Golf: Berger eagles hole of a lifetime for career-defining win at Pebble Beach
PEBBLE BEACH, CALIF.—For all the stunning views at Pebble Beach that can be so soothing, Daniel Berger couldn’t escape the tension when he arrived at the final hole Sunday in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
He was tied for the lead, needing a birdie on the par-5 18th to win. Off to his right were out-of-bounds markers below a row of hedges, where Berger hit his drive on Saturday that led to double bogey. To his left was the Pacific Ocean.
“I was going to go down swinging,” he said.
Two of the best swings of his career, a driver into the fairway and a 3-wood from 250 yards away in the cool air at sea level, left him 30 feet and two putts away. Berger capped it off with an eagle putt for a 7-under 65 and a two-shot victory over Maverick McNealy.
“To step up there and hit a great drive and then one of the best 3-woods I’ve ever hit in my life, and then to make that putt is just as good as it gets for me,” Berger said.
He finished at 18-under 270 for his fourth career victory.
Berger started his final round with a 4-iron to 20 feet for eagle on the par-5 second hole to catch up to Jordan Spieth in no time at all. And while the cast of contenders kept changing, Berger was never out of the mix until he had the final say with one last eagle, his fourth of the week.
He won for the second time since the PGA Tour returned in June from the COVID-19 pandemic, starting with a playoff victory at Colonial, where a half-dozen players had a chance to win over the final hour. This wasn’t much different. Spieth went from leading to lagging. He started with a twoshot lead and was three shots behind after six holes, wasting the scoring stretch at Pebble Beach. He finished with two birdies for a 70 and tied for third with Patrick Cantlay (68), who made all his putts at Pebble on Thursday. He had 10 birdies in the opening round when he tied the course record with a 62. He made seven birdies and an eagle in two weekend rounds.
Defending champion Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C., who won by four strokes last year, wound up tied for 39th place at 4 under par.
Berger saw a leaderboard leaving the 18th green and knew he was tied. He just figured it would be with Nate Lashley, unaware of the sad turn of events on the 16th.
Lashley, playing in the final group with Spieth, nearly holed his wedge on the 11th for a tap-in birdie that took him to 16 under and leading by one shot. He was tied with Berger with three holes to play when Lashley went long on the 16th hole. He pitched out to 12 feet, missed the par putt and then missed the next two putts from threefoot range.
That gave him a triple bogey from which he could not recovery. McNealy quietly made five birdies over his last eight holes.
“I had the adrenaline pumping coming down the stretch there and feelings that I hadn’t really felt on the golf course in a little while, trying to close this out and give myself a chance,” McNealy said.
The last one was on 18 when his eagle putt stopped inches from the cup, giving him a 66 and a tie for the lead that didn’t last long. Berger was in the group behind him, and he played the hole to perfection.
“I wanted to win the golf tournament. I didn’t want to lose it on the last,” Berger said. “I just wanted to go out there and try to hit the best shot that I could, and I wasn’t going to be conservative on the 3-wood coming in.”