The winning pro-am team gets a plaque on the rock wall below the first tee at Pebble Beach.
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Fresh off a week at home after close calls without a trophy in Abu Dhabi and Singapore, Spieth is hungry to claim his second PGA Tour title of the young season.
“Matt absolutely crushed that ball”, said Kontos. There’s just so many people and you’ve got those amateurs chopping it all over the place. If it goes on, great.
The Northern Trust Open at Riviera has been rain-free the last four years during the tournament. On the third tee, he jerked his drive well left onto the adjoining fourth fairway. “Who knows how long it will take?” But the wind forecast is mild, so I think we might see record scoring if that holds.
Tiger hasn’t been back since, and may never be back considering his myriad health issues and disappearance from the elite list – he’s 440th in the world rankings, largely the result of inactivity.
But he’s behind schedule as he tries to jump-start his 2016 season. “My (swing) speeds are where they need to be, everything feels good”.
‘We had it (the same pairing) past year, so we kind of already know each other’s games and we are rooting for each other. And it definitely is an even year. “I’m trying to find a flawless explanation for people to understand what actually “wanting it” means”, he said.
But Cain wasn’t as confident that the command issues that troubled him when he did finally pitch have been completely solved.
“I’m here grinding this week”, Spieth said. Now that the National Football League is done for a few months, CBS picks up more of the golf coverage so you’ll hear the dulcet tones of announcer Jim Nantz, but sans David Feherty who chased a check on over to NBC. And it certainly shouldn’t be a big deal that when recognized after sitting down, he didn’t scoff at being approached, but instead smiled and blurted, “Can you believe I haven’t been here before?” Only three of Coach Chris Haack’s former hacks are entered in the field, and I’m not expecting much. The big difference is that the Spieth bobblehead is a bit of a scamp – in a amusing YouTube video, “Bobblehead Jordan” is in an AT&T office, where he hits spitballs toward the coffee cup of a coworker. The slump was pretty certain since he won two weeks before. There’s so much yet to see. Brandt Snedker, Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson have each won the event twice in the last ten years and each are playing well enough of late to be a genuine chance once again.
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The $7 million PGA Tour event will be played on three courses: the hosting Pebble Beach Golf Links and its sister venues Spyglass Hill and Monterey Peninsula Shore. In an interesting match of amateurs, quarterback Aaron Rodgers and wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald will be playing in the same group with their pro partners, Jerry Kelly and Kevin Streelman, respectively. He has been in the top 20 in six of his last seven events and should have another strong showing this weekend.
