AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am: Five takeaways from second event, from Wyndham Clark’s course record to wild weather

The second ‘Signature Event’ of the season was a wash out, a blow out, whatever you want to call it, as the famous Pebble Beach Golf Links was battered and bruised by Mother Nature and ultimately reduced to 54 holes.

However, it was Wyndham Clark’s dismantling of the layout during these favourable conditions that got the job done.

Here are the top five the takeaways from an eventful week.

Saturday of tournament week is called ‘moving day’ and Wyndham Clark certainly did that, in some style. The current U.S. Open Champion was in 31st place after opening with a par but by the time he had reached the ninth hole he had rattled home two eagles and three birdies and was in the lead on his own.

Naturally, the 30-year-old would close the front side with another birdie, from distance, to go out in just 28 strokes. It tied the lowest front nine score at Pebble since 1983.

Clark would continue to burn bright on what was a gloomy day on the Monterey coast as he rolled home putt after putt. Arguably one of his best was for a bogey after having to flip his wedge round and then roll home from distance from the fringe.

The Colorado native knew he was on the cusp of breaking into the elusive ‘59 Club,’ such was his display, but a few putts towards the end lacked momentum. Clark signed for a 12-under par round of 60, his career low, and he is now the owner of the course record at Pebble Beach.

Little did Clark know that the final putt he made on Saturday evening would be the final stroke of his tournament. With the weather taking a nasty turn, the remainder of AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am was cancelled and Clark was announced the winner.

It was a fitting round of golf to conclude an event that made him US$3.6 million richer.

Matthieu Pavon could be forgiven for taking the foot off the gas a little after a whirlwind six months or so.

The 31-year-old Frenchman nearly gave up the game a decade ago but having grinded away and broken through on the DP World Tour last autumn, which helped him secure a PGA TOUR card, it took him only three events to enter the winners circle at last month’s Farmers Insurance Open.

“I got better and better since I won my tournament back in Spain six months ago. Then I got my PGA Tour card, and now I come to America with some confidence in myself and my game,” he commented recently.

“I think that’s the key. If you want to play good golf, you must be confident. All you can do after that is take a positive attitude and try to hit the best shot every time you show up.”

Pavon has been exuding confidence with no signs of slowing down. The first French winner on Tour since 1907 was in the mix again at Pebble as he looked for wins in back-to-back starts. He jockeyed with fellow European starlets Ludvig Aberg and Thomas Detry throughout the tournament before Clark blew the field away with his own history.

It’s been a sensational start to life on the PGA Tour and with the season only five events old, who knows what further success lies ahead.

Such is the microclimate of Pebble Beach’s location, it can often throw up a wild array of conditions at the drop of a hat.

Before the event got underway, early forecasts looked particularly ropey with Justin Thomas even predicting a Monday finish during his pre-tournament press conference.

“When you get a week like this week where the weather doesn’t look very good, it’s asking for some very, very long days and a very likely Monday finish, just a total scramble,” he foretold.

The Tour announced preferred lies would be in place for the first three days of the event due to the inclement weather, which aided some impressive scoring, but not even having temporary rules in place could keep conditions at bay and the course playable.

“The wind is our biggest concern right now for safety,” said Gary Young, the Tour’s chief referee. “I think we’ve made pretty good adjustments to green speeds that we could probably keep balls at rest up until about 40 mph. Once we get north of that it’s going to be pretty difficult. If we get those rain amounts I’m talking about, that will probably play into the decision as well.”

Weather worsened on Sunday with severe storms in the area, which was indeed enough to cancel the third round and the eventual event with things not getting much better on the Monday. Lots of damage was reported with trees down and damage to the facilities at the course.

It did leave the players, and fans, bemoaning what could have been; seeing the world’s best take on the 7th hole, arguably the most famous par-3 in golf.

Rory McIlroy walked off the 18th at Spyglass Hill after a disappointing close to his second round which promised so much early on as he was briefly tied for the lead. Three closing bogeys left a sour taste in the mouth but there was more woe to come.

His tee shot on the par-5 7th hole — his 16th hole of the day — was chewed up by thick rough under a tree and with no reasonable way out, McIlroy declared his ball unplayable and took “back-on-the-line” relief, which permits golfers, when dropping, to go as far back as they like on the line from the hole through the spot where their ball lies, at the cost of a one-shot penalty.  

McIlroy proceeded correctly up until he took his actual drop, a yard or so right of his direct line. This is where it went wrong. Under Rule 14.3, the Northern Irishman was required to drop his ball on the line. He wasn’t trying to pull a fast one — he just didn’t know the rule, which ended up retroactively costing him two more penalty strokes, resulting in an unsightly eight on his card.  

“Unbeknownst to me, the rule changed in January 2023 where you used to be able to come back on-line, take a club length either side,” McIlroy explained after trudging out the scorer’s hut.

“That was changed in 2019 to be able to do that. I wasn’t aware that that rule was changed again in 2023, so I took a drop thinking of the 2019 rules when everything was sort of changed, not knowing that the rule was changed again in 2023, so got a two-stroke penalty there.”

Turns out the rules are a murky place even for the best in the game!

The GOAT of American Football, former New England Patriot and Tampa Bay Buccaneer quarterback Tom Brady, was afforded a luxury invite into the new, slimmed down, Pro-Am format. Despite seeming untouchable during his glittering Hall of Fame career, he did indeed confirm he was human after all during an unfortunate mishap.

Stepping onto the first tee at Pebble, Brady took a swipe with his driver and stone cold topped it. Rather embarrassing for someone of his stature within the world of sport. To compound his misery, we now live in an age of technology, and so this moment was captured by many spectators and sent into the abyss of social media, so you too can enjoy the moment:

As if things couldn’t get any worse for the 46-year-old, he lost the ‘Battle of the Quarterbacks’ with current Buffalo Bills main man, Josh Allen, trumping him and playing partner Keegan Bradley by two in the team event.