Lebioda grabs Pebble Beach lead
Matt Fitzpatrick represents the lone top-10 player in the Official World Golf Ranking at this week’s AT&T Pebble Beach ProAm. What does that mean? The door is wide open for someone else to have their moment in the spotlight come Sunday.
Judging by the top of the leaderboard, that may happen.
Hank Lebioda, who hasn’t made a cut on tour since the 3M Open in July, tied his careerlow score at Monterey Peninsula Country Club on Thursday with an 8-under 63. The 29year-old’s last top-10 finish came at the 2021 John Deere Classic.
Names tied for second after Day 1: Kurt Kitayama (zero tour wins), Chad Ramey (one tour win at the 2022 Corales Puntacana Championship) and Harry Hall (first year on tour).
Justin Rose continues to play well, posting a 3-under 69 at Pebble Beach. Rose tied for 18th last weekend at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. He’ll play Spyglass Hill on Friday.
Maverick McNealy, who grew up at Pebble Beach and is staying with his grandparents this week, fired a 1-under 71 at Spyglass Hill, the toughest of the three courses. He’s off to Monterey Peninsula for the second round.
Viktor Hovland opened with a bogey at the par-5 first at Spyglass and didn’t make another one until the last. His 2-under 70 at the hardest of the trio sets him up nicely for the next two rounds. He’ll play Monterey Peninsula on Day 2.
Jordan Spieth had an upand-down day at Spyglass Hill, shooting a 1-under 71 with five birdies and four bogeys on the card. The Texan will play Monterey Peninsula on Friday.
Fitzpatrick, who spent Wednesday playing alongside soccer star Gareth Bale, made the turn at Spyglass Hill in 1over 37. He made four birdies on the back nine before a double on the last derailed his solid day. A 1-under 71 for the Englishman to start his week.
Austin loses WGC-Match Play in ’24
Rest in peace, World Golf Championships.
Golfweek has learned this will be the final year of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in Austin, Texas. Its spot in the 2024 schedule, which is typically in late March, is expected to be filled by the Cadence Bank Houston Open. Efforts to reach Dell Match Play tournament director Jordan Uppleger were unsuccessful. A PGA Tour spokesman said, “No comment.”
Austin Country Club has been the host venue for the Match Play since 2016 when Dell became the title sponsor. At the time, the World Golf Championships were considered the highest-ranking tournaments behind the four majors and The Players Championship, the tour flagship event.
Purses for the WGCs, which began in 1999, were elevated, the fields were limited mostly to top-ranked players, and there were no-cut events. (Tiger Woods won 18 WGCs, with Dustin Johnson capturing the second most with five.)
In 2021, the number of WGC events was reduced by two with the WGC-Mexico Open being scaled back to a regular PGA Tour event and the WGCFedEx
St. Jude being converted to the first leg of the playoffs.
The demise of the WGC Match Play technically leaves the WGC-HSBC Champions as the last WGC standing but the tournament, which is contested in China, hasn’t been played since 2019 due to COVID-19. There’s no indication the tournament will be able to be staged this year either, and the LPGA just canceled a tournament on Hainan Island in China that was scheduled for March due to “ongoing COVID19 related matters.”