Furyk Rises to Top of AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am


Jim Furyk fired a 9-under 63 at Pebble Beach Golf Links to take over the 54-hole lead in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. The $6.8 million PGA Tour event began Thursday at three courses on California's Monterey Peninsula.

Playing in his first tournament of 2015, the 44-year-old Furyk opened with three birdies on the front nine before adding another six on the back nine. The 16-time Tour winner stands at 18-under 197, a stroke ahead of Australia's Matt Jones and Tennessee's Brandt Snedeker. Jones and Snedeker, the 2013 champion, had 67s at Pebble Beach.

Jones and Snedeker began the third round tied for the lead, one shot ahead of Justin Hicks.

For the third day in a row the weather was stunningly beautiful: temperatures in the 70s with little or no wind. And for the third straight day the scores reflected the benign conditions as they continued to plummet.

Furyk hasn't won since the 2010 Tour Championship and has failed to win his last eight times when he had at least a share of the 54-hole lead. He finished second four times in 21 starts last season en route to earning $5,987,395.

The first three rounds were rotated between Pebble Beach, par-72 Spyglass Hill and Monterey Peninsula Country Club's par-71 South Course. Pebble Beach will be the site of Sunday's final round.

Trailing Furyk by two is Nick Watney, who had a 65 at Pebble Beach, while another two strokes back at 14-under is Kevin Chappell (66 at Pebble).

Tied for sixth at 13-under 202 are Americans Andres Gonzales (64 at Monterey Peninsula), Pat Perez (68) and Daniel Berger (69) - both at Spyglass Hill, and Jon Curran, who had a 69 at Pebble Beach.

Sharing 10th at 203 are German's Marcel Siem (63), Jordan Spieth (68) - both at Pebble Beach; Ireland's Shane Lowry (67), Australia's Jason Day (69) and Charlie Beljan (70) - all at Spyglass Hill; and Brian Stuard (66) and Alex Prugh (69) at Monterey Peninsula.

The 54-hole cut was set at 7-under 208. Defending champion Jimmy Walker had a 66 at Monterey Peninsula and is safely in at 10-under. Two-time major champion John Daly, who opened with rounds of 65 and 72, posted a 73 at Spyglass Hill to not move on to the final round.

Beginning play on the 10th tee at Monterey Peninsula, Scott Brown went out in 7-under 30 thanks to seven birdies on his front nine. On his home half, however, the 31-year-old Georgian cooled off with just two more birdies for a 62 to rise into a share of 40th at 8-under.

For all the scores, visit http://www.pgatour.com/leaderboard.html.