PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark had an unforgettable spherical at hallowed Pebble Seaside when every part went his approach and each putt appeared to go in. It gave him the course file Saturday with a 12-under 60.
It additionally could be sufficient to provide him one other massive title and $3.6 million with out hitting one other shot on the AT&T Pebble Seaside Professional-Am.
Clark was inches away from a sub-60 spherical on a chilly, soggy course, a efficiency so exceptional it was 9 pictures higher than the sector common. He made 5 putts from 25 toes or longer. He made bogey with maybe his greatest putt of the day after hitting a chip left-handed.
He completed one shot forward of Ludvig Åberg, who missed an extended eagle putt of his personal on the par-5 18th gap and shot 67.
And now it is as much as Mom Nature, with rain and wind gusts probably cutting the signature event to 54 holes, which might give Clark the win.
Dustin Johnson was the final participant to win Pebble Seaside over 54 holes in 2009. Payne Stewart was the final participant to win over 54 holes at Pebble Seaside with a birdie on his final gap Saturday in 1999.
“I undoubtedly considered it final night time and this morning with everybody saying how unhealthy the climate’s going to be,” Clark mentioned. “You have to have that mentality that as we speak’s the final day so attempt to go for broke. With that mentioned, that is very uncommon that we now have 54 holes, so I wasn’t banking on that and I am nonetheless not banking on it.”
Moreover, as soon as the putts began falling, his thoughts was largely clean aside from making birdie, together with two eagles on the entrance 9.
“I used to be simply, ‘See ball, hit ball, attempt to hit it the place I needed to.’ I actually had a very good really feel on the greens,” Clark mentioned. “So in my thoughts I used to be like, ‘All proper, let’s simply get us to the place we’re placing,’ as a result of the outlet appeared like a bucket as we speak.”
And it was. Clark made 190 toes of putts — from the 40-foot vary for eagles on Nos. 2 and 6. And after that second eagle, he ran off 5 straight birdies, together with a 30-footer on the powerful eighth gap and a 25-footer on No. 9.
He was 10 below via 11 holes, and a 59 was behind Clark’s thoughts. After which he made his solely bogey, and even that felt like a win.
He got here out of his tee shot on the par-3 twelfth right into a plugged lie in a bunker, nonetheless some 40 yards to the outlet. He may solely managed to cut that out to the collar of the tough in one other bunker, the ball effectively above his toes. Clark finally selected to invert a wedge to go left-handed, the ball squirting throughout the inexperienced into the primary reduce about 25 toes away.
A double bogey was doubtless. A triple bogey was attainable. He holed it for bogey, after which adopted with two extra birdies and was again on observe.
“Truthfully, of any of the putts as we speak that I used to be not likely attempting to make it was that one,” Clark mentioned. “I actually was simply targeted on my pace and simply attempting to get it down there, two putt, get the double, go to the subsequent gap and transfer on.
“For that to go in, it was like, ‘All proper, man, I am sizzling.'”
Clark knew this was his day when his drive on the sixteenth went into the deep, soggy tough. Simply his luck, it was proper in entrance of the place an animal had been burrowing, giving him a free drop and a clear lie. And the greens have been so tender he may take lifeless purpose at a again pin. He hit that to 10 toes behind the outlet, and the downhill birdie putt was one flip brief.
On the par-3 seventeenth, his 15-foot birdie putt stopped an inch in entrance of the cup. His 25-foot eagle putt for 59 on the ultimate gap additionally was brief by just a few inches.
Irrespective of. His 60 beat by two the match file held by 4 gamers, and by one shot it beat the course file held by Hurly Long of Germany when he performed the Carmel Cup in 2017 with Texas Tech.
The PGA Tour counts information when gamers are capable of elevate, clear and place their golf balls within the brief grass. The European tour doesn’t.
Aberg, who missed a 2-foot par putt at Spyglass Hill on Thursday, has performed bogey-free for 2 days at Pebble Seaside. He had his probabilities to catch Clark, lacking birdie putts of 10 toes on the par-5 14th and 6 toes on the sixteenth.
Matthieu Pavon of France, a winner final week at Torrey Pines, birdied his final gap for a 66 and was alone in third place.
Scottie Scheffler, who began in a three-way share of the lead, shot 70 and was 4 pictures behind.
Data from The Related Press was used on this report.
