Spieth in lead after a stunner
Tickets still on sale for Thursday
JORDAN Spieth holed out from the fairway for a sensational eagle at 16 on the way to a one-under par 71 and a two-shot lead in the US PGA Tour Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
Spieth took another step toward ending a title drought stretching back to his 2017 British Open triumph, with his 13-under total of 203 putting him two strokes in front of a group of five players headlined by world No. 15 Daniel Berger.
Spieth, pictured, shook off an early bogey with three birdies on the front nine — including an up-and-down from a greenside bunker at the sixth.
But the 27year-old looked to be in trouble after bogeys at the 10th, 12th and 14th, as the scenic course, which overlooks the Pacific Ocean played tough in unpredictable, gusting winds.
He was two behind playing partner Berger arriving at the 16th, where his eight-iron second shot from 160 yards out in the fairway hit the green and spun left straight into the cup.
Berger was joined on 205 by Scotland’s Russell Knox and Americans Nate Lashley, Tom Hoge and Patrick Cantlay.
Four more players were tied at 10-under: Australian Jason Day, England’s Paul Casey and Americans Maverick McNealy and Brian Stuard.
It was a further stroke back to Will Gordon and Max Homa — who birdied all four of the par-threes.
AUSTRALIAN Open organisers have told players they are “still hopeful” crowds will return on Thursday, as the tournament continues “as normal” after a COVID-19 scare.
Tickets for the final four days of the Australian Open remained on sale on Sunday night, with Victoria’s statewide lockdown scheduled to end at 11.59pm on Wednesday.
Fake crowd noise has been added to the television broadcast of matches since fans were banned over the weekend, but organisers are working towards the return of the real thing from Thursday.
“We are still hopeful of crowds returning from Thursday when the lockdown ends,” organisers wrote in a memo sent to players on Sunday.
“While we continue to work with the authorities towards this, we have introduced some enhancements to the broadcast to give the fans at home a more realistic experience.”
The memo came after Victorian health authorities dismissed any cause for concern over a tennis player’s positive COVID-19 test. Greece ATP
Cup player Michail Pervolarakis, pictured, left Melbourne last Tuesday night, before returning a positive test in South Africa on Saturday.
Pervolarakis had played in the ATP lead-up event before the Open and was a close contact of Stefanos Tsitsipas, who has a fourth-round match scheduled on Monday.
However, he returned a negative test before leaving Melbourne last Tuesday, with all indications that he had contracted the virus en route to South Africa. The 24-year-old travelled to his final destination via Doha in the virusravaged Middle East.
Victoria’s chief health officer, Brett Sutto, said that it was unlikely Pervolarakis had contracted the virus in Melbourne and the result could also be a false positive, given the lesser accuracy of rapid testing in other countries.
“I don’t think so,” Sutton said when asked if he was concerned about the positive result. “There are countries that do rapid antigen testing – not as sensitive, not as specific as the nasal nasopharyngeal PCR swabs that we do.
“This particular individual tested negative on the day of departure.
“We will go through the normal processes through the national incident room and go through all of the information that South Africa can provide and we’ll tie off those ends. But I don’t think it’s a real result.”
Tennis Australia boss Craig Tiley said organisers had passed on all available information about Pervolarakis to Victorian health authorities.
Players are only allowed to travel directly between Melbourne Park from where they are staying during Victoria’s lockdown. “Anyone on site that has any symptoms related to COVID is required to immediately isolate and test,” Tiley said. “We haven’t had any of that.”