Rory McIlroy made a hole-in-one in his PGA Tour season debut, but Russell Henley sat alone atop the leaderboard after a low-scoring first day at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on Thursday in Pebble Beach, Calif.
Henley fired an 8-under-par 64 with nine birdies at Spyglass Hill Golf Course. That included back-to-back birdies at Nos. 17 and 18 to tie the lead and then eke in front of the pack.
“I had a nice wedge shot on 17 to 8 or 10 feet and feel like I hit my line on my putt and went in the middle,” Henley said. “Then 18 kind of did the same thing, good tee shot, good iron shot to 15, 16 feet and read it right.
“So nice way to finish and definitely excited about how I’m playing.”
The 80-man field at the second signature event of the season is playing one round apiece at Pebble Beach Golf Links and Spyglass Hill before spending Saturday and Sunday at Pebble Beach.
Six players are tied at 7-under 65: Viktor Hovland of Norway, Justin Rose of England, Cam Davis of Australia and Jake Knapp, who played Pebble Beach on Thursday, and Austria’s Sepp Straka and Denmark’s Rasmus Hojgaard, who began the tournament at Spyglass.
Hovland made a push late in the day with four birdies on each nine. He missed birdie putts at Nos. 17 and 18 that would have tied him for the lead.
Though a top-10 player in the world rankings, Hovland was transparent entering the tournament that he wasn’t confident with where his game stood.
“I’m still not happy with my game, how it looks, but that doesn’t mean that I can have great individual days or great individual tournaments,” Hovland said. “So I’m still really pumped to shoot 65, but I know that I’m not going to just let that overlook the problems or the issues that I have in my game.”
McIlroy also opened the week at Spyglass and turned in a bogey-free, 6-under 66, buoyed by his ace at the par-3 15th hole. Playing downhill and just 119 yards, the four-time major champ from Northern Ireland flew a wedge shot into the green and his ball could be heard hitting the flagstick before disappearing into the hole without a bounce.
“Honestly, it was lucky. I don’t see many balls nowadays go straight in the hole and stay in the hole,” McIlroy said. “Pretty fortunate because it could have come out and went back in the water or do anything.”
It was McIlroy’s second career hole-in-one on the PGA Tour. He added birdies on three of his final four holes to get to 6 under.
Also carding a hole-in-one Thursday: Ireland’s Shane Lowry, who aced the famed seventh hole at Pebble Beach. His tee shot took two hops on the green before rolling directly in the cup.
“Hopefully Rory’s (at the clubhouse), as well, I get to split the bill with him,” Lowry said of his friend.
Lowry joined McIlroy at 6 under, part of a seven-way tie that also featured Justin Thomas (Spyglass) and Patrick Cantlay (Pebble).
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler opened his 2025 season with a 5-under 67 at Spyglass Hill. He was sidelined for about four weeks after injuring his hand while cooking over the holidays.
“I liked what I saw (Thursday,” Scheffler said. “I hit a few errant shots out there, but overall kept the course in front of me for the most part, so I was able to make a decent amount of birdies.”
Last year’s champion, Wyndham Clark, opened with a 2-over 74 at Pebble Beach. Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg, last year’s runner-up, is in dead last at 5-over 77 (Spyglass).
–Field Level Media
