2015 Pebble Beach National Pro-Am: Jim Furyk Takes 54-Hole Lead

By Danny Norris | Feb 14, 2015

Once again the conditions were perfect at the 2015 Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and once again we got a ton of low scores Saturday afternoon. Brandt Snedeker and Matt Jones came in as the leaders heading into the third round, but come out of it in a tie for second trailing by one shot to Jim Furyk. It was Furyk who had the low round of the day shooting a 9-under 63 to storm his way to the top of the leaderboard at 18-under par after three rounds.

The formula for success when playing the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am is to survive Spyglass and shoot low at Monterey Peninsula and Pebble Beach. With conditions being equally perfect for all the formula for success was very much achievable this year and that is what Furyk has done.

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Furyk shot an opening round 64 at Monterey Peninsula, survived Spyglass by shooting a 2-under 70, and today shot 9-under par at Pebble Beach. Furyk will look to get off the schnide tomorrow afternoon by winning his first PGA Tour event since 2010.

Both Nick Watney (4th, 16-under) and Kevin Chappell (5th, 14-under) continued their great play for the week as Watney shot a 7-under 65 while Chappell shot a 6-under 66. Both Chappell and Watney have put together three rounds under 70 this week.

Jon Curran, Andres Gonzales, Pat Perez, and Daniel Berger sit in a tie for 6th at 13-under par.

Other notables include: Jason Day who sits in a tie for 10th place at 12-under par, Jordan Spieth, and Marcel Siem shot up the leaderboard as he shot a 9-under 63. Dustin Johnson sits in a tie for 17th at 11-under par.

Graham DeLaet, who had a disastrous opening round 76, has fought back in a big way shooting a 65 yesterday and 64 today to get to 10-under par in a tie for 24th. Another player who has battled back after a terrible opening round was Scott Brown. In fact, Brown played so well today at Monterey Peninsula he was on 59 watch.

Brown birdied six of his first seven holes, and eight of his first ten holes. He only birded one more hole after that, but that was still good enough to shoot a 9-under 62 to get him inside the cut line comfortably.

The great thing about golf is you can take totally different routes from your competitors, yet end up in the same place when the chips eventually all come down. J.B. Holmes led after the first round, but a bad second round and a decent 3rd round has him tied for 40th, alongside Scott Brown at 8-under par. Brown was pretty much down and out after two rounds, while Holmes was in the driver’s seat after round one, yet, after 54 holes they are tied up.

Defending champion Jimmy Walker gave it a nice run finishing the day at 5-under par, including three straight birdies to close out his round to give him an outside shot at defending his title; not likely at all though, but you never know.

Feb 5, 2015; La Jolla, CA, USA; Billy Horschel reacts to his putt on the 18th during the first round of the Farmers Insurance Open golf tournament at Torrey Pines Municipal Golf Course – North Course. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Billy Horschel had quite the roller-coaster of the day starting off with a birdie on two then had a birdie sandwich with buns for bogeys. He bogeyed holes four and nine, but had four straight birdies in the middle. The back-nine was a mess, though, as he shot sour over including a double bogey on ten. All in all, he was 1-over for the day and sits in a tie for 30th.

It’s going to be an interesting final day at Pebble Beach. The biggest question heading into Sunday is: Will Jim Furyk finally hold on to a 54-hole lead? While a lot of golfers are playing well, the top five have separated themselves a little bit. Furyk is one shot ahead of Snedeker and Jones, while he is four and five shots ahead of 5th place and 6th place.

While you can’t count out the likes of Chappell, Berger, Perez, Day, Spieth, and some of those guys around in that group; it’s going to be very difficult for them to have a shot if Furyk posts a halfway decent score, which would be in the range of 2 and 3-under. I see this as really a five horse race with the likely winners of Furyk, Snedeker, Jones, and Watney. Conditions will be ideal again, so I can’t see anybody really falling off the map, but you just never know.

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