Due to the prominence of mid-handicap celebrities, the third round at the Crosby Clambake is often referred to as “hit and giggle day,” and today’s round certainly lived up to its billing.
The weekend rounds of the AT&T are aired on CBS nearly every CBS actor was featured in Saturday’s telecast. Viewers saw Kevin James promote his movie Hitch, then flub a flop shot. They saw Ray Romano lament the ending of his television series before blading a bunker shot. And of course they saw George Lopez ham it up with a dog on a leash.
And in what has become a Pebble Beach Pro-Am third-round staple, Bill Murray stopped joking long enough with the crowd to hit some pretty spectacular shots, going -2 for three consecutive holes before falling apart towards the end of the round.
Though some may say that the coverage of celebrities is over the top, this author (a Philadelphia Eagles fan) was very happy to see footage of Bill Belicheck flounder on the rocks at Pebble Beach’s famed eighteenth. Both Belicheck and Murray made the celebrity cut and will play Sunday.
Lest we forget there is also an official PGA Tour event being held, CBS occasionally broke away from “loving Raymond” to show Phil Mickelson shooting a second consecutive 67 to extend his lead to seven over Greg Owen, who also carded a 67. Mickelson continued his recent approach to the game by hitting long drives and following them up with excellent wedge play. His three-round total of 196 sets a tournament record, besting David Duval’s 1997 54-hole total by two strokes. He need only shoot 71 or better Sunday to best Mark O’Meara’s four-round record, also set in 1997.
Phil Mickelson has never won wire-to-wire in his PGA Tour career, and his 5-shot margin of victory in last week’s FBR Open was the largest of his career. Mickelson’s 7-shot lead is the largest on the PGA Tour since David Toms took the same margin in last year’s stop in Memphis.
Vijay Singh managed to keep a streak going: this is the fourth year in a row the previous year’s winner has failed to make the cut. Three straight rounds of 73 leave him six back of the cut, ending his personal streak of 28 consecutive cuts. David Duval scrapped around in 74 today, marking his best tournament score following rounds of 85 and 79. He’s 25 shots off the cut and 45 off Mickelson’s pace.
Pos Player R3 Total 1 Phil Mickelson -5 -20 2 Greg Owen -5 -13 T3 Paul Goydos -2 -11 T3 Tim Clark -5 -11 T3 Jose Maria Olazabal -4 -11 T3 Kevin Sutherland -2 -11 T3 Andrew McGee -2 -11 T8 Mike Weir +1 -10 T8 Arron Olberhoser -3 -10 T8 Jeff Sluman -3 -10 T8 Darren Clarke -2 -10
You can catch the final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am on CBS at 3:00pm ET.