PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Bill Murray was doing his usual things.
And Jordan Spieth was doing Jordan Spieth things.
Including one dangerous thing.
On another grand day on the Monterey Peninsula, where sunshine regularly broke through numerous clouds, the temperature was comfortable and the breezes soft, Pebble Beach was in all of its glory Saturday and home to the celebrity field in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
Leading the party was Murray, who was wearing a dark blue golf glove on the left hand, a bright yellow glove on the right hand. He played to and with the thousands of spectators rimming the course, dropping more jokes than shots taken. He posed for numerous pics, signed a bunch of autographs, even led a rendition of “Happy Birthday” for a fan named Michele.
In other words, the Ghostbusters star was his entertaining self.
But it was the ever-captivating Spieth who took over the stage at one point.
On the side of a cliff.
“I just saw the blimp shot from overhead and it really bothered me,” Spieth said after the round of a shot he hit on the par-4 eighth hole that had hearts racing.
Spieth was inching his way back into the tournament with birdies on his first two holes and then an eagle from three feet on the sixth when he became must-see TV.
His tee shot on the uphill eighth came perilously close to going over the cliff, the ball winding up about two feet from the edge. After studying his options, Spieth spurned his caddie’s wishes to take a drop away from the danger and elected to go for the green by taking the direct route over the cliff.
Trouble was that his left foot was close enough to the cliff’s edge that one slip could prove disastrous, a 100-foot plunge to the bottom in front of him.
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Many feared Spieth was tempting death.
“This is a scary shot normally,” CBS analyst Colt Knost said setting up the shot. “But this is downright terrifying.”
With his balance in question, and with dread in the air that a bad follow through could send him over the cliff, Spieth, with about 155 yards to the flagstick, took a mighty whack and the ball ended up just over the green. He chipped to 12 feet and buried the par putt.
“I didn’t realize the severity until I got up to it,” said Spieth, who basically tiptoed up to the ball. “It’s so weird. I never had a situation where you can see a ball, get a swing on it, but you’re not going to play it. So it was just kind of weird because it was like, ‘Well if I can get a swing on it and I can hit it then why would I take a drop? So it’s an unusual situation, normally if you’re walking into a hazard, you see a ball, you hit it out.
“Michael (Greller, his caddie) hated it. He tried to talk me out of it three times. I don’t blame him, looking back. I’m just glad I made the par to make it worth it. I was more like, it was more of a nervous and adrenaline hitting it and then when I got to the green as I was walking there it was more of like an anxiety feeling afterwards, luckily it wasn’t before.”
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And then Jordan kept doing Jordan things by making birdie on the ninth. Another on the 11th. After a three-putt bogey on 13, he came right back and made birdie on the 14th despite driving his ball closer to the sixth fairway than the 14th fairway.
Another birdie came from 12 feet on the 15th. Another from eight feet on the 17th. Another from inside three feet on the 18th and Spieth, the 2017 Pebble champion, signed for a 9-under-par 63 to move within one shot of the lead.
Murray and Spieth weren’t the only stars shining on the Monterey Peninsula.
Beau Hossler, looking for his first PGA Tour title, shot 65 at Pebble Beach and moved to the top of the leaderboard at 15 under. He was joined there by Andrew Putnam, who birdied five consecutive holes on the front nine at Pebble Beach to shoot 68, and first-round leader Tom Hoge, who shot 68 at Spyglass.
“Pebble can give and take so quickly, right? I was glad to be on the receiving end today,” Hossler said. “I hit it well, played really conservatively, frankly, as even though it might not look like it, and was fortunate to not have any misses really get me in significant trouble. It was as fairly stress-free as you can be around here.
“I was lucky to give myself some good looks today and I rolled the putter beautifully. I was able to get in the house pretty clean, didn’t have too much stress and I’m happy with where the game is.”
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Joining Spieth at 14 under was Joel Dahmen, who shot 66 at Spyglass, and Patrick Cantlay, who tied for third last year at Pebble. He is the reigning FedEx Cup champion and PGA Tour Player of the Year. In his last four starts, he has two wins and two other top 10s. He continued his fine form with a 68 at Pebble Beach to move to 14 under as he hunts his seventh PGA Tour title.
“I’m in great position and I love this golf course, and everyone will be playing on the same golf course tomorrow so it should be fun,” Cantlay said.
Seamus Power, whose 128 total in the first two rounds set the tournament record, led by a tournament-tying record five shots heading into the third round, but struggled on the Shore Course at Monterey Peninsula with a 74 to fall to 13 under.
But Spieth and his risky adventure by the cliffs will be remembered the most from all the happenings on Saturday.
As he wrapped up his post-round interview, Spieth was asked how he was going to explain what he did to his wife, Annie, who was with the couple’s newborn son, Sammy, who was attending his first tournament.
“I’m not really sure what’s going to happen there,” Spieth said. “I can’t imagine while she was watching that live. My parents are here too, so not only do I have to explain to my wife, I have to explain to my mom, my dad.”
Well, he did a good job explaining the shot to the media.
“Footing was solid, but I didn’t have much room past where my left foot was, and the problem was it’s down-sloped,” Spieth said. “It’s the downslope that worries you because you’re getting more forward to your left side on a downslope in order to get the strike, right? You want your weight with the slope. I didn’t want my weight with the slope that time.
“I was almost sitting there going is it worth it because, yes, I can get a strike on it, but am I going to back up out of fear (during the swing) and just kind of thin this in the water, you know, like kind of top it.”
But Spieth did have a hard time explaining his action to Greller.
“Michael continued to try and talk me out of it,” Spieth said. “I was just trying to think clearly, like, what are the options here. If I felt like I was in real true danger of losing my life I would have pulled the ball back and dropped it.
“It wasn’t quite that severe. But it was enough to where I certainly couldn’t put a normal swing or shot on it. But (Greller) said that if that were to happen again he’ll walk up, grab my ball and throw it in the water, so that I can’t hit it.
“He said, ‘I should have done that.’”
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