Austria’s Sepp Straka opened up a three-stroke lead at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am by firing his second straight round of 65 on Friday in Pebble Beach, Calif.
Straka followed a strong opening round at Spyglass Hill Golf Course with a 7-under-par 65 at Pebble Beach Golf Link on Friday with eight birdies and just one bogey. The field is playing one round apiece at each of the two courses before Pebble Beach hosts the weekend rounds.
At 14-under 130, Straka is comfortably ahead of Russell Henley (69, Pebble Beach) and Australian Cam Davis (68, Spyglass Hill), tied for second at 11 under.
Straka won The American Express in the Palm Springs, Calif., area two weeks ago for his third career PGA Tour title. He said the key to his strong start has been putting, which was evidenced Friday by a 23-footer and a 15-footer he made for two of his birdies.
“Made a few setup changes in my putting and that’s really helped out a lot,” Straka said. “Palm Springs was the first time in a long time I felt that I had four really good putting rounds in a row. Yeah, I think that’s definitely made a huge difference.”
He may be hot, but Straka isn’t getting ahead of himself.
“Last six rounds have been pretty nice,” he said. “Yeah, I mean, no, I would not classify that as a run. I think Scottie Scheffler’s on a run.”
Henley carded five birdies with two bogeys on Friday as winds began to pick up late in his round. The forecast for Saturday is not looking better.
“Oh, man, (I’ll) try to be positive,” Henley said. “Everybody’s going to deal with it. So I’m just going to try to commit to my shots, make some good decisions and hopefully that works out.”
Davis had a fortuitous start to his round when he chipped in for eagle from the greenside rough at the par-5 first hole at Spyglass Hill.
“Just tugged my second shot a little left, but it came up just short left of the green,” Davis said. “Had to hit sort of a flop shot over the rough line, on the fringe and try to roll it out. Hit the pin dead center and went in, so perfect.”
Andrew Novak fired a 65 at Spyglass Hill and Tony Finau posted a 67 there to join a tie for fourth at 10 under with Tom Kim of South Korea (65, Pebble Beach), England’s Justin Rose (69, Spyglass Hill) and Austin Eckroat (67, Pebble Beach).
Like Straka, Kim has focused on putting recently, though his recent changes have been more equipment-based. His new blade putter helped him get seven birdies without a bogey Friday, including a 32 1/2-footer.
“Just back to a blade, something that I’ve putted well with,” Kim said. “You know, I think mallet, blade, they both have their positives and they both have their negatives. I just felt like I needed something a little bit more consistent and something that I’ve won with.”
Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy settled for a 70 at Pebble Beach one day after making a hole-in-one early in his round Thursday at Spyglass. At 8 under for the tournament, McIlroy is tied for 13th with other big names including Collin Morikawa (67, Pebble), Patrick Cantlay (70, Spyglass) and Irishman Shane Lowry (70, Spyglass).
Scheffler is in a tie at 7 under after posting 70 at Pebble Beach. All three of Scheffler’s birdies Friday were in one three-hole stretch (Nos. 6-8). The World No. 1 is competing for the first time since injuring his hand while cooking over the holidays a month ago.
Eighty players were eligible to compete in the signature event, but Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg withdrew Friday citing an illness one day after dropping to last place with an opening-round 77.
–Field Level Media
