl, gets a ratings boost from celebrities such as Bill Murray and other amateurs who remind us the game still is fun, even if not played well.

It was difficult. That was the Goodyear blimp up there, however, not the Chinese weather satellite. Play was suspended around midday until finally, after a three-hour plus delay, it was stopped.

Peter Malnati, at 12 under par, was two shots ahead of Joseph Bramlett and Keith Mitchell, with Kurt Kitiyama, the one-time basketball star from Chico, both at 9 under.

There’s nothing certain about what should have been the 54-hole mark except the AT&T will not finish until Monday, something that has taken place many times when storms and darkness combine to take a toll.

The amateurs who choose will be allowed Sunday to finish their completed rounds, so whether they make the cut or not they’ll be done. That may not be fair, but who said golf is fair?

What Bramlett said was, “It was 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 9 it started blowing and then it's survival mode.”

You have to like a golfer with a movie director’s perspective.
“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. I had 210 yards up the hill on 14 and I airmailed the green with an 8-iron. So it's a guessing game. We're just doing our best.”

Mitchell likes challenges, and he and the others here definitely have one.

“Definitely pleased with how I played,” he said. “We definitely — first couple holes were very benign. Then right when we got on the 6th green is when the wind started picking up. Playing 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, pretty much straight into the wind, 8 was a little off the right, but everything else was straight into the wind.

“We knew going into (Saturday) that those were going to be the tough holes. That was going to be the hardest stretch potentially all week. If I could make it through that stretch in a relatively good score, I would be set up for the weekend.”

And he was. Take that, Mother Nature.

A windy reminder it’s Pebble Beach, not Palm Beach

February 03, 2023 by Art Spander in articles, golf

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — So the wind was up and the temperature down, but that was just a friendly reminder it’s February and we’re in Pebble Beach, not Palm Beach.

Yes, there are golf courses and mansions at both locations, but for this week at least, this is the only one that matters on the PGA Tour.

Where else would you be getting the speed of the wind as well as the speed of the greens, which as tales of poa annua grass remind us are both bumpy and quick? Just joking; the beach out here along Carmel Bay is famed for little rocks. What the golf property is famed for is being a place that produces champions.

Maybe one of those will emerge from a field filled with people other than major winners. Jordan Spieth, Justin Rose and Danny Willett still are trying to break through. The day’s low Monterey’s round was by Seamus Power, a 64. Naturally it was at MPCC, where par is 71, a stroke lower than the other two courses.

“I grew up in Northern California,” said Kurt Kitiyama, “so I got to play Spyglass quite a bit. Not so much here and Monterey. But I’ve seen it before and definitely feeling a lot more comfortable this time around.´

“It's always nice playing here. It's nice being here. The plan is take what the course and conditions allow.

“I know it's playing a lot tougher there than the other two courses. So I think just kind of staying patient all around and get what is possible.”

The third round, the Saturday round, often is the biggest for TV, and for the fans in attendance when most of celebrities get their chance before missing the cut. They come up with songs and acts and stunts for the non-golfing public, the last remnants of the old Bing Crosby event.

Sport is supposed to be enjoyable, and the Saturday round at the AT&T inevitably is, no matter what the weather is. One year Bill Murray, who’s become the main non-pro attraction, reached into an ice cream cooler near the 18th tee and pulled out a frozen fish.

Maybe the pros attempting to get a victory won’t appreciate something like that, but most everyone else certainly will.

So who's really leading the Pebble Beach AT&T?

February 02, 2023 by Art Spander in articles, golf

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — The game is the same, hitting a little white ball as few times as possible, but the courses are different. Which makes the first round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am perhaps as much mystery as history.

Day one of this event — where thanks to Bill Murray there may be as many laughs as putts — gave us a leaderboard with a man named Hank Lebioda ahead of everybody else.

As they say, we will find out in a matter of days, or at least by Sunday evening when every one of the 156, or at least those who have made the cut after three rounds, finish their cycles.

So you are not familiar with any of the names. Well, be patient and persistent. Somewhere a few clicks down are a U.S. Open winner (Justin Rose, 69 at Pebble Beach), a Masters winner (Danny Willett, 71 at Spyglass Hill) and a winner of the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open (Jordan Spieth, 71 at Spyglass Hill).

The weather, often the deciding factor in wintertime on the Monterey Peninsula, wasn’t bad most of Thursday. Then it got semi-brutal, the wind so strong you’re surprised they didn’t post small golfer warnings.

Monterey Peninsula’s Shore Course is mostly tucked in among the pine trees until it swings out toward Monterey Bay.

Coming down the last two hole, said Harry Hall, another of the newer names who shot 64 at MPCC (par is 71), “It started to blow 45 miles an hour. It was crazy. Happy to get in a 7-under.”

Spieth has won this tournament, and last year he missed by a shot. He knows the courses and the conditions, which doesn’t necessarily mean he loves them. Golf is a test of making the best of the worst,

“Spyglass is hard,” said Spieth. “It’s a tough test. Would have liked to have done better on my front nine. That was really forgettable.

“Then I thought I played the back nine really well. It was really bizarre the last four holes or so with the wind. It went from nothing to flipping and then blowing about 25 out of nowhere the other direction than the forecast. That throws us through a big loop when you're prepping for something and you got to make the adjustment.

“But I had a good last three holes and that always kind of puts a smile on your face. I wish I would have shot a few under today. Just a couple early iron shots I hung right.”

Bill Murray has been hanging in at the AT&T seemingly forever. Thursday was the 20th anniversary of the movie “Groundhog Day,” which helped make him the tournament’s primary attraction. Others may come and go, but almost always he’s in the field.

We know his name and his game.

AT&T golf fights for attention

February 01, 2023 by Art Spander in articles, golf

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — The sports headlines dealt with Tom Brady. Of course. And LeBron James, naturally. Virtually nothing about the golf tournament at Pebble Beach.

Although, as a matter of interest, both Brady and his father, Tom Sr., have been entrants as well as longtime fans.

The Super Bowl is only a week and a half away, and isn’t that the biggest event in America? So how does any golf tournament, even one as historic as the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, escape the shadows?

And since we’re in a question mode, if you were starting a golf tournament and needed someone famous to get the attention, who might you choose?

You know this, but the world, including the world of sports, isn’t what it used to be and, glancing around, you suspect isn’t going to be again. All this was brought into focus of late.

It’s not an issue of quality or skill. Every one of those guys or ladies on the tours, golf or tennis, is so excessively talented it’s almost frightening. Even the people who can’t make it are brilliant.

It’s an issue of getting the rest of us to watch them. And ask for autographs. And purchase the products they endorse.

Do you remember when Donald Trump — yes, that Donald Trump — played in the AT&T in 1993, and even made a hole-in-one? Never mind what you think of his politics. He would have people lining the ropes.

Jordan Spieth is in the AT&T, having won it once and also having associated with the sponsor. He’s a great guy as well as a great golfer. He understands the difficulties inherent in building a tournament.

Asked if the tournament would lose too much if the amateurs were dropped (Spieth plays with singer Jake Owen), he answered in the affirmative. “I think it would — I think the ‘Am’ portion of this tournament is obvious. How old is this tournament? 75 years old or something. Back to the Bing Crosby. I mean, that’s what this tournament is.”

Elevated to attract the big boys, the AT&T requires golfers who make the tournament required viewing, on the course or on the tube.

This is not unique. Back in the time where the top players were Sam Snead and Ben Hogan, or Arnie and Jack, the papers frequently reminded us who wasn’t there.

Tournament sponsors would scream, but hey, news is news, negative or positive. Reputations are not invented, they develop. Nothing is promised, but plenty is available.

You have to believe there will be more winners and more celebs, enough to make the Pebble Beach Pro-Am what it used to be. Even without Donald Trump.

Lonely golf at the AT&T

January 31, 2023 by Art Spander in articles, golf

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — There wasn’t a rain cloud in sight. Or any spectators either. Nature is responsible for the first. The people who run the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am get credit or blame — you decide — for the other.

Yes, time once more for Northern California’s favorite golfing event — maybe America’s, if you go by the TV ratings — when show business and big business hook up with players who really mean business.

It was created in the 1930s by Bing Crosby (go ahead, Google his name or his game), and as much because of the format and the spectacular landfall on which it long has been held — not to mention the conditions — it has persisted for eight decades.

Not that everyone who plays the PGA tour is enthralled. They don’t like rotating among three courses, Pebble Beach, Monterey Peninsula and Spyglass Hill. They don’t like being slowed by amateurs, rounds usually lasting six hours. They don’t like the climate, although everything was gorgeous on Tuesday.

The AT&T — for nostalgia’s sake, we’ll call it the Crosby — is remembered and heralded for storms and cold. The bad weather might not have produced wonderful golf, but it has given us at least one memorable comment.

“I can’t wait,” said the singer Phil Harris, “to get out of these wet clothes and into a dry martini.”

I can’t wait to see fans swarming over the courses. For no good reason, tickets are no longer sold for practice rounds on Tuesday. It was lonely out there, other than a few locals.

It’s a different world. We understand that. But when you can walk six blocks from Flaherty’s restaurant in Carmel, only a few yards from Pebble Beach, and not encounter another human soul, it’s a strange world.

That doesn’t particularly bother or affect Viktor Hovland, who seems content any place on any course. He grew up in Norway — no sardine jokes, please — went to Oklahoma State and won the 2018 U.S. Amateur at Pebble.

Those amateurs are not to be confused with the ones in the AT&T, who are more recognized — Bills quarterback Josh Allen, retired Giants catcher Buster Posey, 49ers Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young, soccer star Gareth Bale and as always Bill Murray — but don’t carry handicaps.

That doesn’t mean they might not carry their pro.

“Obviously you want to have fun and play well,” said Hovland about teaming up. “I like to play fast. But I do enjoy the format. It’s very unique to be able to play a PGA Tour event with an amateur, and I don't mind it. But I'd prefer to play fast, and I'm here to obviously try to win the golf tournament, so it depends on the partner, as well. I think you get to kind of have a little bit of a different feel to it. It feels more relaxed.”

The lack of fans? AT&T officials decided after shifting the celebrity shoot-out from Tuesday to Wednesday that marshals and security types appreciate time off before tournament play begins Thursday.

What? Didn’t we have too much lonely golf when Covid closed things down three years ago?

“That is a different dynamic,” said Hovland. “It felt lonely.”

As it did Tuesday.

Daniel Berger gets even with Pebble

February 14, 2021 by Art Spander in articles, golf

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — No celebrities or laughs at this AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, but more than enough joy and heartbreak on a course that through the years as proved to be as much of a beast as it is a beauty.

This was golf at its purest, in a tournament going forward under Covid-19 restrictions and with none of the players currently in the world’s top 10 — golf that may have lacked star power, but certainly not drama.

Daniel Berger won it Sunday. Or did many of the others lose it? An unfair question, perhaps, because all those guys on the Tour, from first to last, are wonderfully talented. Or they wouldn’t be on Tour.

Still, it’s a sport of missed shots and bad breaks, and the guy who ends up on top often is the one who keeps his cool along with his well-practiced swing.

Which is what Berger was able to do, if a day late but not a dollar short. Well, make that $1.4 million, the prize Berger earned, shooting a 7-under 65 on Sunday for an 18-under-par 270.

Maverick McNealy, a few years out of Stanford, shot 66 for a 272, while Jordan Spieth, three and a half years without a win — he led by a shot after three rounds — had a 70 and tied Patrick Cantlay, who shot 68, for third at 273.

No less a story, and a sad one, is Nate Lashley, who was tied with Berger for the lead going into 16, had a 12-foot putt to save par but then proceeded to miss it — and the next three, four-putting for a quadruple bogey seven. He finished with 69 for 274.

They tell us golf can be a cruel game, but for the 27-year-old Berger, it was a game of response. After leaving Pebble on Saturday with that double bogey — and he didn’t drive into Carmel Bay, but out of bounds in the other direction — Berger burst out with an eagle on the second hole.

Sixteen holes later he had another eagle 3, on the famed finisher — the 18th, the same hole where he had the 7 a day earlier. Yes, he can power the ball.

On Saturday, Berger became the second person in 4,000-plus shots to drive the green of Pebble’s 403-yard, par-four fourth. Good for a one-putt eagle.

Berger is the son of Jay Berger, who played tennis well enough to reach the quarterfinals of the 1989 French Open. Daniel once swung a racket. Then he started swinging 5-irons.

The 18th at Pebble is a 540-yard par-5 with water all along the left side and a few of those elegant (and expensive) mansions along the right side, thus the OB Berger recorded on Saturday. The last time anyone eagled it in the AT&T was back in the 1980s.

“Any time you do anything historical here at Pebble Beach, you know you accomplished something special,” Berger observed after his fifth win on Tour.

“(Saturday) I just kind of flared it. Today I stepped up there, and I wanted to be as aggressive as possible, and I would rather go down swinging than making a conservative swing that doesn't end up really well.

“Today I hit one of the best 3-woods in my life. I wanted to win. I didn't want to lose it on the last.“

Spieth lost it earlier. He birdied two, then bogied three and five. The unwritten rule at Pebble is get birdies and pars on the front — then hang. Unless you’re Daniel Berger, of course.

”It was just a really poor first six holes,” said Spieth. “And out here, that's where you can score. I talked about getting off to a good start, and standing on the 7 tee it was nice to birdie that hole, but all in all, I really knew that I needed to have a couple birdies to withstand anything that could come on the back nine.

“I needed to be a couple under through 6, and I was 1-over — and really that was the difference.”

Along with Daniel Berger’s play.

In a round of wrong shots, Jordan Spieth makes the right one

February 13, 2021 by Art Spander in articles, golf

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — So many shots in a round of golf, maybe 60-something or 70-something. So many chances to go wrong, particularly on a winter’s day along the central California coast when there’s morning rain and afternoon wind, and those poa annua greens have more bumps than a bad road.

So many chances to make the wrong shot. Or, in the case of Jordan Spieth, wobbling, bogeying, headed for disappointment once more, to make the right shot, the miracle shot, the shot that oh-so-suddenly changed the direction of this year’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

It came on Pebble’s 16th, the hole that slopes down a slight grade full of bunkers. There’s a distant view of the water and the tee of the famous 18th. The 16th is a 403-yard, par-4 where in the 1970s, Johnny Miller shanked a ball that would turn into a win for Jack Nicklaus, back when the tournament was named the Crosby.

Miller won this tournament twice, and Spieth on Saturday put himself into position to do same when he holed his second shot on 16, an 8-iron from 158 yards that bounced, spun and dropped into the cup as an eagle two.

Spieth had bogied 10, 12 and 14. He was falling apart again on the back nine. Then, plunk, he was back together.

“It's a good lesson to learn for (Sunday),” said Spieth, “How quickly things can change out here. Make that turn on the 12th tee and you’re just trying to hold on for dear life into the wind.”

The AT&T is far from over. Spieth saved himself, shot a 1-under-par 34-37—71 for a three-day total of 203, 13 under. But he’s only two shots ahead of five others, Patrick Cantlay (71 on Saturday), Russell Knox (69), Nate Lashley (68), Tom Hoge (68) and Daniel Berger (72).

Berger had his own tales of brilliance (he became only the second golfer besides Davis Love, in more than 4,000 shots, to drive the green of the 403-yard fourth hole, making an eagle 2) and agony (tied for the lead, he drove out of bounds on 18 and had a double-bogey 7).

Indeed, anything can happen, and since Spieth won the 2017 British Open, his third major, what’s happened to him has been not been enjoyable — or satisfying. He’s gone winless. Which is why that shot, and maybe this tournament, could be momentous. As the 27-year-old Spieth concurs.

“I would say definitely more so,” he responded when asked if that eagle boosted his confidence.

“I feel that I've left quite a few shots out on the course, whether it was — not really on Thursday, but definitely Friday and (Saturday), and I'm in the position I want to be in.”

Berger, a Tour winner who is the son of tennis pro Jay Berger, has similar optimistic thoughts, despite that double-bogey on his last hole of this long day. “I mean, it's a hard day when it blows at Pebble,” said Berger, as if it doesn’t always blow at Pebble.

“So overall I'm pretty happy. Obviously I would like that swing back on the last hole, but I'm not going to let it ruin my week, for sure.”

The week has been ruined for golf fans, who through the decades of an event that was started by Bing Crosby in the 1930s were attracted by celebrity amateurs such as Dean Martin and Bill Murray. Because of Covid-19 restrictions, there were no amateurs or fans.

What there was, then, was an event packed with plenty of drama and the continuing question of when and if Jordan Spieth will again win a tournament.

“I don't really care about the timeframe stuff,” Spieth insisted. “I'm really just going to throw that out of my head because I'm finally consistently doing things over the last two weeks that I've wanted to do for a long time.

“I think, obviously the more you continue to do that, the bounces go your way, like the hole-out did today on 16. Someone may do that to me (Sunday) or come shoot a 64 or something. I mean, it's golf and it's Pebble Beach — and you can go low, and it can also be really challenging.”

Or, as indicated by that magical shot on 16, really rewarding.

Phil in the water and out of the AT&T; John Daly looking like Moses

February 12, 2021 by Art Spander in articles, golf

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — So Dustin Johnson withdrew and Tiger Woods rarely enters, but let’s not dwell on the negative, which golfers and journalists seem to emphasize, even when the sun shines — which it did Friday afternoon on the Monterey Peninsula.

True, Phil Mickelson hit two balls into Carmel Bay off Pebble Beach’s 18th and another into the backyard of one of those mega-million-dollar mansions along the 14th.

And John Daly, with a long white beard that made him look like Moses, missed the cut. And first-round leader Patrick Cantlay was 11 shots higher than the first round.

But think about Jordan Spieth, out front after 36 holes and in great shape to win for the first time in three and a half years.

Or the city manager in adjacent Carmel, who will collect a $100 fine, as the signs warn, from anyone reckless enough to appear on the streets of the formerly quaint little burg without a face mask.

Yes, Covid-19 times everywhere you wanted to wander, whether to the course, where there are no amateurs, celebrity or otherwise, or to the Hog’s Breath Inn, formerly owned by Clint Eastwood, who formerly was mayor of Carmel — and before that, a movie star.

If Clint, a longtime AT&T tournament board member (and formerly an entrant) will no longer play “Misty” for us, well, the mist is supposed to return for Saturday’s third round — Crosby weather.

Unfortunately Mickelson, who won the tournament five times (as did Mark O’Meara), will not return for the third round. For what was announced as only the fifth time in 2,507 tournament rounds as a pro, Phil failed to break 80. The 80 he recorded along with his 74 on Thursday at Spyglass Hill gave him a 154. The cut was 143.

Mickelson has been doing better on the Champions Tour, guys 50 and over. Phil turned 50 in June. Daly, 54, has been on the Champions Tour full time, even after being diagnosed for bladder cancer.

“I’m not shaving until I’m cured,” said a courageous Daly. Against the younger guys here at Pebble and Spyglass, Daly shot 80-77 — 157.

That was one stroke lower than Kamaiu Johnson, 27, who was playing in a Tour event for the first time. Johnson was found outside a course in Tallahassee, Fla., swinging a stick, invited to take lessons and won on the Advocates Tour. Johnson next will play in the Honda.

The Tour can be difficult, even when you’re a champion. Spieth won the Masters and U.S. Open in 2015, other events including the 2017 AT&T and then in July 2017 the British Open at Royal Birkdale.

But nothing since, and so he’s been asked again and again when the drought will end. He shot a 61 in last weekend’s Waste Management Phoenix Open, and even if he did not win — Brooks Koepka did — Spieth was satisfied.

As he was on Saturday after a 67 at Spyglass for 132. Daniel Berger, a winner on Tour, shot 66 at Pebble for 133. Henrik Norlander was at 64-70—134, while Cantlay, starting off the 10 at Spyglass with a lost ball and a bogey, had a 73 — compared to his 62 Thursday at Pebble.

“I'm in great position after the midway point,” said Spieth. “So I feel a little bit improved, getting better each day. Yeah, I made a ton of longer putts, like in order to be in the lead like normal, which is probably a really good sign that I'm keeping the ball in front of me and striking it really nicely, and a couple mistakes here or there. Other than that, it was really clean.”

Said Cantlay: “It wasn't that bad after that first tee shot. I didn't make very many putts, hit a lot of good putts, and the greens, like always, are just bumpy and I wasn't able to get many to go in. But all in all, I played pretty good today.

“Just obviously two shots worse, just not finding the golf ball.”

Not all golfers emphasize the negative — unlike all journalists.

Cantlay takes advantage of Pebble: 10 birdies, no bogies

February 11, 2021 by Art Spander in golf, articles

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — This was a day to play Pebble Beach, a day, gray and quiet, for tourists to wrap themselves in sweaters and dreams, a day for a golfer to go after a course that without the elements virtually begged you to make birdies.

Which on Thursday, in the opening round of the 2021 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, is what Patrick Cantlay did. Not that he was alone.

Cantlay is one of those guys just on the fringe of fame, and this week on the fringe of the world’s top 10 — he’s No. 11, the highest ranked player in the field and, after 18 holes, the highest placed player on the scoreboard.

Ten birdies and no bogies for Cantlay, which of course is 10 under par at a course that through the ages has become as famous for wind and rain — and gallows humor — as for the people who have won here.

People named Nicklaus, Palmer, Woods, Mickelson and, way back in the ‘40s and ‘50s, Hogan, Snead and Demaret. First names are not needed for those guys, although everyone knows Woods by his adopted first name, Tiger. And someday, a first name may not be required for Cantlay.

In the last two tournaments he’s entered, Cantlay has a 61, 11 under, in the American Express down in Palm Desert and then, 400 miles north and a couple of weeks apart, the 62 at Pebble.

“Yeah, especially a continuation of the desert on the weekend,” said Cantlay of his golf Thursday along Carmel Bay. “My swing feels really good right now. The ball's starting on the line that I'm seeing, and then my distance control has been really good, which is key out here.”

Cantlay was two shots ahead of Akshay Bhatia and Henrik Norlander. Another shot back at 7-under 65 were Nate Lashley, who you may not have heard of, and Jordan Spieth — who you also may not have heard of lately other than for his struggles.

Which finally may be over.

When it comes to overcoming struggles, the 28-year-old Cantlay is the unfortunate poster boy. Ten years ago, at UCLA, he was the nation’s top college player and for more than a year the No. 1 amateur in the world.

But he incurred a stress fracture in his back and couldn’t play for months.

Then, after he recovered, in February 2016, he watched from a nearby curb as his caddy and pal from high school in Anaheim, Chris Roth, was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver in Newport Beach.

Cantlay was so shaken he couldn’t play. “For a while, I couldn’t care less about everything,” he said at the time. “Not just golf. Everything that happened in my life for a couple months didn’t feel important. Nothing felt like it mattered.”

The healing process took weeks. Cantlay returned, with a boom. He won the 2019 Memorial and then, near the end of 2020, the Zozo at Sherwood in southern California, about a hundred miles from where he grew up. Now two scintillating rounds in his home state.

“I always like being up here in Monterey,” he said. “Even though it’s cold this time of year, I like playing Pebble Beach. I like Spyglass (where he and Spieth play Friday).

“So I’m excited for this year. It looks like we’re going to get some rain, which isn’t uncommon, but I always like being here, and I like the golf courses and I like the California golf.

Because of Covid-19 restrictions, there are no amateurs this year in the AT&T. No spectators either for an event as well known for celebrities such as Bill Murray and for the fans who tend to be as excited to watch them as, say, Patrick Cantlay.

“Yeah, we did play a lot quicker, which is nice,” said Cantlay. “Anytime you play this tournament and get finished under five hours, it's a good day.”

Anytime you shoot 10-under at Pebble, believed to tie the course record for a round in the AT&T, it’s a great day.

Kamaiu Johnson at Pebble: A Hollywood story

February 10, 2021 by Art Spander in articles, golf

By Art Spander

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — The shame is none of those high-powered Hollywood types who usually fill the amateur slots will be playing in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. They’d love the Kamaiu Johnson story.

Then again, who wouldn’t?

It seems more fiction than fact, a kid from nothing, who dropped out of school in the eighth grade, starts swinging a stick near a golf course in Tallahassee, Florida, catches the eye of the course general manager and works and putts his way to the big time.

Kamaiu is 27, an African-American who — could this be any more perfect? — in Black History Month will make his own history when he tees off Thursday in the AT&T.

All that beauty and wealth of Pebble, where it costs just to get through the gates, where the waves crash and seagulls sweep. And where Johnson will make his first start on the PGA Tour.

Is it redundant to say he came up the hard way, winning an event on the Advocates Professional Golf Association Tour, a circuit created to “bring greater diversity to the game by developing African Americans and other minorities for careers in golf”?

Sure, there’s Tiger Woods, who remains the face of the game if at age 35 he doesn’t remain atop the standings. Harold Varner III, Joseph Bramlett and Sacramento’s Cameron Champ — who won the Safeway a couple of years ago — are the other black golfers on Tour.

None came up the way Kamaiu Johnson did — or overcame the same obstacles.

“Golf saved me,” Johnson told Tod Leonard of Golf Digest.

Johnson was an athlete, a baseball player, but as one of four children in a fatherless family, he couldn’t afford to play on a club team. So there he was taking big swipes with a branch outside Halman Golf Club in Tallahassee when Jan Augur, the GM, invited him inside to hit balls on the range with a real club.

Obviously he had talent. And finally he had an opportunity. There were lessons. And there was progress. He won the Advocates, and that gained him a place in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines at the end of January. But he was never able to enter, withdrawing due to a positive Covid-19 test.

But he had come too far to be discouraged or depressed, even with his mother in the hospital in Orlando because of breathing difficulties. Word traveled. Johnson was invited both to the AT&T and, a couple weeks from now, the Honda Classic in his home state.

“I thought I was going to get my first PGA Tour event this week,” he told USA Today’s Steve DiMeglio, before the Farmers. “But God had other plans for me.

“I’m just so thankful for the support I’ve gotten over the way I was treated. I’m thankful to the AT&T and Farmers and Honda for all they’ve been doing for me. It’s been amazing how many people reached out to me.”

Johnson had to quarantine outside San Diego. He’s now cleared, of course. His mother has improved.

“I feel absolutely back to normal. I tried to stay active.”

Staying active is not staying in the groove, however. And even when a golfer is prepared, those Monterey Peninsula courses — Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill this year; no amateurs, no need for Monterey Peninsula — can intimidate.

Even veterans know the tales of grief, balls in the water on so many of Pebble’s holes, balls in the bunkers at Spyglass — so a first-timer will have to be particularly defensive.

Then again, after what he’s gone through to get here, no golf course, no matter its reputation, should worry Kamaiu Johnson. When you begin by swinging a stick, the rest is a joy.

Phil Mickelson, always unconventional

February 05, 2020 by Art Spander in articles, golf