Clambake Round 1: New Week, Same Leader
Posted February 10th, 2005 by Erik J. Barzeski
David Duval shoots +13 and Phil Mickelson shoots -10. Just another day on the PGA Tour, eh?
What will Phil do next?
How about tying or setting a second course record within a week. His 60 tied the course record last Friday at the FBR Open, and now he's beat the previous course record at Spyglass Hill by 2 with a blazing 62. Some 62s had been shot in the past, but only under lift/clean/place provisions. Phil's 62 beats the old course, a 64 by David Berganio in 2001, by two.
The AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, or "The Crosby Clambake" for all you ol'-timers, is contested on three courses: Pebble Beach, which hosts two rounds for those who make the cut, Poppy Hills, and Spyglass Hill. Historically, Spyglass Hill plays the hardest, making Phil's feat - and his resulting leap to the top of the leaderboard - all the more astounding.
Said Phil, who switched to Callaway equipment just before the Ryder Cup last year, "I've never driven it this far." Of course, the beautiful, perfect conditions didn't hurt, and much of the 180-man field played well… but not well enough to catch Mickelson. He holds a three-shot lead over Davis Love III, Charles Howell III, Kevin Sutherland, Daniel Chopra, and Hunter Mahan.
Mickelson's three-shot lead is the largest first-round lead since Watson led by a trio in 1978. Other notables in the field weren't so lucky: Vijay Singh managed only a +1 73 at Spyglass, playing one group behind Phil but eleven strokes off his pace, and David Duval shot an 85. He birdied the second hole to get to -1, marking the first time DD sat under par, but finished +14 on his next 16 holes. Need we implore him some more?
Pos Player Score 1 Phil Mickelson -10 T2 Charles Howell III -7 T2 Kevin Sutherland -7 T2 Hunter Mahan -7 T2 Davis Love III -7 T2 Daniel Chopra -7 T7 Mike Weir -6 T7 Mario Tiziani -6 T7 Dicky Pride -6
TV times for the remaining three rounds are as follows:
Fri (2/11) 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM ET USA Sat (2/12) 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM ET CBS Sun (2/13) 3:00 PM - 6:30 PM ET CBS
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Posted 12 Feb 2005 at 10:03am #
Phil Mickelson shows determination and heart during and up and down day two.