THERE IS A reason Bill Murray had never won the Pro-am portion of the AT&T Pebble Beach National. It's not that he can't play -- he's actually quite an accomplished golfer, carrying a single digit handicap -- but rather the idea that he was there to entertain. And ultimately it may have been that lighted hearted approach that helped D.A. Points pick up his first career win, while putting Murray in the winner's circle as well. And to think, most players thought playing with Murray would be a disadvantage. "I tried to embrace it," he said after. "I was expecting him to be, you know, more of a distraction than he was, and maybe he toned it down, maybe he didn't, I didn't know, but he just seemed to have fun and he taught me to go ahead and have a little more fun and in turn, it distracted me from trying so hard. It kept me more loose and having a good time with Bill."
Where it was won: Over the last five holes. Points started his run with the eagle at 14 and followed it up by rolling in a birdie from 29-feet away on 15. But that might not have even been his best hole on the back stretch. After a loose tee shot on 16 left him in some deep cabbage, he wasn't able to get enough on a five-iron to get it to the green. He had a ticklish pitch out the green-side rough that he played with a deft touch that left him six feet for par. It wasn't necessarily his best putting stroke of the day -- it had to sneak in the left side of the cup -- but it was enough to salvage par. On 17 and 18 he took a conservative approach and was rewarded with a pair of pars to help secure the two-stroke victory.
Where it was lost: Steve Marino. Sure he blew up with a triple bogey on 18, but I'm not going to skewer a guy for making a big number because he was trying to hole out for eagle to tie. No, Marino had already lost the tournament prior to that. No more so than on 16 or 17 were he had reasonable looks at birdie -- 15 feet on 16 and 25 feet on 17 -- but didn't hit either with enough pace to give them a chance.
Hunter Mahan. He may have fired the round of a the day -- a six-under 66 -- but he also missed out on two key opportunities that could have put him in a playoff. Early in the round, at the par-three fifth he stiffed his tee-shot to seven feet and then promptly missed the golden scoring chance. At 18, after hitting two magnificent shots to find himself on the par-five green in two he three putted -- his eventual birdie chance from just over five feet. If you're keeping track, that's two putts for birdie that combined were 12-feet from the hole in a tournament he lost by two strokes.
Shots of the week
Stat of the week: How significant was Points' eagle three on 14? During the final round there were nearly as many bogeys (25) as there were pars (30) there and his three almost gave him a two and a half stroke advantage over the field, as the hole played to a 5.352 stroke advantage. If that's not enough, it was the only eagle of the week at 14 while the other three par fives conceded 20 eagles. In fact, there were only 31 birdies at 14 which accounted for less than 10 per cent of the 312 birdies on par fives at Pebble Beach during the week.
How I did
D.A. Points, Won.
Alex Cejka, T21.
Pat Perez, Cut.
Brandt Snedeker, Cut.
Tim Clark, WD.
Early look at next week:
-Who I like: Matt Kuchar, Jeff Overton, Bill Haas.
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