Emergency 9: the Memorial Tournament, Round 3

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Tom Hoge enjoys being at Pebble Beach even in a frigid wind and relentless rain. He loved it even more Thursday in brilliant sunshine, especially with nine birdies on his card. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Peter Jacobsen’s Pebble Beach farewell Hoge began his day along the Pacific Ocean with a 30-foot birdie putt on No. 10 at Pebble Beach. He made the last of six straight birdies with a 40-foot putt on the daunting eighth hole. It added to a 9-under 63, by four shots his best score at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. “It’s hard to be in a bad mood out here,” Hoge said. “I mean, Pebble Beach and perfect weather is about as good as it gets.” He had a one-shot lead over Seamus Power of Ireland, whose round was equally stout. Power birdied his last four holes at Spyglass Hill, traditionally the toughest of the three courses in benign conditions. It was the only course that played over par Thursday. Jonas Blixt had a 7-under 64 on the Shore Course at Monterey Peninsula. Patrick Cantlay, the reigning FedExCup champion, birdied his last three holes for a 65 on the Shore. Hoge has played just over 200 times on the PGA TOUR without winning, though he’s getting closer. He finished runner-up by two shots in Palm Desert two weeks ago. Whether he gets another shot, that’s still a long way off, with two more courses to get through before Hoge gets back to Pebble Beach. The coastline along the peninsula and the desert tucked amid the Santa Rosa Mountains are nothing alike, although Hoge managed to make one comparison. Scoring is on the low side. Along with very little wind, the area has gone more than a month without rain and the courses are firm, without the greens being too fast because of amateurs in the field. To have greens running firm and fast, they might never finish. “I was in the situation a couple weeks ago in Palm Springs — scores were a little bit better there — but you keep switching golf courses and you fee like you’ve got to keep making birdies the whole way because there’s a lot of great players out here,” he said. “Conditions look pretty good for the weekend, so I know that I’ve got to keep moving forward.” There was no need to check the forecast and hope for the best — and this tournament, that means getting Pebble Beach and Monterey Peninsula on the calmest day and Spyglass in the wind. But it’s supposed to stay gorgeous all week. Cantlay nearly had his round ruined around the turn when he squandered a good start with a pair of bogeys and began the back nine at the Shore by failing to birdie the par 5s. He made up for it with three straight birdies to finish his round, one of them on the 17th when his tee shot was about 6 feet from going into a small creek, and he hit a towering wedge over a pine to 12 feet for birdie. Jordan Spieth, still trying to recover from an intestinal infection, had a 68 at Monterey Peninsula. He had hoped to be at full strength, but probably wasn’t quite there. Otherwise, it was as perfect a day as the Pebble Beach Pro-Am can offer. About one-third of the field broke 70, and no one was terribly grumpy. Power won an opposite-field event last year for his first PGA TOUR victory. He tied for third in the Sony Open in Hawaii and now sits at No. 50 in the world, needing to hold that position for two months to earn an invitation to the Masters. He played in an all-Irish pairing with John Murphy, who went to Louisville and made his PGA TOUR debut, along with Irish amateurs Dermott Desmond and Gerry McManus. That added to a day that felt like more fun than work. “I’m playing in a shirt. Normally I have a sweater and other stuff on,” Power said. “So it was nice, wind was minimal. It was a perfect day for scoring.” His best moment was scrambling for par at the par-3 fifth hole, the last that runs along the Pacific on Spyglass Hill. He went from a fairway bunker on the uphill sixth to 25 feet and made that, and then finished with three more birdies. “It’s always funny with the three courses,” Power said. “It’s great to have a good start but you’re on to a completely different challenge. Tomorrow I’m playing Pebble and it’s going to be a completely different course to today. So kind of makes it easier to reset, and hopefully we can kind of keep doing the same thing tomorrow.”

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BROOKLINE, Mass. – Get ready for bonus golf this week at the U.S. Open. History says a playoff at The Country Club will be needed to decide the champion. RELATED: Power Rankings | Nine Things to Know: The Country Club | Five Cinderellas to watch Playoffs were necessary to crown a winner in the three previous U.S. Opens at the celebrated venue just outside Boston, and taking things a step further, playoffs have been needed to decide the last six US Opens played in the state of Massachusetts. So, despite the fact it’s been a record 14 years since Tiger Woods outlasted Rocco Mediate in extra holes at Torrey Pines in the 2008 U.S. Open, history suggests 72 holes won’t be enough to get a winner this week. Francis Ouimet famously won the 1913 U.S. Open at Brookline with an 18-hole playoff win over Harry Vardon and Ted Ray and it was another three-man battle to get a winner in 1963 when Julius Boros took down Arnold Palmer and Jacky Cupit. And Curtis Strange beat Nick Faldo over 18 holes in a playoff in the most recent U.S. Open at The Country Club, in 1988. The Boston area also saw Fred McLeod win over Willie Smith in 1908 at Myopia Hunt Club and Walter Hagen defeated Mike Brady in 1919 at Brae Burn Country Club over 18 extra holes. Willie Macfarlane took down Bobby Jones in 1925 in a 36-hole playoff after they tied again in the first 18-holes at Worcester Country Club, as well. Woods’ win over Mediate took 19 extra holes but since then the United States Golf Association’s premier event has moved to a two-hole aggregate playoff format. They just haven’t had to use it yet. Despite the weight of history BetMGM Sportsbook are offering odds of +350 for Brookline to keep its 100% playoff record intact. And if you think the record gap for U.S. Opens without the extra holes will stretch to 14 years, they’re offering -500. Any playoff in 2022 would be played on the 17th and 18th holes, and if still tied after two holes the players would continue that loop in a sudden death mode. Here’s a closer look at the three previous playoffs at The Country Club. 1913: A WIN FOR THE LOCAL LAD This U.S. Open was so good Hollywood made a movie about it called “The Greatest Game Ever Played” where a young Shia LeBeouf plays the Ouimet role beautifully. Ouimet, a 20-year-old amateur and former caddie at Brookline who lived across the road from this week’s 17th hole, was not expected to factor as anything but a local prospect for fans to cheer for. But with his 10-year-old caddie Eddie Lowery by his side, the pair forced their way to the top of the leaderboard against the British superstar duo of Harry Vardon and Ted Ray. A 71st hole birdie proved extremely pivotal. Faced with the task of keeping the trophy in American hands (Scottish or British golfers won the first 16 U.S. Opens before John McDermott became the first American to win in 1911 and 1912) Ouimet was brilliant in the 18-hole playoff on his way to a 72 that bested Vardon’s 77 and Ray’s 78. The trio were all tied through the opening nine holes with Vardon establishing a one-shot lead early on but giving it back before the turn. As the pressure ratcheted up on the back nine, Ouimet was steadfast with seven straight pars leaving him one ahead of Vardon with two to play. His lead was three when he birdied the hole and Vardon bogeyed before closing it out on 18. “I frankly admit that my victory was probably more surprising to me than to any person at The Country Club,” Ouimet said. 1963: BOROS BEATS FATHER TIME The U.S. Open returned to The Country Club to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Ouimet’s famous win and it was New England’s Julius Boros who gave the locals something to cheer about this time around. At 43, Boros become the second-oldest U.S. Open winner ever at the time when his 1-under 70 beat Jacky Cupit’s 73 and Arnold Palmer’s laboring 76 in an 18-hole playoff after the trio all finished at 9 over in regulation. Boros needed two birdies in his final three holes during the final round to tie Palmer at the top while Cupit was left to lament a 71st hole double-bogey and a missed 12-foot putt on the 72nd hole that would have claimed the win. In the playoff, Cupit led by one after just two holes before Boros took control. Three front nine birdies helped him to a three-shot lead over Palmer and a four-shot cushion over Cupit at the turn. He was five clear after 12 holes and despite doubling the 13th, he cruised to his second U.S. Open title. 1988: STRANGE REIGNS SUPREME Curtis Strange persevered to claim the first of his back-to-back U.S. Open titles after a wild final round finish left him tied with Nick Faldo at The Country Club. The 54-hole leader infamously three-putted the 71st green to lose his one-shot advantage over Faldo during the final round and then found a greenside bunker on his approach to the 18th, much to the chagrin of the partisan American crowd. Seemingly in the midst of throwing the championship away Strange produced a clutch up and down for par to ensure England’s Faldo would have to return for an 18-hole Monday playoff. The American would never trail in the playoff, setting up a one-shot lead at the turn, before prevailing with an even-par 71 against Faldo’s 4-over 75. While Strange was steadfast down the stretch, Faldo bogeyed three of his last four to surrender his hopes. “This is for my dad. … I’ve been waiting a long time to do this. … This is the greatest feeling I’ve ever had,” Strange, who lost his golf professional father at just 14, emotionally said. “Sometimes dreams don’t come true. Ninety-nine percent of the time they don’t. My dream has come true.”

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