2007 Recap
A little rain didn’t bother Phil Mickelson, who repeated his wire-to-wire victory performance of 2005 and matched two other tournament records along the way.
Mickelson’s 20-under-par 268 total tied Mark O’Meara (1997) for lowest winning score for 72 holes, while his five-shot cushion ahead of runner-up Kevin Sutherland joined five others for the biggest winning margin. Mickelson also joined Jack Nicklaus and Johnny Miller as three-time champions, trailing only O’Meara, the all-time leader with five.
Rain and records were not the only things that fell during the week. Thursday at Spyglass Hill, while Bill Murray’s foursome was on the 17th green, a Monterey Pine estimated at 90 feet came crashing down from the nearby hillside, falling about two feet from a spectator. No one was injured. Play was stopped momentarily as crews cleaned debris from the back bunker.
By Sunday, the sun was shining and there was no need to worry about rain delays. “We had a little bit of breeze, but it wasn’t a difficult day,” said Mickelson, who reached the 30-win milestone for his PGA TOUR career – also winning the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in 1998 and 2005. “It’s not a bad thing if the weather comes in. What was great was we didn’t have any delays during the week.” He knows that all too well, since his 1998 victory at Pebble Beach was rain-delayed in February – and not completed until August.
Mickelson did not waste any time going to the front of the pack, opening with a 7-under-par 65 at Poppy Hills. He kept rolling to 12 under through 36 holes after his 67 at Pebble Beach, and then finished his three-course rotation with a 2-under-par 70 at Spyglass Hill, where earlier in the week he worked on his putting with short-game coach Dave Pelz.
“Certainly you are not going to make every putt out here,” Mickelson said, “but what I did do was start them on line with the right speed. And I was able to make my share.”
Indeed, Mickelson had the best short game in the tournament, ranked No. 1 in the combined Putts/Greens In Regulation category and did not have a three-putt all week. But he also drove the ball well, missing only six of 42 fairways the final three rounds, and capitalized on the par 5s, playing them 10-under par (17 total holes).
Going into the final round tied with Sutherland at 14 under, Mickelson dropped out of the lead only momentarily – when he lost a ball at the par-3 fifth hole and took a double-bogey (his 6 iron from 202 yards flew the green). However, birdies at Nos. 6, 8, 10 and 11 pushed him well ahead of the pack, which did not keep pace with Mickelson, who breezed through the back side with a 32, capped with birdies on the 17th and 18th holes for a 66, the low score of the day.
“This means a lot to me because it’s a place where I have family memories,” said Mickelson, whose grandfather once caddied at Pebble Beach. “I love coming back to this place.”
Sutherland’s closing 71 was good for second place, one shot ahead of PGA TOUR rookie John Mallinger, who also shot 71 Sunday.
Mickelson also became the sixth player to win both the pro and team events in the same year, teaming with amateur partner Harry You, the CEO of Bearing Point, an investment company that Mickelson endorses, to win the Pro-Am. Their total of 249, 39 under par, was four shots ahead of the father-son team of Tom Watson and Michael Watson, who finished at 253, 35 under.
You, an 18-handicap, Sunday made a timely up-and-down save from under a tree at the par-3 fifth hole, where Mickelson took his double-bogey.
Michael Watson, 24, won the Jack Lemmon Award, given to the amateur who helps his pro the most strokes. Watson, a 6-handicap, helped his dad by 28 shots in the team competition. He is the third generation of the Watson family crowned a winner at the tournament: His grandfather, Ray Watson, won the team pro-am in 1941 with pro Leonard Dodson, while his father won the pro titles in 1977 and 1978.
All four rounds of the tournament were played under preferred lie rules, allowing players to lift, clean and place the ball within one club length on closely mown areas through the green.
This year’s Pro-Am was dedicated to the memory of John Zoller, vice chairman of the Monterey Peninsula Foundation, who passed away the week before the tournament.
LEADERS: First Round – 65 John Mallinger (PB), Nick Watney (PH), Phil Mickelson (PH), 67 Arjun Atwal (PB), Jason Schultz (SH), Jim Furyk (SH). Second Round – 132 Furyk (65 PH), Mickelson (67 PB), 135 Mallinger (70 SH), Kevin Sutherland (63 SH). Third Round – 202 Mickelson (70 SH), Sutherland (67 PH), 203 Mallinger (68 PH), 207 Corey Pavin (67 PB), Davis Love III (70 SH).
CUT: 60 pros made the cut at 1-under-par 215. The pro-am team cut was 199, 17-under-par with 25 teams advancing to the fourth round (four teams at 17-under were eliminated through the tiebreaker).
WEATHER: Cool and breezy all week, with a high temperature of 60 degrees. Light drizzle Wednesday, followed by occasional showers Thursday through Saturday morning, with heavy rain and strong gusts Saturday afternoon. Sunday had brief early morning showers, followed by sunshine with scattered clouds and lighter breezes.
