When Rory McIlroy talks about the professional-golf product at its best, this is it:
One of golf’s cathedrals.
Headliners in contention, names such as McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Tom Kim.
And to top it all off, a nasty weather day to challenge those world-class players, forcing them to turn off the autopilot and flight shots.
“I said to Harry [Diamond, McIlroy’s caddie] going up 6, I said, ‘Let’s just try to chip it around for the rest of the day,’” McIlroy said. “Taking a club more, two clubs more and just try to chip it in there, take spin off it, keep under the wind. I did that really well today.”
McIlroy’s 7-under 65 on Saturday around Pebble Beach Golf Links tied countryman and elite mudder Shane Lowry for low round, and both players will enter Sunday’s final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, which they’ll play alongside each other, at 15 under, one shot back of leader Sepp Straka, who is chasing his second victory already this season.
Tom Kim is tied with Justin Rose and Cam Davis at 14 under while Scottie Scheffler is T-10, six behind, after getting hot early with three birdies in his first five holes and then hanging on for a 3-under 69 in miserable weather conditions – temperatures in the 50s, rain, wind gusts around 25 mph.
Scheffler said he cut a 5-iron into the green at the par-4 10th, a shot that normally would go 210 yards at home but flew just 158 yards with a big gust coming in off the Pacific.
“There was a lot of adjusting on the fly out there,” Scheffler said. “The green speeds changed a lot as the day went on, the wind was crazy, it was raining on and off, so there were a lot of adjustments you had to make.”
Despite its prestige, McIlroy wasn’t a frequent visitor of Pebble Beach until it became a $20 million signature event last year. This is just his third start in the Pro-Am. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t appreciate what it means for the PGA Tour to come here annually, especially considering the PGA Tour currently has regular non-major stops at just five top-100 courses in Golf Digest’s U.S. rankings – Pebble (12), Muirfield Village (17), Riviera (18), TPC Sawgrass’ Stadium Course (41) and Spyglass Hill (67). Spyglass, of course, is only used for two days, and Riviera won’t host this season because of the L.A. wildfires.
Earlier this week, McIlroy was asked to diagnose what is ailing the PGA Tour from an entertainment perspective.
“I really like the way golf is, and I think a lot of other people do, too,” said McIlroy, though he noted the importance of compelling venues, top competition, a tad quicker pace and perhaps a need for some product scarcity. There are too many events, McIlroy argues.
How is this week doing so far, Rory?
Though he admits the leaderboard could be better, and he’s also “amazed they haven’t tried to change the date,” McIlroy doubled down on the prestigiousness of the stage.
Pebble and Spyglass, in any weather, is better than most.
“I think really good venues are a big part of the storyline,” McIlroy said. “When we go to major championships, especially a U.S. Open and an Open Championship, I always feel like the golf course is a big part of the storyline heading into Thursday. Sometimes on the PGA Tour, that isn’t the case because whether you play a run-of-the-mill TPC or whatever it is, it just isn’t that interesting. So, to come back to Pebble Beach time and again and play, and Spyglass – I think Spyglass is a really, really good golf course. To play these two golf courses, it’s definitely two of the best that we play all year.
“You know, if everything’s on the table for whatever this new look PGA Tour’s going to be, I think venues are going to be a big part of it.”
Added Lowry: “There’s a few courses in the world that you would like to win on, and this is definitely one of them. So, you try not to think about stuff like that, and hopefully it comes to you someday.”
