Tag: 2021 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am

For sale: This semi-detached house in the middle of Royal Troon could be yours if the price is right

In the real estate world, the saying is, location, location, location!

TROON, Scotland – In the real estate world, the saying is, location, location, location!

For a golf fan, it doesn’t get much better than “Blackrock House,” a semi-detached house in the center of Royal Troon Golf Club, and it recently went on the market for the princely sum of £1.5 million.

Situated on Crosbie Road and with views of five holes of the course hosting its 10th British Open this week, the home has been put on the market this week by the children of David and Isabel Kelly, who lived there for the last four Opens at Troon, dating to Mark Calcavecchia’s playoff victory in 1989.

David died less than two years ago at age 91. Isabel died recently.

“This is a different Open for us because our mother has just passed away in the last month,” Andrew Kelly told The Associated Press.

The house, which appears on maps as early as 1878, when Troon was established as a six-hole course, is located between the second and 16th holes. It also offers views of the third, 17th and 18th tee.

BRITISH OPEN: Leaderboard | Photos | How to watch

“And seeing them teeing on the 18th as well,” Andrew Kelly said of the last tee, directly in front of the house. “It’s fantastic, you’re right here and you’ve got everything going on around you. You’re spoiled for choice, to be honest.”

Blackrock House is actually two semi-detached houses – 14 and 16 Crosbie Road, Troon. The Gregorys bought No. 16 in 2007 and the Kelly house that is for sale is next door at No. 14.

For sale signs from realtor Strutt and Parker have drawn much interest but no showings this week, thank you very much.

Blackrock House is situated between the 2nd and 16th holes at Royal Troon GC (Adam Schupak/Golfweek)

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler said he noticed the property but that it didn’t stand out quite as much this week with corporate tents and oversized merchandise shop in the vicinity.

“If I came here six months from now when all the tents and all the build-out is gone, I think it would be a lot more unusual,” he said.

Troon doesn’t officially have another Open booked in the future just yet but expect an 11th edition to be held here on Scotland’s west coast somewhere between 8-12 years from now and for the next owner of Blackrock House, no tickets required.

AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am: Jason Day lurking, trying to show he’s back too

Jason Day, who has slipped to No. 48 in the world, is trying to show he’s back and has sights set on returning to World No. 1.

Last week at the Waste Management Phoenix Open former World No. 1 Brooks Koepka ended his winless drought as Jordan Spieth showed signs of life. A week later, Spieth has picked up where he left off and grabbed the 54-hole lead for a second straight week as he attempts to return to the winner’s circle for the first time in more than three years.

But he’s not the only former World No. 1 showing some life in his game at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Australian Jason Day shot his third straight round in the 60s on Saturday, shooting 4-under 68 on a windy day at Pebble Golf Links to climb to 10-under 206 and three strokes off the pace.

“It was pretty solid,” Day said. “My putting was something that saved me out there a few times.”

Pebble has traditionally been a happy hunting ground for Day. In his six previous starts in the tournament, he’s finished fourth, T-4, T-2. T-5, T-11 and T-4. All that’s missing is a trophy for the 12-time Tour winner, who hasn’t tasted victory since the 2018 Wells Fargo Championship.

Pebble Beach Pro-Am: Leaderboard | Photos

Day, 33, who has missed three of his last four cuts, has dropped to No. 48 in the Official World Golf Ranking and it doesn’t sit well with the Australian, who still has visions of returning to World No. 1.

“If I look at my world ranking, that’s the biggest motivation for me,” Day told the AAP in January before making his season debut at Torrey Pines. “Playing bad golf is frustrating; not living up to what you think you should be living up to is very frustrating.

“Where I’m ranked, I know I’m better than that. My inspiration is to try get back to world No.1. I know I still have the game to do it.”

To do so, Day has made some radical changes. After parting ways with his longtime instructor Col Swatton, Day began working with Dallas-based Chris Como, whose students include Bryson DeChambeau and who formerly coached Tiger Woods. Day also ended his longtime relationship with TaylorMade and for the first time in his 14-year career is an equipment free agent. He’s beginning to rediscover his comfort zone on the course.

“I’ve just been working really hard on my short game, working really hard on my putting,” Day said. “Typically, I do make bogeys, I’m not one of those guys that could go around and put consecutive no-bogey rounds together. I’ve always kind of made a lot of birdies and mixed that in with a couple mistakes. So to be able to have four bogeys until here is nice.”

Day jumped out to a quick start on Saturday by holing a 12-foot birdie putt at the first. He added short birdies at Nos. 4 and 6 to turn in 3-under 33. On the second nine, Day traded a birdie at No. 11 with a bogey at No. 12 before draining a 16-foot birdie putt at No. 15. Day enters the final round in a share of seventh. Still, the biggest test is yet to come on Sunday. The last time Day was in contention, at the CJ Cup in October, he withdrew early in his round with a neck injury. Day has been sidetracked by an assortment of injuries, especially to his back.

“Jason is still trying to work on stuff with Como to make sure he can swing a golf club on a regular basis. He’s changing his swing in a fairly major way. That’s not an easy thing to flip the switch on,” Golf Channel’s Arron Oberholser said last week in Phoenix. “It takes time, it takes trust, it takes reps. Day had chances at CJ Cup but the changes he’s making to his swing hurt his neck. I still think he’s a ways away.”

But Day is lurking and he’s been there before, albeit without the bushy beard he’s currently sporting. He’s a major winner, a former No. 1 and with wife Ellie expecting a fourth child later this year, there’s no better time to take a big step forward to his goal to be No. 1 again.

“I just got to hit my irons better, just plain and simple, I just haven’t hit my irons as well as I had the last previous couple weeks,” said Day, who has lost strokes to the field in Strokes Gained: Approach the green in his two measured rounds at Pebble. “If I can do that and keep the putter going then I might give myself a shot. I feel good about the game, I just got to give myself more opportunities.”

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Watch: Jordan Spieth holes out for eagle, again, at Pebble Beach to get atop the leaderboard

Jordan Spieth is certainly making life on the PGA Tour more interesting again.

Maybe there’s nothing substantial to consecutive weeks of stellar play from former World No. 1 Jordan Spieth, but he’s certainly making life on the PGA Tour more interesting again.

After holing out for eagle on the 10th hole during Thursday’s opening round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on the Monterey Peninsula, Spieth put together solid rounds to enter Saturday’s third round at the top of the leaderboard.

He slipped a bit mid-round on Saturday, but climbed back to the top of the board with another spectacular shot — this time a masterful 8-iron he shaped home on the 16th hole.

Unlike Thursday’s shot that rolled back into the cup, his shot on Saturday ended up smoothly winding in for eagle, pushing Spieth to 13 under for the tournament.

In 18 years of competition, the only other player to have two hole-outs of over 100 yards in one tournament was Blake Adams, who did so in the 2010 event.

Spieth faltered last week on Sunday at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, but his T-4 finish felt like a turning point.

Saturday’s play only helped to cement that theory.

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Watch: Francesco Molinari opened his Saturday at Pebble Beach with a cold top

A top off the tee? It’s the stuff nightmares are made of, but even major champions like Francesco Molinari do it occasionally.

If you’re a golfer, much less a competitive one, you know that topping it off the first tee is the stuff of which nightmares are made. Let Francesco Molinari’s topped tee shot off Pebble Beach’s first tee on Saturday be a lesson: Even major winners do it.

Molinari’s right hand was off the club almost as soon as he hit the dreaded shot that skipped just off the first tee in the third round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. The shot tracer line even picked up the ball, sort of, as it hopped toward the fairway. Molinari, the 2018 Open Championship winner who won the last of his three PGA Tour titles at the 2019 Arnold Palmer Invitational, salvaged a bogey at the opening hole, and recovered when he birdied the par-4 third a few minutes later.

You’re one of us, Frankie.

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AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am: Patrick Cantlay ties course record, takes lead with 10-under 62

Patrick Cantlay, who shot 61 in his last tournament round, picked up where he left off by tying the Pebble Beach course record of 62.

Whether in the middle of a desert or hard by the sea, Patrick Cantlay can seemingly do no wrong.

Cantlay, who shattered the course record at PGA West’s TPC Stadium Course with an 11-under 61 in the final round of the American Express in his previous start, picked up right where he left off and birdied seven of the first eight holes at Pebble Beach Golf Links. He wasn’t done either. He tacked on a birdie at 11 to go with a pair of birdies at the finishing holes to tie the course record of 10-under 62.

“I feel like I’m in a groove right now,” said Cantlay, who called it a continuation of his 65-61 weekend at the American Express. “My swing feels really good right now. The ball’s starting on the line that I’m seeing, and then my distance control has been really good, which is key out here. I try to leave myself below the hole a lot and I was able to do that.”

Cantlay took advantage of receptive greens and a wind-free day to blitz a defenseless Pebble Beach and build a two-stroke lead over 19-year-old Akshay Bhatia and Henrik Norlander, who both played Pebble too, after the opening round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Rookie Will Gordon returned the low score at Spyglass Hill, the tournament’s sister course, with a bogey-free 6-under 66.

Pebble Beach Pro-Am: Leaderboard | Photos | Tee times, TV info

Cantlay possesses one of the most complete games on the PGA Tour and he had all cylinders firing on Thursday. Accuracy off the tee set him up for short irons and his putter was deadly on the greens.

“Hit a lot of good shots just right out of the gate and made everything,” Cantlay said. “The first hole I just had a wedge in. The second hole I got up-and-down from just off the green (for birdie at the par 5). And for the most part, it’s wedges all the way until you get to the 8th hole. So, you do want to take advantage and today I did.”

Cantlay credited his hot putter for taking care of the rest.

“The difference the last three rounds I played on Tour is just making putts,” he said. “I think I 1-putted every green on the front nine. So, when you only have nine putts on nine holes it’s no surprise you played really well. Some of that is set up by ball striking. I had a lot of really good looks. And every time you play Pebble Beach you kind of want to get off to a hot start on those first seven holes and today I had a great start.”

Another player who didn’t skip a beat after his best performance in nearly a year last week in Phoenix was Jordan Spieth, who posted 7-under 65 at Pebble Beach. Spieth even delivered a highlight-reel moment, holing out for eagle from 113 yards at No. 10.

“I needed to cover 107 on the false front and it hit. I fixed the pitch mark maybe two short of the hole and I think it bounced past it and then spun back,” Spieth said. “Once I saw where it landed I knew it would be close. It was a bonus for it to obviously go in. I saw it drop and then there was three people on the balcony of the house in the distance and a couple people near the green, volunteers where his hands went up. But it’s still weird having a moment like that where you’re used to kind of a loud roar and it’s just so kind of calm and quiet.”

Bhatia, the teenager who hails from North Carolina and is playing this week on a sponsor’s exemption, became the fourth player in the last 25 years to hit all 18 greens in regulation at Pebble Beach, and the first to do so since Ryan Palmer in 2008, en route to shooting a bogey-free 8-under par 64.

“The views actually really help me,” Bhatia said. “Because I can look out at the ocean and my mind goes blank. It’s just beautiful.”

But as Cantlay and other regulars at Pebble can attest, the famed layout can be both a beauty and a beast. The weather forecast is expected to turn nasty the remainder of the tournament, making scoring conditions less favorable.

“I think we got Pebble in pretty much ideal conditions and I don’t think it’s going to be like that the rest of the week,” Cantlay said. “This place can be a bear when the wind’s blowing, especially when you get out to that point on 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. So I’m sure the conditions will be a lot tougher this weekend, but I welcome the challenge and it will be fun.”

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AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am field by the rankings

The entire Pebble Beach field is broken down here according to the Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings and the Official World Golf Ranking.

Players in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am field were dropping like flies early this week. World No. 1 Dustin Johnson was among those to withdraw, and on Tuesday, his agent explained that Johnson was simply looking for some rest back home after winning the Saudi International on the European Tour last week.

Without Johnson, there are no top-10 players in the Official World Golf Ranking. Patrick Cantlay, at No. 6 in the Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings (No. 11 in the OWGR) checks in as the highest-ranked player with Daniel Berger (No. 10 by Golfweek, No. 15 by the OWGR) next.

The entire Pebble Beach field is broken down below according to the Golfweek/Sagarins and the OWGR.

So far in the 2020-21 Tour season, the average ranking of the winner heading into the week in which he won a PGA Tour event has been 117.88 in the Golfweek/Sagarins and 130.82 in the OWGR.

Player GW/Sagarin OWGR
 Patrick Cantlay 6 11
 Daniel Berger 10 15
 Will Zalatoris 11 49
 Cameron Tringale 25 95
 Brian Harman 26 89
 Paul Casey 27 17
 Si Woo Kim 30 51
 Sam Burns 32 147
 Cameron Davis 36 141
 Patton Kizzire 43 195
 Matt Jones 49 99
 Rory Sabbatini 50 106
 Adam Long 52 62
 Kevin Streelman 57 59
 Stewart Cink 59 132
 Chris Kirk 60 121
 Joel Dahmen 64 70
 Brendan Steele 72 84
 James Hahn 73 180
 Austin Cook 74 186
 Alex Noren 75 101
 Harold Varner III 81 128
 Doug Ghim 82 273
 Mark Hubbard 86 151
 Michael Thompson 89 91
 Francesco Molinari 92 103
 Max Homa 96 96
 Scott Stallings 97 249
 Jordan Spieth 102 69
 Henrik Norlander 103 97
 Rickie Fowler 104 63
 Chez Reavie 105 67
 Charley Hoffman 107 152
 Adam Schenk 109 250
 Peter Malnati 110 144
 Jason Day 112 48
 Scott Piercy 113 159
 Kyle Stanley 117 221
 Denny McCarthy 120 218
 Maverick McNealy 127 189
 Tyler Duncan 129 162
 Troy Merritt 132 175
 Brian Stuard 137 202
 Matthew NeSmith 139 158
 Rafa Cabrera Bello 140 88
 Kevin Chappell 141 708
 Brice Garnett 142 278
 Kristoffer Ventura 143 208
 Jason Dufner 149 365
 Patrick Rodgers 150 244
 Jim Furyk 152 245
 Cameron Percy 154 339
 Pat Perez 155 225
 Ben Martin 157 481
 Bo Hoag 161 252
 C.T. Pan 162 169
 Roger Sloan 165 328
 Andrew Landry 167 118
 Tom Hoge 170 123
 Phil Mickelson 173 86
 Kramer Hickok 174 304
 Peter Uihlein 176 484
 Jhonattan Vegas 177 231
 Nick Taylor 180 130
 Harry Higgs 182 126
 Josh Teater 184 321
 Will Gordon 186 227
 Jim Herman 187 100
 Chesson Hadley 191 260
 Joseph Bramlett 194 279
 Hank Lebioda 196 350
 Brandt Snedeker 197 113
 Davis Riley 207 241
 Andrew Putnam 209 176
 Ryan Moore 217 205
 Ryan Armour 218 224
 Brandon Hagy 222 327
 Vaughn Taylor 233 193
 Bronson Burgoon 236 302
 Russell Knox 237 228
 Keith Mitchell 239 197
 J.J. Spaun 241 494
 Tom Lewis 242 77
 Ryan Brehm 243 462
 Xinjun Zhang 247 219
 Chris Baker 257 446
 Seung-Yul Noh 260 686
 Ricky Barnes 262 1073
 Sam Ryder 263 268
 Nate Lashley 271 125
 Kelly Kraft 272 483
 Chase Seiffert 274 257
 J.B. Holmes 282 265
 Branden Grace 283 146
 Rob Oppenheim 284 443
 Vincent Whaley 286 482
 Beau Hossler 289 316
Sangmoon Bae 297 763
 Tim Wilkinson 306 490
 Bill Haas 309 549
 Kiradech Aphibarnrat 313 287
 Scott Brown 327 251
 Satoshi Kodaira 331 432
 Andy Ogletree 334 750
 K.J. Choi 346 554
 Sung Kang 350 108
 Michael Gligic 352 464
 Brian Gay 354 200
 Mark Anderson 359 511
 Jonathan Byrd 370 592
 Wes Roach 372 380
 Jimmy Walker 373 450
 Sean O’Hair 378 731
 Rhein Gibson 379 476
 D.J. Trahan 381 468
 Luke Donald 387 526
 David Hearn 392 467
 Scott Harrington 400 352
 Tyler McCumber 401 295
 Fabián Gómez 408 305
 Seamus Power 412 438
 Aaron Baddeley 423 415
 Johnson Wagner 430 719
 Nelson Ledesma 443 504
 Grayson Murray 444 510
 Ben Taylor 445 818
 Ted Potter Jr. 456 411
 Nick Watney 460 383
 William McGirt 466 1829
 Sebastian Cappelen 482 437
 Ryan Blaum 486 1027
 Michael Gellerman 492 654
 Zack Sucher 502 355
 Michael Kim 512 1379
 Bo Van Pelt 527 1071
 Hunter Mahan 529 1608
 Shawn Stefani 542 541
 Dominic Bozzelli 574 765
 Jim Knous 579 1179
 Martin Trainer 590 670
 Matt Every 591 527
 Rafael Campos 592 770
 Kevin Stadler 596 1829
 John Senden 615 1829
 D.A. Points 626 1829
 Min Woo Lee 627 198
 Akshay Bhatia N/R 987
 Roberto Castro N/R 739
 John Daly N/R 1829
 David Duval N/R 1829
 Matt Gogel N/R N/R
 Kevin Hall N/R N/R
 Kamaiu Johnson N/R N/R
 Tom Lehman N/R 1829
 Kenny Pigman N/R 1829

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Dustin Johnson withdraws from AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am

World No. 1 Dustin Johnson’s withdrawal is a death blow to an already watered-down field at a tournament in which the pro-am already was canceled.

Already suffering from an unusually weak field, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am endured another blow when World No. 1 Dustin Johnson withdrew from the event on Monday night. No reason was initially given for his decision.

Johnson’s loss from the field means that no player ranked in the top 10 in the Official World Golf Ranking will be participating in this year’s tournament. (Patrick Cantlay at No. 11 is the top-ranked competitor.)

Pebble Beach has been a happy hunting ground for Johnson, who has recorded eight top 10s in 13 appearances at the AT&T Pro-Am, including two victories, two runner-ups and a third-place finish.

Johnson, 36, won the European Tour’s Saudi International on Sunday, continuing a dominant stretch in which he’s won five times in his last 13 starts since the re-start in June amid the COVID-19 pandemic. He was one of 11 Americans to play in Saudi Arabia, and likely received a substantial appearance fee, which are prohibited on the PGA Tour, to do so.

This is the third year in a row that Johnson has competed in Saudi Arabia. In his previous two appearances at Pebble Beach following the long trip back from the Middle East, he finished T-32 in 2020 and T-45 in 2019. In previous years, he has partnered with Wayne Gretzky, the father of his fiancee, Paulina, and mother of his two children, in the AT&T Pro-Am. But this year there are no amateur participants due to COVID-19.

Johnson last withdrew from a tournament at the Mayakoba Golf Classic, following his victory at the Masters in November, citing the need for rest.

After his European Tour victory on Sunday, Johnson said, “It’s definitely nice to get a win not on my tour. I’m really excited about the rest of the year.”

Just not this week.