Wyndham Clark shoots 60 to break course record, takes lead at Pebble Beach

CALIFORNIA – Wyndham Clark fired a 12-under 60 – breaking the course record and his career-best score – on Feb 3 to vault 22 spots and into the lead after three rounds of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am at Pebble Beach Golf Links in California.

Kang Sung-hoon also shot 60 at the tournament in 2016, but his came at Monterey Peninsula Country Club. Clark shot 28 on the front nine on the strength of eagles on the par-five second and sixth holes and four birdies. He added another five birdies against a bogey coming in. His 28 tied the lowest score on Pebble Beach’s front nine at the Pro-Am.

His 14-foot birdie putt at No. 17 came up an inch short, ultimately preventing Clark from shooting 59. He needed to eagle the 18th but could only birdie it.

“Honestly, anyone who has ever shot 59 or gets into that kind of zone, you don’t really think about the score, you’re just so focused on the next shot,” he said.

“I really didn’t think about it until I got to the 18 tee box and when I did, I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, it would have been really nice to have one of those last two because then I only have to birdie 18.”

Clark said he was trying to chase off nerves on the backside. “I made a ton of putts and I hadn’t been in contention really since probably my US Open win. To kind of have those nerves, and then obviously you’re also chasing a different kind of nerves of trying to shoot 59,” he added.

“In the past I would have kind of coasted in and shot a nice eight, nine under. To keep the pedal down and to stay aggressive mentally was the most impressive thing to myself.

“And then obviously making all those putts was, you know, out of the ordinary. It was pretty awesome.”

Clark sits at 17-under 199 with 18 holes to play, one stroke ahead of Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg, who fired a third-round 67, and two shots ahead of Frenchman Matthieu Pavon (66 on Feb 3), who sits solo third.

Pavon became the first Frenchman to win on the modern PGA Tour last week at Torrey Pines and continued his excellent form, making eight birdies, only slightly undone with bogeys on the par-three fifth and the par-four eighth.

On his uptick in form, he said: “It’s a combination of many things. Got better and better since I won my tournament back in Spain six months ago, then got my PGA Tour card and now I come to America with some confidence in myself and my game.”

Mark Hubbard (65) and second-round co-leader Thomas Detry of Belgium (69) are tied for fourth at 14 under.

Australian Jason Day carded a 63 to vault 28 spots up the leaderboard on moving day and into a tie for sixth with three other players. That cluster is four shots off the lead.

Aberg also had a share of the lead after 36 holes. He posted a clean round with five birdies.

“It was quite stress-free, to be honest,” he said. “I didn’t miss that many greens. Felt like we spoke about when to be aggressive, when not to be aggressive and I think we did a great job of that.”

Second-round co-leader Scottie Scheffler carded a disappointing 70 to drop into the group who were tied for sixth. REUTERS, AFP