Five share lead at AT&T Pebble Beach, but only Jordan Spieth has extra holes
4 Min Read
PEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 08: Jordan Spieth of the United States prepares to play his shot from the 13th tee during the second round of the AT
Jordan Spieth Round 2 highlights at AT&T Pebble Beach
Note: This file has been updated after the completion of the second round Saturday morning at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Jordan Spieth hopes to complete 20 holes on Saturday. He’ll need to do it on two different courses.
Spieth was the only player among the five co-leaders who failed to finish the second round before play was suspended Friday afternoon due to wet conditions at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. The 2017 champ is one of 44 golfers facing an extended day Saturday as the tournament seeks to get its schedule back on track.
Play resumed at 10:10 a.m. ET (7:10 a.m. local) with Spieth having two holes left at Spyglass Hill. He’d completed his second round after finishing the ninth hole, then shuttled to Pebble Beach for the third round.
“I’ve got a shot from the fairway on eight, and then the ninth hole trying to make two pars there – and then go on to Pebble and kind of see what the day gives you,” Spieth said on Friday.
Unfortunately, he was unable to produce two pars. Spieth bogeyed his last hole, the par-4 ninth at Spyglass Hill, early Saturday morning to finish off a 4-under 68 that left him at 9 under through 36 holes.
That left four players at 10 under and tied for the lead after 36 holes -- Phil Mickelson, Paul Casey, Lucas Glover and Scott Langley.
Looking ahead to the rest of the forecast Saturday, meteorologist Joe Halvorson said there will be on-and-off periods of light rain, “with considerable dry time between the showers.” Winds could gust to 18 mph in the afternoon, and then another wave of rain is expected overnight Saturday.
The heavy stuff on Friday didn’t appear until early afternoon. With tee times moved up an hour, it allowed 111 players and their amateur partners to finish the second round before play was suspended at 2:11 p.m. locally.
Mickelson, Casey, Glover and Langley each finished their 36 holes on Friday at 10 under, with Spieth at the same mark after 34 holes. Jason Day was at 9 under with three holes remaining on his round - he bogeyed his first hole Saturday but bounced back with a birdie to join Spieth in a tie for fifth. Scott Piercy, solo seventh, is at 8 under after playing his three holes Saturday in even par.
“I’m so happy to get done,” Casey said after his 7-under 64 at Monterey Peninsula, the low score on Friday. “We were on the last hole and I heard that horn go. And then there was a second one and then a third one. … I had to think for a minute because you get one long blast, you’re done. But the three means, I guess, it’s bad conditions but you can finish the hole. I’m like, ‘We can finish the hole?’
“I’ve never been so happy. I went from upset to happy in an instant.”
Langley, whose best finish in six starts in this event was a T-62 a year ago, had to play his last three holes at Spyglass Hill in the rain. He three-putted the 17th for bogey and eventually finished with a 3-under 69 after shooting a 64 at Monterey Peninsula on Thursday.
“Thankfully we got pretty much 15 holes rain-free, which I felt pretty lucky to get,” Langley said. “So count it as a good break, and obviously really happy with my score. Spyglass always seems to be the course that I’ll call it the toughest out of the three.”
Of the top six players on the leaderboard, Mickelson, Langley, Spieth and Day will play their third rounds at Pebble Beach, where most of the crowd will be with the amateur celebrities also on site. Casey will be at Spyglass Hill, and Glover will be at Monterey Peninsula.
If there is an advantage, it would go to Glover. The stroke average for Monterey this week is 1.060 under par, while Spyglass Hill is 0.140 under par and Pebble Beach is 0.191 over par.
But Glover is not looking at it that way. His approach will be the same as the first two rounds. “Just get the ball in the fairway first and then go from there and be aggressive where we can,” he said.
Mickelson, a four-time winner of the AT&T Pebble Beach, has 83 career rounds in this event and is a collective 140 under – the most under par of any player in the last 20 years. He knows the rain and wind and cold -- temperatures will hover around 50 on Saturday -- can challenge anybody’s gameplan.
“You just don’t know how it’s going to play or what the weather’s going to be,” said Mickelson, who was the solo leader for much of his round until three late bogeys brought him back to the pack. “You end up trying to shoot as low a round as you can because everybody else is facing the same conditions.”
But not every player has the same number of holes to play. Ask Spieth, who must start his Saturday earlier than his four co-leaders. At least the course should be drier than when he left it on Friday.