PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Temperatures were plunging and the wind was whipping — not an ideal day for a walk on the beach. It turned out to be a par-saving moment for Scottie Scheffler on Friday in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
Scheffler pulled his tee shot on the par-5 18th hole at Pebble Beach toward the Pacific Ocean. He never saw it carom off the rocks or splash in golf’s biggest water hazard.
His only other option was to take a penalty drop some 40 yards forward at the end of the tee box. So he figured he might as well walk 300 yards and take a look. Good thing he did.
“Saw a ball on the beach, went down there, found my ball, moved some rocks, hit it out, hit it on the green, two-putted,” Scheffler said, making it sound all so routine.
It took some good fortune, starting with find his golf ball. He had to take a long route to the beach, down a 5-foot rock shelf, walking back some 40 yards to find a smaller ledge to sea level, careful not to slip along the way. He also was able to move small rocks and seaweed around his ball.
Then it was a matter of hitting it cleanly enough with a wedge to get it over the cliff and back toward the fairway. Once he managed that, it was a 6-iron from 179 yards that he got to the back right of the green, leaving him two putts from 40 feet for a par and a 2-under 70.
Scheffler was seven shots behind going into the weekend, still very much in the mix, and a little lucky to not be further back.
“I’ve made good pars,” he said. “That one was more lucky than anything.”
Scheffler is not the only player to experience where Pebble Beach gets its name. Brandt Snedeker once made birdie from the beach in 2019.
Scheffler certainly would have taken a 5 from where he hit his tee shot, and he had few other complaints about his game considering this is his first real competition in nearly two months.
Sepp Straka leads as Rory McIlroy eagles and Scottie Scheffler hits the beach at Pebble
Straka, who won a couple of weeks ago at The American Express, is back in front with two rounds to play at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
He had minor surgery on his right hand when glass punctured his upper palm while he was using a wine glass to cut homemade ravioli over Christmas. The swing looks good. He said his hand feels fine. But there is a small matter of rust he can detect.
One was obvious — a semi-shank on the 11th hole with a lob wedge from 82 yards away that led to his lone bogey on Friday.
There was also some brilliance, such as the 6-iron he hit across the ocean that settled about 2 feet away for birdie on No. 8, one of the toughest holes on the golf course.
“I think the last two days out here I haven’t felt at peak performance at all,” he said. “I think if you look at my strokes gained-ball striking numbers, they’re probably not near what they would normally be. And I think that’s just a little bit of competitive rust, kind of getting my feet back under me and playing tournament golf.
“To only have two bogeys, one of them being with a semi-shank, it’s pretty good.”
