The 18th hole at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am was a fork in the road for Daniel Berger twice this week. On Saturday afternoon, he made a double bow after hitting his ball off limits. On Sunday, he wrapped it up for a starting two-stroke win over Maverick McNealy. A four-stroke swing that changed the entire tournament.
Berger’s double play on Saturday in round 3 meant that Berger was no longer in the final group for the final. It might have been a good thing for him to consider Jordan Spieth wash in the final group, and those dynamics did not always end well for Berger. He lost to Spieth in the playoffs at the 2017 Travelers Championship and somehow fell behind two after Spieth played fairly mediocre golf at Pebble on Saturday.
Berger played in front of his former President’s Cup partner on Sunday and put two tries on the map in the first three holes. He went out in 33, and it became clear that he was one of the two or three golfers who really had a grip on the golf tournament. After an almost hole exit on the 15th made him roll around in the sand, the scene was for a crazy end, and Berger delivered in a very different way than Saturday.
At 16 to 71 holes, Berger hit a ride at number 18. With Patrick Cantlay and Nate Lashley clipping on his heels, along with McNealy in the house at 16 under, he hit a voluptuous 3-wood around two holes for the win. He only needed one of those for the 65 and won.
“It was the best pit I’ve ever hit in my life,” Berger said. He also noted that the 3-wood in 18 was the best he had ever hit.
This is an impressive 12-month run for Berger, who has had nine top 10s in his last 19 events dating back to last year’s Pebble Beach Pro-Am. That includes two wins – one at Colonial in the first PGA Tour after a three-month hiatus and this one.
It’s big in any year, but even more so for Berger, as he missed the Masters in November and is trying to qualify for the first Ryder Cup of his tremendous career. One famous hole made such a big difference in how things ended on Saturday, just like Sunday. For Berger, the order of things mattered a lot, and it resulted in the fourth PGA Tour tournament in his career. Grade: A +
Maverick McNealy (2nd): The former Stanford superstar clearly learned from another Stanford superstar. He needed Eagle at number 18 to get a chance, and he hit a missile on his second shot before the club turned the shaft of his iron. A view. He gets an ‘A’ for the week, but an ‘A +’ on the turn alone. Grade: A +
Patrick Cantlay (T3): Cantlay felt like the problem for the leaders for much of the weekend, but it never really came out for the former No. 1 amateur in the world. After a 62 on Thursday, he dropped out at Spyglass Hill in Round 2 on Friday, and that probably cost him a leading spot on Sunday. Every time I look at him, though, I’m more impressed. He makes scoring seem so easy, even when I know it is not. The numbers don’t say that, but he now really looks like a top-5 player in the world. Grade: A-
Jorder Spieth (T3): The four-time grand champion acted late on Sunday when his manager left him and he was given no chance to score points. I’m leaving this week even more encouraging than I left last week because he argued this week without making anything. (Spieth lost shots to the field with his putter.) What he did this week is sustainable and reminiscent of what we got from Spieth each week. Average to above average at the driver, tremendously much with his irons, and if he wins set pieces, he wins. That’s the formula, and it’s the one Spieth used this week to stay through about 70 holes in the mix. Grade: A
Nate Lashley (T5): Boy, the ending was tough. He played 69 holes so well, and then he sat on the 16th hole from 12 feet to give Berger a clear path to victory. Lots to take away for Lashley, who battled against Cantlay, Berger and Spieth, but those 7 at no. 16 is going to linger. Grade: B-