The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
5. Fog shuts down Pebble Beach
Fathauer also leads with a hole to play in second round.
Jordan Spieth shot a 65 on Friday at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am to tie for the lead at 10-under before fog suspended the second round. Derek Fathouer is also at 10-under with one hole to play when play resumes today. Jason Day trails by one stroke.
Jordan Spieth knew the pin position on the ninth hole at Spyglass Hill as much by memory as by sight, which was a good thing considering the fog creeping across the Monterey Peninsula.
The crowd behind the green couldn’t see Spieth, only a golf ball that landed behind the flag and spun back 3 feet below the cup. Spieth tapped that in for his eighth birdie of the round and a 7-under 65 that put him atop the leaderboard in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on Friday. Spieth was at 10-under 133. Derek Fathauer was 8 under for his round at Pebble Beach and tied with Spieth at 10 under. Fathauer had to return Saturday morning to finish his round on the ninth hole. The bigger threat might be Jason Day, the world’s No. 1 player, who was 7 under through 12 holes at Spyglass when play was stopped. Day was at 9 under.
Patrick Reed, who withdrew two weeks ago from the European Tour event in Australia next week because of a respiratory infection, was at 7 under and had one hole to play at Monterey Peninsula.
Spieth mainly was thrilled that he finished just before the horn sounded to suspend play again, this time for fog.
It’s hard to know where anyone stands until three rounds are completed, let alone when only 33 out of 154 players were done with the second round. Spieth only knew that his swing was dialed in and his putter — the most dangerous club in his bag — was coming around.
“I didn’t feel any nerves out there, even though I knew I was toward the lead, just because so much could happen with three courses,” he said. “The first two rounds, it’s been easy. Tomorrow might feel a little different.”
The sun, rarely seen this week, is supposed to be make an appearance this weekend. Spieth and Day will play Pebble the final two rounds, and it typically is the easiest when the weather is benign.
What helped Spieth was going off in the third group at Spyglass and having what he considers the best greens on the rotation.
He picked up birdies on both par 3s on the back nine, had a two-putt birdie on a par 5 and made the turn in 4 under to take the lead. Then, he started to get hot with the putter. Spieth rolled in a 12-footer on No. 2, a 25-footer on No. 4 and he saved par with a 15-footer after finding a bunker on the par-3 fifth.
Champions: Olin Browne had eight birdies in a ninehole stretch and shot a 9-under 63 in Boca Raton, Fla., for the first-round lead at the Allianz Championship. Kenny Perry was two strokes back after opening with an eagle on the par-5 first.
Fred Couples eagled the par-5 11th in a 68. He’s playing in Florida for the first time since the 2006 Honda Classic. At age 71, Hale Irwin shot a 68 to better his age for the 19th time on the tour.
Europe/Asia: Bernd Wiesberger put on a clinic with his irons to lead Danny Willett at the Maybank Championship in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Wiesberger shot a 9-under 63 that included nine consecutive birdies, while Willett shot 67. David Lipsky of the U.S. (67) and Michael Lorenzo-Vera of France (65) were three shots behind.