The First Look: AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am

The next two events are among the most important on Jordan Spieth’s calendar each year. This week, he returns to the tournament that served as his TOUR debut, where he twice contended as a teenager but has yet to win. He’s hoisted the trophy at the other TOUR stop in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, the Charles Schwab Challenge, but winning his hometown event, the AT&T Byron Nelson, has eluded him. Then Spieth will try to complete the Career Grand Slam at a course that seems to complement his skill set, Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Spieth heads into this important fortnight in good form, fresh off a victory at the RBC Heritage. Sharing his home this week with two friends, Justin Thomas and Jason Dufner, should help alleviate any pressure he may feel to win a home game and the only major lacking from his resume. “I always want to play really well here,” said Spieth, whose T9 in last year’s AT&T Byron Nelson, the first played at TPC Craig Ranch, is his best in 10 appearances at this event. “It’s obviously one that’s starred on the calendar.” So is the PGA Championship, the tournament that’s stood between him and the Career Grand Slam for each of the past five years. This year’s venue, Southern Hills, is one Spieth played in his amateur days, but it has undergone a dramatic renovation by Gil Hanse since then. That’s one reason Spieth and Thomas, following in the flight path of Tiger Woods and Scottie Scheffler, visited Southern Hills earlier this week for an early PGA Championship practice round. Since Hanse’s renovation, the thick Bermudagrass rough that lined the holes of the Perry Maxwell design have been replaced by short grass. It’s a change that makes the short game that much more important because players must pick their pitch shots precisely. It’s similar to another course where Spieth has had plenty of success, Augusta National. The tiny targets also play to another of Spieth’s strengths, his iron play. “It’s tough to chip,” Thomas said about Southern Hills. “I mean the balls roll off the green, they go pretty far away. You get some grainy, elevated greens to where it’s difficult to get the ball around the hole and over the course of the round in a tournament that can be quite a few shots and the person I think that does that the best is going to have the best chance of winning.” It was Thomas’ first trip to the course. He said he was “blown away” by the layout, despite the 35 mph gusts they faced in their practice round. “I thought tee to green it was excellent,” he said. “I thought it challenged kind of all facets of your game. You have to work the ball quite a bit, you have to, you really, really have to be good around the greens. You can’t fake your way around it.” Spieth played Southern Hills in the 2009 U.S. Amateur, when he was still in high school. “It’s changed so much and I was 15 or 16 years old, so I just wanted to see it … take some stress off practice rounds next week and be able to do nine each day instead of feeling like I got to go out and learn a lot,” Spieth said. “The golf course was fantastic. I loved it. The green complexes are perfectly fitting to the holes. The greens play maybe three quarters of the size that they actually are. There’s a lot more runoffs than I remember into Bermuda chipping areas and into runoff areas that are mowed. So, you can be left with a lot of really delicate little shots. “I think it’s going to be a really firm and fast PGA and it’s going to be one of the higher scoring PGAs that we have seen. It was a great test. I really enjoyed playing it.” Spieth often plays the week before a major, whether it’s the Valero Texas Open before the Masters or the John Deere Classic before The Open. He wouldn’t miss this week, when he can play host to his friends. “I’ve got no complaints thus far, but it’s only Wednesday, so ask me later in the week,” he joked about his housemates. Thomas added this event to his schedule as he ponders a different method for preparing for the majors. Thomas’ PGA win came after playing the week prior at Firestone, but he traditionally doesn’t play the week before a major. But this is Thomas’ first start since the RBC Heritage. He last played TPC Craig Ranch in Q-School nine years ago and with Spieth’s current caddie, Michael Greller, on the bag. Thomas is 20th in the FedExCup with six top-10s, but not a win, this season. “I felt like taking four weeks off into a major wasn’t a very smart idea … and I personally just want to try something a little different this year,” Thomas said. “These last three majors, I’m going to see how I feel this week, and potentially add (the RBC Canadian Open, the week before the U.S. Open), but I just want to play the week before and see how that feels and see how that gets going into next week and seeing if that can lead to some success. “My game has been very, very solid this year. It just hasn’t produced any wins, which is what I play for. I’m getting close, I just got to stay patient and just let it come. I know that it will. Just have to be in the right frame of mind for it and hopefully we can get on a little run whenever it does happen.”

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He had to wait 80 minutes … or 3,262 days, depending on the perspective. Either way, Paul Casey is once again a winner on the PGA TOUR. Casey, playing nine groups ahead of the last twosome in Sunday’s final round of the Valspar Championship, blistered a tough Innisbrook course for a 6-under 65. The Englishman then had to wait out the finishers, all the while thinking his 10 under total would not hold up.  He signed his scorecard, signed some autographs, did a quick interview and then retreated to the locker room to watch his chasers come in. It was not a fun experience. “Awful,â€� he said, adding later. “Rubbish. Can’t stand it.â€� The biggest threats ended up being Patrick Reed and Tiger Woods. Reed came to 18 needing a birdie to win outright. Instead, his tricky putt from 45 feet turned into disaster and he suffered a bogey. Meanwhile, Woods drained a 43-foot, 8-inch putt at the 17th hole to climb within one stroke. He also faced a difficult birdie putt, this one from just inside 39 feet. Knowing Tiger’s flair for the dramatics, Casey gave it a “50-50â€� chance to go in. But it came up short. “I dodged a bullet,â€� Casey said. He was overdue for it. Prior to Sunday, Casey’s only TOUR win was the 2009 Houston Open. Since then, he’s won five times, four of those on the European Tour. He’s also battled through a variety of injuries that dropped him outside the world’s top 100. But he’s found consistency (he leads the TOUR in consecutive made cuts with 27 straight), made some noise in last year’s FedExCup Playoffs (three top-5 finishes) and finally peaked this week against the best field in Valspar history. “Probably not the most significant win of my career, but it’s certainly one of the most satisfying ones,â€� Casey said. “The quality of golf that I played. I know I made some errors on the round yesterday, I hit it in the water twice but as a whole I would say it’s one of the cleanest weeks I’ve ever had from kind of a golf course management point of view. … “Houston was obviously great fun. My eyes are much more open right now. I’ve taken a lot in. Your last win is always your best one because it’s the freshest.â€� Winning a TOUR event with Woods in contention was also satisfying for Casey. A week ago, Phil Mickelson won at age 47, and with the 42-year-old Woods in the mix, it seemed like he might extend the streak on Sunday. Instead, it was the 40-year-old Casey who did the trick. “I’m sure he was disappointed he didn’t get the victory,â€� Casey said. “I actually thought he was going to win today before the round started. I thought it was just teed up beautifully for him. “I said a couple times if I don’t win this thing, I actually want Tiger to win it. I’m glad it’s this way.â€�  NOTABLES Having set up a chance to force a playoff with his 43-foot putt on the 17th hole, Tiger Woods opted for 2-iron off the tee at the par-4 18th. His drive went 258 yards, leaving him with 185 yards to the pin. No player in the field had a longer approach shot on that hole Sunday. Tiger’s approach finished 39 feet from the pin, and his birdie attempt came up short. Asked why he didn’t use 3-wood off the tee, Woods explained, “I bring the right part of that fairway where it cuts in a little bit with 3-wood into play and on top of that the wind is off the left. If I’m going to squeeze it in I want to cut it. I didn’t feel comfortable with that. If anything, that 2-iron I could have hit it flatter and hotter but, hey, I’m in the fairway, I got a shot at this thing. Unfortunately, I didn’t hit it close enough.â€� You may think Patrick Reed lost his chance at a playoff when he bogeyed the final hole Sunday after his birdie putt rolled back to his feet after failing to clear the top ledge (his ensuing chip to save par came up just short). But from Reed’s perspective, the key misses were two 3-foot birdie chances on Saturday that he failed to convert. “Just too many mistakes out there,â€� Reed said. “I felt like I played solid today. I really didn’t feel like I did anything wrong on the last when I walked off with a 5.â€� Sergio Garcia’s 6-under 65 tied for the low round of the week, but he thinks it could’ve been better. “Could have been a really, really special round,â€� Garcia said. “You know, I probably wasted at least three shots on the front-9 with a 3-putt and a couple short misses for birdies.â€� The big Sunday move, though, left him solo fourth. That’s his best PGA TOUR result in his 12 starts since winning the Masters last year. Brandt Snedeker entered the third round just one shot off the lead and paired with Tiger Woods. But it was a day Sneds will quickly want to forget. His 7-over 78 – which included seven bogeys and one double — dropped him into a tie for 31st. Snedeker’s only suffered one other final round with a higher score – a 79 at the 2014 Waste Management Phoenix Open. Third-round leader Corey Conners also suffered a cruel day, a 6-over 77 that left him tied for 16th. Conners opened with a bogey and never got untracked, failing to produce a birdie the entire round after making 15 the first three days. Nevertheless, the Canadian rookie called the week a “great experienceâ€� after leading each of the first three days. “Little disappointed with the outcome today,â€� he said, “but, yeah, tried to battle hard out there and just wasn’t meant to be.â€� Jim Furyk shot a 5-under 66 to move into solo seventh. It’s his first top-10 finish since a T-6 at The RSM Classic in November of 2016. … Steve Stricker followed up his first win on PGA TOUR Champions last week with a solid T-12 after shooting a 2-under 69, his best round of the week … Branden Grace’s T-8 was his best finish on American soil since the 2016 PGA Championship at Baltusrol. QUOTABLES I’m sure I’ll find a photo somewhere with my name above his.I’m not touching a club tomorrow. I just didn’t hit it hard enough, obviously. Absolutely killed it and the ball rolled back down to where it was. Superlatives Lowest round – The 6-under 65s by winner Paul Casey and Sergio Garcia not only were the lowest of the day but tied for lowest of the week. Longest drive – Luke List’s 374-yard drive on the 10th hole. It reached the tree line and left him just 85 yards to the pin. He ended up with par on the hole. Longest putt – Fabian Gomez’ birdie putt of 56 feet, 8 inches on the fifth hole. It was the first of five birdies on his round – unfortunately he started with three bogeys to shoot 2-under 69. Hardest hole – The 442-yard par-4 18th played to a stroke average of 4.22. The tough pin placement has made it one of the most difficult closing holes on any Sunday on TOUR. Easiest hole – The 529-yard par-5 1st played to a stroke average of 4.55. It was the only hole that contender Justin Rose birdied en route to his 1-over 72. SHOT OF THE DAY CALL OF THE DAY

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