AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro Am Round One Thoughts

My first thought on the Pebble Beach Pro Am is that I’m glad there weren’t any cameras following me around last year when I played as a guest in the pro am at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at the Colonial. It was enough pressure to play in front of Stewart Appleby and the small gallery. Camera would have caused a complete, rather than a minor, meltdown.

It’s hard to tell how the various players are doing because the tournament at this point is on three separate courses: Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill and Monterey Peninsula. On the other hand, the scores were relatively evenly distributed. There are twenty six at -4 or better. Nine of those played Pebble Beach, eight at Monterey, and eight at Spyglass. That doesn’t look like much of a difference. However, of the top nine players, five were at Pebble, two at Monterey and two at Spyglass. That seems a little more significant, and perhaps justifies the comments of The Golf Channel’s talking heads that Spyglass is the more difficult course.

On the other hand, those comments could just have been a sop to Tiger, who is in a T-15 on the strength of a 68 (-4) at Spyglass. He’ll play Monterey on Friday and then Pebble on Saturday. No coincidence there. CBS wants Tiger on Pebble when television coverage begins. Mickelson also will play Saturday at Pebble. No coincidence there, either. Lefty was -2 at Spyglass and is in a T51

At this point, former US Amateur Champion Danny Lee is one of three at the top of the board after a nine under 63 at Pebble Beach. Dustin Johnson duplicated that feat, while Charlie Wi put in a (-9) 61 at Monterey.

My guess is that quite a few of those at the top of the board will fall tomorrow.

Of the players out there, I’d like to see Dustin Johnson win, and perhaps exorcise some of the Demons of his Pebble Beach US Open collapse. He’s in a good position to do that.