Hank Lebioda piled up nine birdies to shoot an 8-under-par 63 and take the first-round lead at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on Thursday in Pebble Beach, Calif.
Lebioda went 5 under on the back nine at Monterey Peninsula Country Club, one of three courses in use for the first three days of the tournament.
Kurt Kitayama and England’s Harry Hall shot rounds of 7-under 64 at Monterey Peninsula. They are tied for second with Chad Ramey, who posted a 7-under 65 at Pebble Beach Golf Links.
All players will play one round apiece at Pebble Beach, Monterey Peninsula and Spyglass Hill Golf Course before a 54-hole cut. The low 60 players and ties will play Pebble Beach in Sunday’s final round.
Lebioda, 29, has yet to win a PGA Tour event and missed the cut in his first five starts of the 2022-23 season. His 63 tied a career low on tour.
“For probably the last couple weeks or so I felt like my putting had really turned a corner, even though I may not have shown the results,” Lebioda said. “But I felt more confident standing over the ball. I liked what I was looking at visually standing over it. I knew it was just a matter of time. So today fortunately it was one of the days where quite a few of them did go in.”
Lebioda said his game plan for now is simply to have fun.
“If it’s blowing as it is right now it will be definitely a tough challenge playing Pebble Beach tomorrow,” he said after the Thursday round. “But I’m going to rest tonight, get my body ready and try to go out and do more of the same.”
Kitayama was bogey-free, while Hall eagled the par-5 16th and had a five-birdie run at Nos. 3-7.
“The eagle on 16, hit a little driver off the tee and the hybrid in. Holed a 20-footer,” Hall said. “Coming down the last two holes (the wind) started to blow 45 miles an hour. It was crazy. Happy to get in at 7 under today.”
Eric Cole, Aaron Baddeley of Australia and Martin Trainer of France shot 6-under 65 at Monterey Peninsula to form a tie for fifth.
Spyglass Hill is considered the most difficult of the three courses. The low round of the day at Spyglass Hill was Keith Mitchell’s 5-under 67. Mitchell had six birdies and just one bogey.
Notable names include Englishmen Luke Donald (4-under 68 at Pebble Beach) and Justin Rose (3-under 69 at Pebble Beach), Viktor Hovland of Norway (2-under 70 at Spyglass Hill), 2017 champion Jordan Spieth (1-under 71 at Spyglass), defending champion Tom Hoge (1-under 71 at Pebble) and U.S. Open champ Matt Fitzpatrick of England (1-under 71 at Spyglass).
On top of the pro-am leaderboard is Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon, who paired with Will Gordon to shoot a 12-under 60 at Pebble. Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, paired with Canada’s Ben Silverman, is tied for third after a 10-under 62 at Spyglass Hill. Mitchell’s partner was Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen; they are tied for 10th after an 8-under 64 at Spyglass.
–Field Level Media
