Pebble Beach’s final round is postponed because of rain and raging wind. Wyndham Clark leads by 1
By Doug Ferguson, The Associated Press on February 4, 2024.
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. (AP) – Rain and a raging wind on Sunday caused the final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am to be postponed, leading to the third Monday finish in the last six years. But that assumes it can even be played on Monday. Wyndham Clark two-putted for birdie on his final hole on Saturday for a tournament-record 60 and finished the day with a one-shot lead over Ludvig Aberg. Clark would be declared the winner if the final round cannot be completed. More rain was in the forecast for Monday, which doesn’t bode well for a seaside course already saturated. Rain dumped nearly an inch on a soggy course, leading the tour to twice delay the start of the final round until calling it for the day. Under PGA Tour guidelines, the final round wouldn’t start if there was no chance of finishing it Monday. Gary Young, the chief referee, had said that a “drop dead time” to start would be 10:15 a.m. to be able to finish. Either way, it was a flat finish for the tour’s first full “signature event” that had an elite field of 80 players with no cut and a $20 million purse. It had been a chance for golf to shine on a Sunday with the NFL not playing and the location among the most famous in the sport. This was not a felicitous meeting of land and sea. Instead, it was an angry one. Golf Channel posted images of wild-blown waves crashing off the rocks on the 18th, the ocean spray going over the bunker and onto the fairway. The PGA Tour cited inclement weather and “safety concerns” when announcing the postponement, though it already had been determined spectators would not be allowed if golf had been played on Sunday. The National Weather Service said gusts could reach 60 mph (96 kph) and issued a high-wind advisory for the rest of Sunday. All tournament facilities at Pebble Beach remained closed. The wind toppled portable bathrooms and other structures, and brought down one of the cameras used for the ShotLink scoring system. Signs on Monterey County roads recommended no travel until Monday night because of severe weather. The courses were so wet from overnight rain throughout the week that a dozen golf balls were lost from plugging in the soft turf. In the opening round, Rory McIlroy had to use fingers on both hands to extract his tee shot from the fairway. Bad weather – “Crosby weather” was the moniker back in the day – is not unusual for Pebble Beach. Justin Rose won last year on Monday, and Phil Mickelson had to return on Monday in 2019 because of a final-round delay caused by a hailstorm that turned the greens white. The last 54-hole outcome on the PGA Tour was the Zurich Classic in New Orleans in 2016. Pebble Beach hasn’t had a 54-hole winner since Dustin Johnson in 2009. Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont., is tied for 31st at 7-under overall after three rounds. Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford, B.C., is tied for 39th at 6 under and Adam Svensson of Surrey, B.C., is tied for 47th at 5 under. Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont., and Nick Taylor of Abbotsford are in a group tied for 71st at even par in the no-cut field of 80. If Clark is declared the winner, the U.S. Open champion would be joining some elite company. Since AT&T became the title sponsor, the 54-hole winners at Pebble all have been major champions – Johnson, Payne Stewart (1999), Mickelson (1998), and Fuzzy Zoeller (1986). The most unusual of those 54-hole wins was Mickelson. The first two rounds were in January before rain made it impossible to finish, and the third round was played in August, the day after the PGA Championship up the Pacific coast near Seattle. At the time, that was the closest Mickelson had come to winning a major. Clark could join Stewart as players who birdied the final hole of the third round to lead by one, not knowing that would be the last shot. Clark’s birdie wasn’t as dramatic. He had an eagle putt from just outside 25 feet for a 59 and left it a few inches short. Aberg later had a long eagle putt that would have tied him. Clark had said Saturday afternoon he was aware of the forecast. He started the third round six shots out of the lead when he set the course record with 60. “I definitely thought about it last night and this morning with everyone saying how bad the weather’s going to be,” he said. “You’ve got to have that mentality that today’s the last day so try to go for broke. With that said, that’s very rare that we have 54 holes, so I wasn’t banking on that and I’m still not banking on it.” ___ AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf 22-21
