Snedeker & Hahn Take Over Lead at Pebble Beach


Second-round co-leader Brandt Snedeker has a new companion atop the leaderboard in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, a $6.5 million PGA Tour event that started Thursday at three courses along California's Monterey Peninsula.

Snedeker carded a 4-under 68 at Pebble Beach Golf Links to reach 12-under 202, a 54-hole total matched by James Hahn, who shot a sterling 6-under 66 at Spyglass Hill. The other course in the rotation is the Shore course at Monterey Peninsula Country Club. Sunday's final round will be at Pebble Beach.

With five birdies and a bogey on the front nine, Snedeker went out in 4-under 32. The 32-year-old Nashville native then carded a birdie and a bogey on the back for his 68. Snedeker is off to a hot start this year, with runner-up finishes in the past two tournaments. He was second to Phil Mickelson in last week's Phoenix Open and was T-2 behind Tiger Woods at the Farmers Insurance Open two weeks ago at Torrey Pines.

Hahn, a 31-year-old Tour rookie who was born in Seoul, South Korea, and played collegiate golf at Cal, had a flawless scorecard with six birdies.

Alone in third at 203 is Chris Kirk, who carded a 6-under 64 at Monterey Peninsula. Kirk, a 27-year-old from Georgia, carded seven birdies and a bogey on the Shore course. Two strokes behind the leaders is Patrick Reed (67 at Monterey Peninula), while alone in fifth at 205 is Richard H. Lee (66 at Pebble Beach).

Tied for sixth at 206 is Retief Goosen, who shot a 5-under 67 at Monterey Peninsula, a total matched by a quartet playing at Pebble Beach - Robert Garrigus (66), Jason Day 70), James Driscoll (67) and Jimmy Walker (67).

Six players are tied for 207, five strokes behind the Snedeker and Hahn. Among those in that group is Ted Potter, Jr., who began the third round tied for the lead with Snedeker but shot a 73 Saturday at Spyglass.

Defending champion Mickelson was slowly making his way up the leaderboard in the third round with four birdies and a pair of bogeys through 17 holes. But "Lefty" ran into trouble on Pebble Beach's famed par-5 18th when he pushed his tee shot into the rocks beside the Pacific Ocean.

As he was searching for his ball, Mickelson's feet went out from under him and he fell onto the sand, a fall captured on TV. "I got lucky. I didn't get hurt," said Mickelson, who took a triple-bogey eight for a 1-over 73 to fall into a tie for 56th at 1-under 213.

Mickelson, who strolled to a wire-to-wire, four-stroke victory in last week's Phoenix Open, hasn't been the same at Pebble Beach, a place where he's logged four titles during his Hall of Fame career.

"That triple takes a lot of the wind out, because if I could have made a birdie on the last hole, be within six, seven shots of the lead, you never know," added Mickelson, who made up a six-stroke deficit a year ago to win with a 64. "Kind of like what happened last year if I get a hot round, but now that put me a little bit too far back."

Mickelson did make the cut - right on the 213 number. Not so fortunate was two-time AT&T champion Dustin Johnson, who never got untracked this week with rounds of 73, 69 and 74.

For all the scores, visit http://www.pgatour.com/tournaments/at-t-pebble-beach-national-pro-am/leaderboard.html.