Mickelson, Spieth share lead despite obstacles
Three others with them at the top as rain halts play
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Phil Mickelson survived a wild finish without having to deal with the rain. Jordan Spieth endured a wet finish to his day with three tough pars, followed by some unwitting help from a spooked fan.
Both were atop the leaderboard Friday in the AT&T Pebble Beach ProAm, joined by Lucas Glover, Paul Casey and Scott Langley, when the second round was suspended because the rain had formed large puddles on the greens. They played more golf than expected by moving up the start by an hour, and it was entertaining as ever.
One day after Mickelson didn’t miss a single fairway for the first time in 1,664 rounds on the PGA Tour, he couldn’t seem to find one at Spyglass Hill. He still managed to surge into the lead, including hitting one 3-wood from 256 yards out of the trees on the par-5 14th to 6 feet.
It caught up with him at the end. After banging in a birdie on the par-3 fifth, Mickelson missed three straight fairways that led to three straight bogeys until he closed with a 4-iron to 18 feet for birdie and a 4-under 68.
Mickelson was the first to finish at 10-under 133. Glover started strong in tame weather at Pebble Beach and shot a 6-under 66 to get to 10-under 134, while Langley (69 at Spyglass Hill) and Casey (7-under 64 at Monterey Peninsula) narrowly finished at 10-under 133 ahead of the horn that ultimately stopped play for the rest of the day.
Three short blasts signaled the stoppage, but because it wasn’t a dangerous situation players could complete the hole. Casey was on his final hole at Monterey when he heard the horn, followed by two more.
“I went from upset to happy in an instant,” he said.
Spieth was among 44 players who have to return Saturday morning — weather permitting — to finish the last two holes of his round. Part of him was happy to be off the course considering the fight he had on his hands in cold, raw rain with increasing wind.
Spieth shot 31 on the back nine at Spyglass Hill to get in the mix and missed two good birdie chances to start the front nine.
“I got off to a really nice start, which helped knowing that the conditions were blowing in,” Spieth said. “[I was] trying to take advantage of the front nine. And then once they started to come in, it was just [trying] to hold on for dear life.”
He went just long of the green on the par-3 fifth hole, his ball in the sandy dune above the green about 3 inches from the collar of rough with not much green between him and the hole. Spieth blasted out to 4 feet and saved par. After coming up short on the uphill sixth into the wind, his 40-yard pitch checked and stopped a foot from the cup.
And then he had another struggle on the par-5 seventh, hitting out from under a tree, over another one and through the fairway. His third shot was just right of the green, and Spieth immediately called for a ruling when he saw a fan’s hand swat the ball onto the green.
The rules official talked to the fan, who said he thought his hands up when the ball landed in front of him and that he did not intentionally hit the ball. That meant Spieth played it from the green instead of chipping from that spot.