Here is a recap of Sunday’s final round of the 2017 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am:
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WINNER: Jordan Spieth is back in the winner’s circle, ladies and gentlemen. To say Spieth was in a slump would be gross overstatement at best – he’d finished T-3, third and T-9 in his first three starts of 2017 – but he hadn’t won on the PGA Tour since last May. So there had to be a little urgency to get another victory notched (Spieth did win the Australian Open, a non-PGA Tour event, in November, to be fair). This week, he left no doubt. Spieth opened in a respectable 3-under 68 at Monterey Peninsula’s Shore course, but he then went about torching Spyglass Hill and Pebble Beach in the following rounds with consecutive 7-under 65s to take a six-shot lead. It wasn’t particularly exciting on Sunday at Pebble Beach, and Spieth’s lead did dwindle to three, but he went bogey-free for the final round. After a par-birdie start, Spieth made 15 straight pars to hold steady at 18 under. He then put an exclamation point on the action by rolling in a 29-footer for birdie at 17 to move to 19 under and a four-shot lead. From there, he made a simple par at 18 to finish with 70 and a four-shot win. Spieth is still just 23 years, 6 months and 16 days old and this is already his ninth PGA Tour victory. Per Golf Channel’s Justin Ray, only Tiger Woods (23 years, 5 months, 7 days) reached nine PGA Tour wins at a younger age since World War II.
JUST MISSED: Much was talked about this week regarding the return of Patrick Cantlay, the former UCLA phenom and World No. 1 amateur, but Kelly Kraft, the guy who beat Cantlay for the 2011 U.S. Amateur crown, defeated all but one player this week. Kraft went 66-67 on the weekend to finish 15 under and in solo second. Dustin Johnson went 66-68 on the weekend as the two-time champion AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am champion placed third at 14 under.
SHOT OF THE DAY: The beautiful birdie putt to seal things for Spieth of course comes up here. He would’ve won regardless, but we’re suckers for an emphatic closing punch.
QUOTABLE: “On every tee box, (caddie) Michael (Greller’s) like, ‘Keep play boring golf.’ I’m just sitting there saying, ‘I don’t like playing boring golf.’ (But) that is what was needed today, and fortunately, that’s what we did to close it out.” – Jordan Spieth
CHIP SHOTS: Jason Day had a difficult 75 on Saturday and quickly went from the lead to out of contention. But his response in the final round was robust. The Aussie opened birdie-birdie and closed that way as well – authoring a pitch-in eagle at the par-5 14th in between – to post 67 and finish T-5 at 12 under. … Red-hot Jon Rahm continued his fine play with a 68 that pushed him to T-5. … The other T-5 player was Gary Woodland, who had 10 birdies in a closing 65. … Rob Oppenheim, who needed a top 10 to earn a spot at next week’s Genesis Open, closed in 72 to finish T-8 at 9 under. … Cantlay may not have reached Kraft’s heights, but it was an impressive return, as he made the cut and finished T-48 at 3 under. Again, not bad for a guy whose last start was in November 2014. … Four-time champion Phil Mickelson closed in a stunning 8-over 44 to shoot 77 and drop to 1 over. Lefty finished 65th and last among those who completed 72 holes this week.
UP NEXT: Next up on the docket is The Genesis Open. Get all preview content and follow all action live on Golfweek.com and our Facebook and Twitter feeds.
