Wyndham Clark fired a 12-under-par 60 — breaking the course record and his career-best score — on Saturday to vault 22 spots and into the lead after three rounds of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in Pebble Beach, Calif.
Sung Kang 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 par-5 holes 2 and 6 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 on No. 17 came up an inch short, ultimately preventing Clark from shooting 59; Clark birdied the 18th but needed a third eagle for 59.
“Honestly, I think anyone that has ever shot 59 or gets into that kind of zone, you don’t really think about score, you’re just so focused on the next shot,” Clark said. “I really didn’t think about it until I got to 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 U.S. 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,” Clark said.
Clark sits at 17-under 199 with 18 holes to play, one stroke ahead of Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg, who shot a third-round 67, and two shots ahead of Frenchman Matthieu Pavon (66 on Saturday), who sits solo third.
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,” Aberg 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 shot a disappointing 70 to drop into the group that is tied for sixth.
Clark’s previous low score was 61 at the 2020 WM Phoenix Open. His 60 is the 54th in PGA Tour history.
–Field Level Media
