Peter Malnati leads after winds halt play Saturday at Pebble Beach

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – For some context to the reason Saturday’s third round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am was never completed, we offer these snapshots:

• At the 570-yard, par-5 sixth, a hole that demands that you stand on the tee and let it rip, Jordan Spieth did just that. He produced a 240-yard drive.

• At the 113-yard, par-3 seventh – repeat, 113 yards – Ryan Palmer hit 7 iron.

• Stay at that dainty little seventh hole and digest the fact that 28 players played it to a stroke average of 3.143 with bogeys out numbering birdies, 5-2.

• Playing beautifully and sitting just one off the lead, Seamus Power from just 83 yards missed the green wildly left and found a greenside bunker at the par-4 fourth. He blasted to 4 ½ feet but three putted for double bogey.

Mind you, all this took place in the gusty winds and intermittent rain at Pebble Beach where conditions were arguably not quite as treacherous as those greens at Monterey Peninsula Country Club, Nos. 9 and 15, that are more exposed and sitting hard against the Pacific along 17 Mile Drive.

All of which explains why “Pebble weather,” which is as much a part of this iconic tournament as Stillwater Cove, Bill Murray’s levity and memories of Johnny Miller’s heroics at the age of 46, has once again dominated the show.

Play in Round 3 was halted at 12:12 p.m. at MPCC, then at 12:20 at Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hills. It never resumed because Gary Young, PGA TOUR vice-president of rules, competition, and administration said the forecast was “for winds to only get much higher.”

Consequently, a number of changes have been made to this storied tournament.

Round 3 play will resume at 8 a.m. Sunday and amateurs are not required to return. (It is expected that only those amateurs in contention will come back and compete in the pro-am, which will be cut to 54 holes.)

Young expects that another 3 ½ hours will be needed to complete Round 3 after which the field will be trimmed to pros only, the low 65 and ties. Normally, only low 60 and ties make the pro cut here but given the circumstances, “we thought it was the right thing to do.”

Assuming all goes as planned – and the forecast for Sunday calls for periods of stead rain – the fourth round would begin at approximately 12:30 p.m. and a Monday finish would be required.

That’s a lot of moving parts, yes, but what is set in place – at least for right now – is a leaderboard that has a trio of players who were on Pebble Beach Saturday. Peter Malnati had three straight birdies early in his round, then added three more at Nos. 1, 2 and 3 to push to 12-under. Joseph Bramlett was 2-under through 13 holes to push to 10-under, tied with Keith Mitchell, who has made just three bogeys in 46 holes but knows his assignment has flipped considerably.

“Definitely pleased with how I played,” said Mitchell, who birdied Nos. 3, 4 and 6 dead into the wind and relished the thoughts of playing a stretch of holes with a more favorable wind. “I felt like I had some good scoring opportunities coming up,” he said.

But after making a bogey at the ninth to fall to 10-under and two off the lead, Mitchell never got that opportunity.

“Wind looks like it’s going to be switched (Sunday) so now I’ll be playing 11 through pretty much almost through 18 straight into the wind.”

Mitchell shrugged. He knows about the infamous “rub of the green.” He also knows that Sunday morning “with the rain and the gusts up to 20 (m.p.h.) is going to be tough, but we’ve got to give it our best.”

Spieth can commiserate with Mitchell. He, too, will resume at Pebble where his fortunes went sideways Saturday. The crowd favorite here had a rough time into the wind at the fifth (bogey), eighth (bogey) and ninth (double) and fell to 1-under. He’s smack on the cutline with nine to play.

For Mitchell, it’s not so much that he started the day just one off of Kurt Kitayama’s 9-under lead and now sits two behind Malnati. It’s more about the environment that has changed dramatically.

The major goal at the start of the week is for “the team” to make the cut and play a fourth round and Mitchell and Buffalos Bills star quarterback Josh Allen seemed destined to do just that. They were 19-under when play stopped but being six behind the leaders (Ben Silverman and Aaron Rodgers are 25-under) and with just eight holes to play “but he won’t be able to play the last round.”

Mitchell, who said he hadn’t even talked to Allen to see if he’s coming back Sunday morning, concedes it’s not quite the same even if he does. The wind has blown the picture upside down and the grind to make the cut has been taken away.

That’s Mitchell’s No. 1 weather complaint.

“We’ve had a great group with Kevin Chappell and Eric Church (at 7-under, their team play appears over). We’ve been having a blast,” said Mitchell, who’ll be trying to chase down his second PGA TOUR win.

“I actually was actually pretty bummed because we had such a good time.”

The challenge will be to find more joy in the rain and wind.