It was the second-straight Sunday in which Jordan Spieth began his day with the lead, and the second straight Sunday in which a Florida State Seminole came back to take it from him.
Daniel Berger was the culprit this week, draining an eagle putt on the 18th hole to win the Pebble Beach Pro-Am by two. “That was the best putt I’ve hit in my life,” Berger told CBS afterward.
It was his second eagle of the day — he also made a 3 at the par-5 6th — and it earned him his fourth career victory on Tour and first since last summer, when he won at Colonial. Berger spent much of 2020 asserting himself as one of the best players since the pandemic shut down Tour operations. But as he told GOLF.com in September, he stayed sharp as ever during quarantine, aggregating a total of 30- or 40-under par during a six-round stretch before the Tour restarted.
It WAS a great eagle, but folks seem to be forgetting that he only needed birdie... More to the point, he made eagle after having blocked his tee ball OB on Saturday. So, while playing the 18th in an even par ten strokes might seem disappointing, in this case it was quite the thing.
So, how good do we think Daniel Berger is? I'll admit to not having much of a fix on it, but let's see what those alleged experts in the Tour Confidential panel think:
Berger, who is 27, prevailed thanks in part to a dramatic eagle 3 on Pebble Beach’s iconic par-5 18th, making him one of five players to have multiple wins since the Tour’s restart in May (he joins Dustin Johnson, Jon Rahm, Collin Morikawa and Bryson DeChambeau). In terms of overall potential, where do you rank Berger among the Tour’s crop of twentysomethings?
Zak: I’ll put him just behind Xander Schauffele. And narrowly. Which probably means he’s like 7th or 8th among that twentysomethings crop. That’s still damn good. Win a bigger event — which he will — and people will start to talk differently, too.
Bamberger: He doesn’t look like one of the rising stars in their 20s. His swing, body type and demeanor give you the impression he’s not going to bring it again and again, like a Jon Rahm BUT the results are the results. To play 18 in 10 shots on the weekend was outstanding. He can lean on that for some time to come: I was down, but not out.
Dethier: There are six guys I think belong ahead of Berger: Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Patrick Cantlay and Bryson DeChambeau. And a couple of those are negotiable. That 18th hole was incredible.
Bastable: Need to see more out of him in the majors before making any sweeping declarations (just two top-10s in 18 starts), but I’m very excited to see him at Whistling in the Ryder Cup this year. At the 2017 Presidents Cup, Berger struck me as an excellent team guy — when not playing, he was flying all over Liberty urging on his teammates.
Which couple, Dylan? The real answer is, who knows, but it'll be fun watching how it plays out...
So, what else caught our eye this week. How about we start with things I liked?
That 10th Tee - How cool was that? The PGA Tour staff no doubt knows their constituents, who crave nothing more than predictability. But if you want to see elite players at their best, show them something new.
The back nine at Pebble Beach is a contorting layout back to the clubhouse that plays plenty difficult with or without heavy winds off the Pacific Ocean. And thanks to some great setup decisions by the PGA Tour, it started with one helluva golf hole this week during the Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
The 10th at Pebble is listed at 495 yards when it hosts the U.S. Open, and more than 400 yards for the three non-forward tees set up for amateur play. But this week, the tee box for the 10th was all over the place, and especially on Sunday, when it was moved up some 130 yards.
And, just to be clear, it's not exactly an eyesore:
So, how did they come up with the crazy idea of putting the tee there? Well, it's been there all along:
The tee box is actually located between the 9th green and the Pacific Ocean, out on whatever remains of the flat land in the vicinity. As Doug Ferguson reported for the Associated Press back in 2014, this tee box was forgotten for years. It was actually siting there, unused, and unkempt by the maintenance team. But Sunday it showed just how tempting it can be.
Viewers who closely followed Jordan Spieth’s final round saw him nuke a drive that ran up just short of the green, from which he pitched on to a couple feet and made a much-needed birdie. But just moments before Spieth teed off, we also saw Nate Lashley groove a long iron, nearly miss the fairway left and make par from 112 yards.
The hole was unsurprisingly appreciated by many people on social media. It’s the perfect rival for the 18th tee box, where players are also asked to bite off as much of the corner as they can chew. And for the field, going for it became the obvious correct play. The large majority of birdies or eagles (red/yellow dots below) were made from players who went long off the tee instead of short into the fairway. Will Gordon was the mastermind who ran all the way through the green with his tee shot that traveled 357 yards.
Yes, it offers options, something sorely missing from modern golf. But remember that Bobby Jones video from Friday?
This is awesome. https://t.co/dFraPscfI6
— Alan Shipnuck (@AlanShipnuck) February 9, 2021
As noted in that first excerpt, note how differently the hole played throughout the week:
Shack credits the Tour staff for more flexibility than your humble blogger noticed:
A special shout-out must go to the PGA Tour staff using a fun mix of tees to liven-up the setup. From a 139-yarder at the 5th to Sunday’s shorter 10th tee, the switch-up from normal pro-am years was welcomed. And no change was more exciting than seeing players going for the 18th in two.
My theory is that Pebble 18's physical beauty for decades masked what a dreadfully boring hole it was, at least for elite players. The players weren't even tempted to try to reach it, and nobody made anything on that green. Ironically, this a hole that's been enhanced by distance gains, which probably means they played it too long.
The TC panel riffed on this tee box in an interesting manner:
In an exciting twist at the AT&T, the Tour sent players off a little-used tee box on the 10th hole that made the par-4 nearly drivable while also bringing more of the coastline into play on the tee shot. If you were tasked with setting up Pebble and could shake up one other hole setup to keep the players on their toes, what would you do?Zak: No. 2 needs to be a par 4, like it is during the U.S. Open. Shorten it if you have to! Make 11 drivable, too. Move the tee box to the left and closer to the hole. Shots that bound up onto the green could roll up to that steep back edge of the green and perhaps entertain a par-4 ace.
Let me just interject that No. 6 played easier than No. 2 this week, though I agree that No. 2 isn't much of a three-shotter for these beasts.
Bamberger: Good calls, young Zak. You could move up the tee on 16 and make it close-to-drivable, too.Dethier: This might qualify as a “big change,” but it seems a shame that the money holes are 6-7-8 when those could just as easily fall in a more climactic bit of the round. If you were re-routing Pebble, you’d make that three-hole stretch 12-13-14, take two holes to connect back to the 17th tee and finish on the fantastic 18th. What a back nine that would be!Bastable: Back up the tee at 7 (there’s a little spit of land short and right of the 6th green that would allow you to do it — h/t to Twitter user Michael Lord, who actually mapped this out). Love to see the guys’ reactions as they pull up to the 7th expecting a little flip wedge only to encounter 210 into a blind green.
I don't think so, Alan... Take a look at this Google Earth image and see what you think:
Can you imagine? Now imagine it in 30 mph gusts...
One other thing I liked was CBS' drone. Shack had this brief note of it:
Add in CBS presenting a zippier show than in the past filled with those stunning drone and blimp shots…
Did they step up their game? I don't remember being as wowed at Torrey, but some of those shots took my breath away. Geoff has some embedded video at the link above for anyone that missed the broad cast.
Now we get to our raison d'être, the things I didn't like so much.
Spitehopia - I like the kid well enough, but the obsessiveness of the coverage seems a bit strange. For instance, I've long berated the Tour Confidential panel for their obsessive Tiger-myopia, only to see them replace it by stalking Jordan. This week they even upped their gaming, leading with two questions pertaining to Spieth.
For the second consecutive week, the Jordan Spieth Comeback Tour gave golf fans a thrill. A week after contending at the Waste Management, Spieth took his rejuvenated game to the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, where after 54 holes he led by two. But as was the case inScottsdale, Spieth cooled off in the fourth round at Pebble, shooting a two-under 70 to finish in a tie for third, three back of Daniel Berger. What did you learn about Spieth’s game this week that you didn’t know last week?
Sean Zak: It would appear his irons game is indeed sharp as hell, which you can win with. Just ask Adam Scott. And if Spieth had driven the ball any better on Sunday, he might have won this week. He continues to look more and more like his 2017 self — very good, but not as good as 2015 — which is a great step back.
Michael Bamberger: I think we relearned something: that 72 holes is WAY different from 54 or 73 or 71. But as Tiger used to say, when you’re learning something new, you take baby steps. Jordan’s taking baby steps. Watch out, April.
Dylan Dethier: The nice thing about this week was that Spieth told us the truth. No need to read between the lines. “Man, for whatever reason it’s never freakin’ easy,” he said on Saturday. That about sums it up. He’s not making golf look easy, but he’s hitting his irons well and competing like crazy and really playing golf.
Alan Bastable: [whispers] Um … maybe he’s not quite all the way back? Watching Spieth’s revival has been a joy, but he’s still hitting too many loose shots to close out tournaments. Spieth himself said he’s toting around his “B game.” Man, watch out world if he finds his A game.
C'mon, Dylan, even in 2015 he didn't make anything look easy.... OK, except for that Masters.
But the A-game, B-game thing is a red herring... Right now he's a very different guy on Sunday, and that's not something he should need to learn for the first time.
So, what else can they possibly have to say?
For all the positives in Spieth’s recent starts, he hasn’t been able to close. What’s most keeping him from picking up his 12th PGA Tour title?
Zak: Eh, the difference between winning and just contending can be as simple as luck. But Tony Finau truthers would tell you it’s hitting big shots in big moments (and avoiding the bad shots in
big moments), just like Berger did Sunday. Spieth has two straight weeks of not hitting the big shots on Sunday, but that’s fine right now. People have spent entire careers in that space. I think he’ll figure it out soon.
Bamberger: Stands over the driver not knowing. I can feel the pain from here. Can’t get the uphill birdie putts to the front door. He’s still tight. It will come.
Dethier: He’s one big Sunday round away. He’s a few big shots in big moments away. This is far too simple, but on Sunday Daniel Berger made his round of 65 look easy and Jordan Spieth made his round of 70 look like hard work. Spieth needs to play some easier golf.
Bastable: Yep, he sure doesn’t make it easy on himself. He never really did, even when he was winning majors, but the last couple of weeks have been an absolute high-wire act. That Sunday 70 could have easily been a 75. He hit just six fairways and a couple of his greens in reg were herculean efforts from dastardly lies. One other must-do if he wants to close out tournaments: Never. Question. Greller.
Gee, that's a riddle... He's had the 54-hole lead the last two weeks and hasn't won, so I'll go way out on a limb and suggest that he needs to play better on Sunday.
More substantively, I was always a bit of Jordan skeptic because, per Alan Bastable above, his game always seemed a high-wire act that couldn't possibly be sustainable for long. That crooked driving, just look at the perfect accompanying photo, eventually gets you into positions from which the miraculous escapes can't be made. Mind you, it's plenty entertaining and comes with quite the soundtrack, but I just see him as a top tier player. That doesn't mean he can't grab a trophy or two before he's done...
I do really like the kid because, unlike the Tigers of the world, he lets us in on his struggles. As an example, take these comments on that 10th tee box mentioned above:
Ironically, Ferguson got Spieth to comment on the tee box back in 2014. ”It looked really cool,” Spieth said seven years ago. ”Doesn’t look like it’s going to be used because it’s a lot shorter hole from there. But if it was up another 30 yards, it makes it almost drivable. And that would be a really cool hole if 10 was drivable with the water sticking in there, and the way the green is shaped. That would be a pretty awesome hole.”
When asked if he would try to drive the green from that tee box, Spieth gave a fun prediction for his future self.
”If I’m under 30 years old, I’ll go for it,” Spieth said. He’s now 27. ”If I grow up and I’m smart, I’ll probably lay up.”
Seven years later, he sure lived up to it.
It took seven years, but it was indeed awesome. But it's also just an interesting take on the question that reveals his basic decency and willingness to engage with us. Of course, they didn't need to move it up that ten yards because...well, you know why.
Of course, there's a reason we leave so many browser tabs open.... So we can, yanno, have fun with guys like this, which was posted Friday:
It's time: Jordan Spieth is going to win at Pebble Beach this weekend
Or not.
Penalties - Egads, what the hell is going on out there? Maverick McNeally on Saturday then Russell Knox on Sunday.... well, I didn't really see either, but the guys did:
Two players at Pebble — Maverick McNealy in the third round and Russell Knox in the fourth — were penalized under Rule 9-4 for inadvertently moving their balls as they addressed them. Under the 2019 rules update, players are no longer penalized if they are deemed to have unintentionally moved their balls on the green. Should that rule be extended to exonerate players who do the same through the green?
God, NO! Two words, and the first one is Patrick...
Zak: I used to struggle with this one, thinking that players shouldn’t place or ground their club so close to the ball, but Russell Knox’s ball moved from within the fairway, where we should be able to expect our ball to stay in place before we act on it. If golf balls move at all while the player is nearby, replace them. No penalty. That avoids all the confusion.
Bamberger: Very tough. Play the ball as it lies is a central tenet. If you cause the ball to move, it’s a shot. Yet these micromovements have no impact on anything. But when does a micromovement turn into actual movement? I play often on a course with zoysia fairways. That ball can fall off its perch in the takeaway. It’s a shot. Should it be? I don’t know, but it is. When in doubt, hover. At least for now.
Dethier: Complete and total exoneration! There should be more leeway in this rule. A player shouldn’t be able to improve his or her lie, but if it inadvertently moves, move it back, free of charge.\Bastable: Disagree. On the greens, I get it. When the surfaces are slicker than bowling alleys, a player should not be penalized for a ball’s sudden and unexpected movement. But on the rest of the course, it’s rarely a natural force (like wind or a shifting sprig of poa) that sets a ball in motion — it’s a club swipe, a footprint, some kind of human action. Proceed with extreme care, golfers, and you shall avoid infractions!
Like the writers, I am at sea on this one. Especially for Knoxie, because this so rarely happens on the fairway...
That said, I am completely unwilling to give players carte blanche here, given their predilection for placing their clubs behind the ball, which to me serves no acceptable purpose. Play it as it lies, guys!
Oh, Nate! - It's a ridiculous green, but not a good look, Nate:
Nate Lashley rolled in the 3-foot putt on the 16th at Pebble Beach, then took both hands andflipped his putter head-over-head into the sky. He picked his ball from the cup. Lashley then took three steps and slammed the head of his putter into the green. His putter was up. His putter was down. Just like his tournament in a three-minute span.
“Errrrgh,” he shouted.
“Ugh,” analyst Frank Nobilo said on CBS’ broadcast of Sunday’s final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
Lashley had entered the 399-yard, par-4 16th tied for the lead. Seven shots and four putts later, he was tied for fifth, three strokes back with two holes to go.
Errrrgh.
Ugh.
Somehow this description doesn't do it justice:
On his first putt, Lashley missed just right of the hole. Moments later, from three feet away, his putt grazed the left edge of the cup and jumped out. Lashley flipped his putter into the air for the first time. “You got to be kidding me,” he said.
“It’s even hard to watch from the vantage point,” on-course analyst Dottie Pepper said on the broadcast.
“You can get kicked in the teeth in this game,” Nobilo said.
For his third putt, from two feet away, Lashley missed on the same side of the hole. He slowly circled around the cup toward his ball and tapped in for a four-putt and a triple bogey.
That second putt, to my eye, was just hit far too hard to hole, but on the third his blade completely shut down and the putt veered hard left. We've all had moments where we lose control of bodies, so I'm really quite sympathetic.... but that pounding of the ground is far too reminiscent of a certain Spanish Player.... Pro tip: never go full Sergio!
The Field - I know we touched on this subject on Friday, but Shack has a follow-up post, which will also serve as a preview of the coming week at historic Riviera. First, the detailed down-and-dirty on just how God-awful the Pebble field was:
- The Official World Golf Ranking puts the strength of field at 141.
- Last week’s two events had strength of field scores of 395 and 463 (Saudi International and Waste Management Open).
- The 2021 AT&T Pebble Beach features zero top 10 players and only five inside the top 50
- The field has just 23 of the world top 100 and only 55 of the world top 200 WITH NO OTHER EVENT ON THE CALENDAR THIS WEEK.
- There are 14 players outside the top 1000.
- In 2020 the only fields with weaker SOF: Bermuda Championship, Sanderson Farms, Barracuda Championship, Safeway Open and Puerto Rico Open. The biggies.
- There is no pro-am format this year, with play whittled to Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hills
- John Daly is playing on a former PGA Champion exemption. That’s a tournament he captured 30 years ago this year. We are on our sixth American president since that win.
- AT&T or some form of the corporation has been one of the tour’s longest running and most devoted sponsors now propping up two events featuring opposite-event quality fields.
You know he's preaching to the converted on the Daly nonsense.... The Golf Channel folks did show him once on Friday, and felt compelled to note that he was in the field because of that PGA, but not sufficiently compelled to mention that it was three decades ago. But why should I be so down on the guy, who rewarded his public by posting a tidy 80-77 (+13) to miss the cut by....well, let's just say many.
Here are the comparable field numbers for Riviera:
- 7 of the world top 10
- 20 of the world top 30
- 30 of the world top 50
Shack has seemed to take the position that Pebble has become a Tour weak sister, though I think we should be judicious in assessing things given this events unique exposure to the effects of the pandemic.
That said, this Larry Bohannan piece is interesting, not least because he writes for a Palm Springs newspaper, and the event formerly known as the Hope did better this year. That said, he has no silver bullets and the excessively jammed Tour calendar I've long thought would ultimately undermine the West Coast swing.
I've gone long on this subject and, while there's other subjects to muse upon, I'm going to declare a hard stop here. We'll get to those on Wednesday, plus whatever else may pop up.
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