Fujikura Ventus shaft debuts on TOUR, gets two early adopters

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PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Nick Taylor birdied four of his last five holes at Pebble Beach on Friday for a 66 to take his first 36-hole lead on the PGA TOUR. Jason Day received a warm reminder at Pebble Beach how good it feels to hit shots the way he wants, make a bunch of putts and see his name high on the leaderboard. Related: Leaderboard | Day’s unique balloon therapy Day made two long birdie putts across the green, holed a 40-yard wedge for eagle on the dangerous par-5 14th, made a couple of big par saves and moved into contention with an 8-under 64 in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Taylor was at 14-under 129. “I feel like it’s been a long time since I’ve actually been out there and felt the way that I felt out there today and played well like that,” Day said. Defending champion Phil Mickelson also got in the mix with aburst of four straight birdies after the turn at Monterey Peninsula. He made bogey on the long par-3 ninth to finish his round of 7-under. He was three shots behind. Mickelson has not had a top 10 on the PGA TOUR since winning at Pebble Beach last year, though he finished third last week at the Saudi International and carried a little momentum into the event he has won five times. Day knows the feeling. Since last year at Pebble, he has recorded just three top 10s, none since last June. He has not seriously contended. His back troubles have been so frustrating that at times he wondered how much longer he wanted to play. He described those as “dark times.” His outlook Friday was as bright as the sunshine over the Monterey Peninsula, at least until a light marine layer over parts of the courses lowered the temperature. Day birdied the par 5s and made a 45-foot putt from the fringe on the par-3 fifth at Pebble. He holed a 50-foot birdie putt on the par-3 12th, another bonus. And then he surged into contention by holing out for his eagle on the 14th, and following that with a 15-foot birdie on the 15th. There’s still one more round before this tournament played over three courses takes shape, and there’s no better place to be in relative calm than Pebble Beach. “If you have really good weather, you can go low at Pebble,” Day said. That’s what Taylor did, making birdie on all the par 5s for his 66. Ditto for Chris Baker, the 33-year-old PGA TOUR rookie who played Pebble Beach for the first time in a practice round Wednesday, and really had a blast in his round of 64 on Friday that put him four shots behind, along with Charl Schwartzel (66 at Pebble). Of the top five players, only Mickelson was not at Pebble Beach. Monterey Peninsula played about two shots under par, while Pebble’s average was nearly 1 under. Spyglass Hill was nearly a stroke over par, so it was no surprise that only one player from the top 20 — Matt Every — was at Spyglass on Friday. Dustin Johnson, a two-time Pebble Beach winner who finished runner-up to Ted Potter Jr. two years ago, appeared to be hitting his stride with great control of his irons and usual power off the tee. He lost a little ground on the final hole when he three-putted for bogey from about 25 feet on his final hole at Monterey Peninsula, missing a 3-footer. That happens on poa greens with foursomes in each group, and Johnson shrugged it off. He’s used to odd things happening, even when it’s not all his doing. Day was feeling particularly optimistic, especially after the year he had. His back gave him so much trouble that one of his routines is to blow into a balloon for some 20 minutes to help get his rib cage aligned properly. He used to spend hours chipping and putting. He found it a small victory when he was able to putt for an entire hour. “It’s hard because … you expect so much of yourself, and everyone does,” Day said. “But sometimes when you’re injured, like for the most part I was all last year, it gets frustrating. And not only do you get frustrated, you don’t get the results and you lose confidence and then you’re … just trying to find a solution into why I’m not playing well and why is this happening. And you feel like your world is kind of crumbling. “It’s not a good feeling because there’s some dark moments in there that you got to kind of fight through.” There were no dark moments Friday, not in weather like this. Day and Taylor now move over to Spyglass Hill on Saturday morning, while Mickelson, Johnson and the celebrities head to Pebble Beach.

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The eagle has landed. Clinging to a one-shot lead over Bay Area product Maverick McNealy (66), Daniel Berger leaves no doubt with an eagle at the par-5 18th hole to shoot 65 and salt away his fourth PGA TOUR victory at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Berger's second eagle of the day (par-5 second hole) was his fourth of the week, a career high and the most by a winner at this tournament. He moves from 63rd to 10th in the FedExCup. Here are five stories you may have missed from the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. 1. Berger eyes mountaintop. Berger's second eagle of the day (par-5 second hole) was his fourth of the week, a career high and the most by a winner at this tournament. He moves from 63rd to 10th in the FedExCup. Although he is often overlooked in comparison to other members of golf's vaunted high school class of 2011 (Schauffele, Spieth, Thomas), Berger says that's fine with him. He's plenty used to playing with a chip on his shoulder, and he's not about to settle for average or even pretty good. "I do feel like I’m underrated, but that’s OK with me," said Berger, 27, who prevailed just one week after his former Florida State teammate, Brooks Koepka, won the Waste Management Phoenix Open. "I just think it’s puts a little chip on my shoulder which is totally fine. I think a lot of the guys that they give credit to deserve credit. But I’ve been pretty consistent, and I’ve accomplished a lot for the short amount of time that I’ve played out here on TOUR." Pretty consistent? That's an understatement. Berger's closing 65 was his 26th consecutive round of par or better, the longest active streak on TOUR. Cameron Tringale (67, T7) is next with 24. "I just want to continue to get better," Berger continued. "I feel like, my goal has always been to be the No. 1 player in the world and some people will laugh at that and that’s fine, but that’s something that every day I wake up and I strive for." Read more about his brilliant win here. 2. McNealy threatening to break through. Runner-up McNealy, a 12-time winner at Stanford just a few hours up the coast, now has two top-10 finishes in 50 career TOUR starts. He tied for fifth at the 2020 AT&T at Pebble. "It was fun," McNealy said after making five back-nine birdies for an inward 31. "I had the adrenaline pumping coming down the stretch there and feelings that I hadn’t really felt on the golf course in a little while, trying to close this out and give myself a chance." Knowing he was in contention, he was especially proud to smash his drive and reach the green in two at the par-5 18th, where he gave himself an eagle look from just inside 22 feet. Alas, the ball veered away at the last instant and he settled for a tap-in birdie. "I’ve always been a guy that has to earn my own confidence," said McNealy, who will tee it up at The Genesis Invitational at Riviera this week. "I can’t stand there and just tell myself I’m good at something or I’m doing something right. I have to earn it with myself too. "I feel like I earned a lot of confidence ... I’m excited to get to playing again." 3. Spieth comeback still ‘progressing'. Former world No. 1 and 2015 FedExCup champ Jordan Spieth (70, T3) hit his fewest fairways of the week Sunday (42.86%), and it proved costly as his three bogeys left him three back. On the bright side, he has gone from FedExCup 179th to 64th the last two weeks, what with his T3 at Pebble coming on the heels of a T4 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open - his first back-to-back top-five finishes since 2018 (Vivint Houston Open, Masters Tournament). What's more, Spieth has had at least a share of the 54-hole lead in two consecutive starts after getting lost with his swing and missing the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. "If I look back at Friday night of San Diego and you tell me I was going to share and have the 54-hole lead two weeks in a row and really just fight, finish strong to both weeks, I would have said you’re crazy, to be honest," Spieth said. "I was not in a great head space following that missed cut there and just did some really phenomenal work from Sunday through Wednesday of last week that was probably the best period of a few days of work that I’ve put in in a long time." It's just a matter of time, he added, before he wins again. "If I put myself in the position of leading after 54 holes enough times," he said, "especially with how I know I’m going to fight even if it’s not going my way, I’ll end up on top one of these days." 4. Knox battles back after penalty. Two-time TOUR winner Russell Knox (70, T7) hadn't been in contention for a while, so it was especially frustrating to be dealt a one-shot penalty on the very first hole. He was over his second shot when he saw the ball move. Had he addressed it? If so, he would get a one-shot penalty as per the Rules of Golf, as happened to playing partner Maverick McNealy on Saturday. Knox made par and wrote it down. Rules officials went to the videotape. He birdied the second and third holes, hit his approach to three feet at the fourth. He was, he said, "flying." Then he came back to earth. His birdie putt at the fourth horseshoed out, his tee at the par-3 fifth found the bunker, and while walking toward the green he was told that he would be dealt a one-shot penalty for the ball moving at address at the first "It’s just one of those horrible Rules which every one of us is against," Knox said after birdies at 17 and 18 gave him his first top-10 finish since a T9 at the Safeway Open in September. "There’s no advantage gained in any way, and it happened to Maverick yesterday, my playing partner." Still, Knox, who barely missed the FedExCup Playoffs last season (127th), moved from 73rd to 54th in the standings as he continues to chase his form of 2016, when he won twice. "I’m super happy the way I played," he said. "Obviously a few weird things happened today, so obviously it wasn’t my day, but my game is in good shape and I look forward to the future." 5. Cantlay new FedExCup No. 1. Patrick Cantlay (68, T3) hit the ball well enough to win but faulted his putting. "I didn’t get them to go in today," he said after a five-birdie, one-bogey effort. Still, he moved to FedExCup No. 1 with a victory (ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP @ SHERWOOD), runner-up (The American Express) and T3 (AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am) on the young season. Now the Southern California and UCLA product heads to his hometown tournament, The Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club, where he will be one of the heavy favorites. "All parts of my game are really good," he said, "and I really love Riviera, so I’m going to ... get rested over the next couple days and know that my game’s in a good spot." TOUR TOP 10

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