‘The Wizard’ Ted Potter Jr. slays the dragon, upsets DJ to win Pebble ProAm

We go from one PGA Tour stop with its own extremely strong identity to another event with its very own unique brand. The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am has almost nothing in common with the Waste Management Phoenix Open, but they do have one similarity: There’s no other stop on the PGA Tour quite like them.

The uniqueness of the Pebble Beach Pro-AM lies in the format, the setting, and its history. The Phoenix Open, of course, stands out for being the biggest, drunkest, loudest party on the PGA Tour. The setting at Pebble is much more laid back and less crowded. It’s a chilled-out vibe that, from all accounts, bonds perfectly with the serene and immaculate setting.

That setting, as you’ll see quoted at least once this week, was described as the “most felicitous meeting of land and sea in creation” by Robert Louis Stevenson. There’s really nothing like Pebble Beach, arguably the country’s best “public” golf course (public in quotes because it’s going to cost you a month’s rent to play, but hey, at least you have access to spend it!). You’d get plenty of arguments from the golf architecture nerd crowd about Pebble’s flaws, and all that could be done to improve or “restore” it to its original look. The curmudgeons also like to bag on all the “boring” holes off the ocean.

But this week is less about an architectural examination, and more of a show. This event’s roots are in the Bing Crosby Clambake, an annual get together of some of the most famous and powerful people in the country to play with some of the best golfers in the world on the Monterey Peninsula, perhaps the most concentrated patch of land with great golf on the globe. That Monterey Peninsula rotation has changed and evolved over the years at this event. It once included Cypress Point, arguably the best course in America, but that club has no time for opening its doors to the masses and TV cameras that now come with this PGA Tour stop. We’re currently in an era that’s settled on Spyglass Hill and the Monterey Peninsula Country Club Shore Course as the two tracks complementing Pebble.

Ted Potter, Jr. stared down world No. 1 Dustin Johnson and emerged with his second career PGA Tour win. It was an impressive display from the journeyman, who, as Peter Kostis described it afterwards, has been to “hell and back” since his last title.

Potter is pretty much the opposite of Dustin Johnson. He’s a bald, slightly overweight dude that has been on the fringes of the Tour and was a massive underdog to the world No. 1. He was described as a mini tour legend in central Florida on the broadcast. This is not to say DJ has not busted his ass for everything he has. But DJ has loads of talent and has from day one. Potter is a local legend in Florida but it has been a freaking grind. His swing looks super funky and is not the most attractive thing going. He once missed 24 straight cuts.

Potter started the day even with Johnson and ended up three shots better than DJ, Phil Mickelson, Jason Day, and last week’s runner-up Chez Reavie. That’s some serious firepower and while Potter may not be the sexy name, it was still an awesome underdog story to watch. His emotional interview afterward certainly resonated with me and you had to feel good about the result.

It never really got close for Potter on the back nine, who made four birdies in a six-hole stretch on the front nine and then closed with 11 straight pars. DJ could not make a move on the inward nine and Potter just slowly — and it was brutally slow out there — ground out the win. It’s an awesome story, even if you’re unfamiliar with Potter. Here are your final results from Pebble:

Pebble’s scenery and history are undeniable, no matter what you think of its current state. It’s a major championship course but sets up much easier for the pros and amateur hacks this week. Here are some reasons to watch this week at Pebble.

There are several reasons to watch this week. However, I will absolutely not try to convince you this is a must-watch event on the PGA Tour. You’ve got to take a break somewhere and I’d be OK if you zipped past this one, maybe just parachuting in on Sunday afternoon for the conclusion.

But here are a few solid reasons to watch this 2018 edition.

1. Rory comes to the States

We’ve spent way too much time and way too many words writing about our appreciation, admiration, and what some might call love for Rory McIlroy on this website. We’re fair about it, and when he sucks, we’ll try to be realistic and objective and say he sucks. But when he’s going, he’s our favorite to watch. And so far this year, he’s looked stout in two Euro Tour starts. Now he’s back in the States for his first PGA Tour start and the beginning of an extremely busy pre-Masters schedule.

It begins this week at Pebble, where he’ll play this event for the very first time and his amateur partner will be his pops, Gerry, the affable silver fox.

2. Scenery

Bob Louis Stevenson could use some soaring prose and he wasn’t totally off about Pebble and the Monterey Peninsula. It’s got some of the best seaside holes in the world. You can nitpick about it not being the best it could be, but come summer when we’re on our fifth straight TPC course adjacent to some suburban office park, you’ll wish you could take in a broadcast from a place like Pebble.

3. DJ back

The world No. 1 is here and that’s always worth watching. This will be DJ’s first PGA Tour event on the mainland this year. The only other PGA Tour event he’s played in so far, he won. Now he’ll go back-to-back weeks at Pebble and Riviera, two places where he’s cruised and won multiple times over the course of his career. So much of the work put in on the West Coast swing is what made him the Masters favorite and world No. 1 last year. Sure, Augusta is still two months away, but this is a spot where DJ reaffirms that favored status.

He’ll be out there with his father-in-law (kinda, is that what you call it when you’re just engaged?), Wayne Gretzky.

4. Amateur carnage

So for the die-hard PGA Tour fans, the celebrity component is an annoying distraction. For the more casual fan, which has no football to watch this weekend, the celebs playing golf may actually bring more people into the tent. If you’re there to watch the best in the world play golf, then the constant coverage of the celebs gets tiresome. One redeeming aspect is watching these captains of industry and rich, famous people duff it around the course just like you. It’s a little jarring to see on a broadcast that’s so often showing the very best of golf. So have a laugh at some of these amateur chops.

We’re going to go off script for this week and do a small subsection here with a couple reasons why not to watch.

1. The amateurs

It’s a weird pivot to listing the amateurs as a reason you should watch to then also as a reason why you should not watch. But on balance, it just makes it a rough broadcast. We don’t need to see Ray Romano make another golf swing or Bill Murray do his goofy thing again. It’s just been done at this point and they bring so little to the coverage.

2. CBS’s broadcast

This event has annually earned recognition as the worst broadcast of the year. I can sympathize a bit with CBS here in that they basically have to cover this in a different way, turning the cameras on the celebs and having a little fun with it. But Saturday’s broadcast is especially brutal. The first two rounds are also limited to just a third of the field, the group playing Pebble where the cameras area set up for the week.

Sunday, they’re forced to really pay attention to the pros because the stakes are high and resolution of the damn tournament is on the line. You might get frustrated but just know it’s the nature of the event and just kind of how CBS has to play it.

The three-course rotation makes it easy on the PGA Tour to schedule this massive field over the first 54 holes. There’s a ton of flexibility even during an event where five- and six-hour rounds are the norm. But from a broadcasting perspective, it’s a little harder to spread the production out beyond Pebble, where Sunday’s round is also held. It’s hard enough to produce a broadcast on a massive 18-hole arena. Doing so across three courses is really not feasible or worthwhile. So you don’t always get great TV coverage those first three days.

PGA Tour Live is a more nimble operation and can set up shop on MPCC and Spyglass a little easier. But it’s still never ideal and they mostly focus on Pebble, too.

The Tour usually schedules the “headliner” names, so to speak, for their Pebble round to come on Saturday. We’ll get all those stars this year, including Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, and Phil Mickelson, along with some of the more notable celebs in the field.

Sunday is the first and only day when everyone is on the same course, which makes things a little easier for the production. On Saturday we almost had a 59 happen over on MPCC in complete obscurity. It was odd how CBS sort of ignored it because they could not show it. PGA Tour Live did, however, get over there to stream Ted Potter’s eventually unsuccessful run at 59. For the final round, everyone is at Pebble for a much more traditional setup. Here’s your media schedule for the final round:

1 to 2:45 p.m. ET — Golf Channel

3 to 6:30 p.m. ET — CBS

11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. ET — PGA Tour Live featured groups and holes coverage

1 to 2:45 p.m. ET — Golf Channel LiveExtra simulcast stream

3 to 6:30 p.m. ET — PGATour.com/CBS simulcast stream

1 to 6:30 p.m. ET — PGA Tour Radio on Sirius-XM (Ch. 92/208 and streamed here)

Sunday is the one day of the week with the field cut down, and everything moves over to Pebble Beach for the final 18 holes. With concurrent competitions going between the actual PGA Tour event and the ProAm, the tee sheet is a bit of an unorthodox jumble. This happens every year though, so tourney organizers know exactly how to set it up so we get the proper pace of play. It’s still slow as hell, but they know how to make it work and resolve both competitions.

What we end up with on Sunday is a mix of threesomes and foursomes. There are some foursomes that are all pros and some are a mix of pros and amateurs. There are also pros who missed the cut of the PGA Tour event, but are sticking around because they’re still in the ProAm competition — looking at you Mike Weir. Here’s your full tee sheet for Sunday (all times ET):

10:12 a.m: Julian Suri, Bubba Watson, Bryson DeChambeau

10:23 a.m.: Ryan Armour, Scott Piercy, Ben Martin

10:34 a.m.: Shane Lowry, Stephan Jaeger

10:45 a.m.: Jordan Spieth, Rafa Cabrera Bello

10:56 a.m.: William McGirt, Sangmoon Bae, Peter Malnati

11:07 a.m.: Russell Henley, Aaron Wise

11:18 a.m.: Russell Knox, K.J. Choi

11:29 a.m.: Pat Perez, Daniel Summerhays, Tyrone Van Aswegen

11:40 a.m.: Phil Mickelson, Kevin Na, Paul Casey

11:51 a.m.: Brian Gay, Beau Hossler

12:02 p.m.: Chez Reavie, Kevin Streelman

12:13 p.m.: Patrick Rodgers, Jon Rahm

12:24 p.m.: Jason Day, Troy Merritt, Steve Stricker

12:35 p.m.: Ted Potter, Dustin Johnson

10:12 a.m: Sam Ryder, Xinjun Zhang, Ryan Blaum

10:23 a.m.: Will Zalatoris, Scott Stallings, Cameron Tringale, Ricky Barnes

10:34 a.m.: Jimmy Walker, Eric Axley, Rory Sabbatini

10:45 a.m.: Sam Saunders, Brandt Snedeker, Kevin Chappell

10:56 a.m.: Patrick Cantlay, Jonathan Randolph, Jason Kokrak

11:07 a.m.: Johnson Wagner, Nick Watney, Branden Grace

11:18 a.m.: Brice Garnett, Aaron Baddeley, Bronson Burgoon

11:29 a.m.: Grayson Murray, Chris Stroud

11:40 a.m.: Trey Mullinax, Jonathan Byrd, Derek Fathauer, Rod Pampling

11:51 a.m.: Brandon Harkins, Rob Oppenheim, Keith Mitchell, Marty Dou

12:02 p.m.: Matt Kuchar, Chesson Hadley, Alex Cejka, James Hahn

12:13 p.m.: Sean O’Hair, Joel Dahmen, Vaughn Taylor

12:24 p.m.: JT Poston, Denny McCarthy

12:35 p.m.: Mike Weir (ProAm competition only)

Results

Ted Potter, Jr. stared down world No. 1 Dustin Johnson and emerged with his second career PGA Tour win. It was an impressive display from the journeyman, who, as Peter Kostis described it afterwards, has been to “hell and back” since his last title.

Potter is pretty much the opposite of Dustin Johnson. He’s a bald, slightly overweight dude that has been on the fringes of the Tour and was a massive underdog to the world No. 1. He was described as a mini tour legend in central Florida on the broadcast. This is not to say DJ has not busted his ass for everything he has. But DJ has loads of talent and has from day one. Potter is a local legend in Florida but it has been a freaking grind. His swing looks super funky and is not the most attractive thing going. He once missed 24 straight cuts.

Potter started the day even with Johnson and ended up three shots better than DJ, Phil Mickelson, Jason Day, and last week’s runner-up Chez Reavie. That’s some serious firepower and while Potter may not be the sexy name, it was still an awesome underdog story to watch. His emotional interview afterward certainly resonated with me and you had to feel good about the result.

It never really got close for Potter on the back nine, who made four birdies in a six-hole stretch on the front nine and then closed with 11 straight pars. DJ could not make a move on the inward nine and Potter just slowly — and it was brutally slow out there — ground out the win. It’s an awesome story, even if you’re unfamiliar with Potter. Here are your final results from Pebble:

Round 1

We have a two-way tie atop the leaderboard with Kevin Streelman and Beau Hossler at 7-under. Hossler did his work at Pebble, while Streelman posted his number at Spyglass. Ironically enough, the lowest scoring average of the day was at MPCC but there were numbers available all over the Peninsula.

Rory McIlroy continued his form from the Middle East and is in fine position tied for 16th after his opening round. Phil Mickelson is in the the red and tied for 32nd at 3-under. We’ll keep scores updated throughout the week here.

Round 2

A familiar face is back on top of the leaderboard in Monterrey. Dustin Johnson shot into a tie for first place at the midpoint thanks to a second round 64 at the MPCC Shore Course. Long before DJ was No. 1 in the world, he was coming to this event and contending on an annual basis. It’s been eight years since his back-to-back wins in this event and DJ has obviously gone many places and seen many things in the intervening years of his career. That he’s back atop the board should be of little surprise. He feasts here and on the entire West Coast swing.

Tied with DJ is Beau Hossler, the hyped prospect who is making some serious noise in his first full month on the PGA Tour. Hossler was on the first page of the leaderboard starting last Sunday at the Phoenix Open, and now he’ll likely be there again this Sunday at Pebble. The Beau Show backed up his opening 65 with a Friday 67 at Spyglass to get to 12-under. Now comes the MPCC setup on Saturday, which has been playing to the lowest scoring average of the week.

Rory McIlroy took a tumble down the board in a round that featured 39 freaking putts, including one mess of a green that could be counted as a 5-putt. He’s on the wrong side of the cut line and will need to make a move with his pops at Pebble on Saturday.

Round 3 Scores

We’ve got a couple very familiar faces atop the leaderboard after 54 holes, and one face that maybe only the diehards have come to know over the years. The Wizard, Ted Potter Jr., went super low on Saturday at the MPCC Shore Course, threatening to break 60. He needed just one birdie over his final three holes to post the magic round of 59, but instead finished with two bogeys to shoot 62. The round was still good enough to put him in a share of the lead at 14-under, where he’s a heavy underdog to...

Dustin Johnson, the two-time winner of this event and current world No. 1, is your heavy favorite heading into Sunday. DJ actually sputtered on the back nine at Pebble on Saturday, falling behind Potter by multiple shots at one point. But it evened out at the end of the day and DJ is now in prime position to go two-for-two on the PGA Tour at the start of his year.

The biggest chaser of DJ and Potter has to be Jason Day, who could also go back-to-back to start his year. Day is just two shots off the pace. Behind him is some more heat in Jon Rahm, Patrick Rodgers, and the ageless Steve Stricker. Here’s your board at the start of Sunday’s final round: