Justin Rose has memorable day; Chez Reavie takes 1st-round lead

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Justin Rose, a U.S. Open champion and the No. 7 player in the world, shot a 6-under 66 his first time playing Spyglass Hill and spent a gorgeous day listening to the fans call out his name. Except they weren’t calling for him, and he knew it.

His partner in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am is Justin Timberlake.

“I’ve never seen a demographic like that on a golf course where you’re sort of running the gauntlet from one tee to the other. Everyone was under 21 and 80 percent female,” Rose said. “I said, ‘OK, that moved the needle a little bit there.’”

Rose did OK himself Thursday.

He got off to a strong start is his debut at the Pebble Beach Pro- Am, where Chez Reavie had the low score at a tournament that needs three days to sort out because of the variety of courses.

Reavie made an eagle on the 16th hole and shot 8- under 63 at Monterey

Peninsula, which played just more than 1½ strokes under par and was the easiest of the three courses. Freddie Jacobson made five birdies in a six-hole stretch and shot 7- under 65 at Pebble Beach, the only course to play over par ( 72.06) on Thursday.

Cameron Smith of Australia and Bronson Burgoon each had a 7-under 64 at Monterey Peninsula.

Rose is among six players from the top 10 in the world, and the only one of them to break 70. This is his first time playing the Pebble Beach ProAm, partly because he chose not to play in the Middle East swing on the European Tour, and partly because of a partner (Timberlake) that he has come to know over the years.

Both did well at their crafts.

Rose strung together seven birdies, holing out from the bunker on No. 10 and ending his round with a 50-foot birdie putt that banged into the back of the cup. He played Pebble Beach and Monterey Peninsula for his practice rounds and realized he should have been at Spyglass “because it’s a pretty tough course.”

“There’s some strong holes on it,” Rose said. “And I heard some strange reports about Spyglass, like the first few holes are great, then it disappears into the hills and it’s not that good. That’s not what I saw. That’s a pretty stellar golf course to me and really enjoyed playing it.”