Report by Susanne Kemper, Pebble Beach.

The 2017 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (February 9-12) teed off Thursday morning an hour early due to the correct forecast of inclement conditions due to greet the 156 Pro’s and their amateur partners at Pebble Beach Golf Links, Spyglass, and Monterey Peninsula Country Club (MPCC) on California’s Monterey Peninsula around 1pm local time.

Teams play all three courses in the rota the first three days with the cut coming Saturday evening. All pro’s and teams making the cut, battle it out over Pebble Beach for the Trophy and Amateur team awards Sunday.

Wet, windy, wild weather greeted all from mid morning Thursday with play being called at 1:34 pm on all three courses. Play will resume Friday morning at 7:30 am and the second round will start Friday at 9:00 am.

Greens were being squeeged to try to keep putts in play, winds accelerated to variables of 15-25 mph in violent gusts, fairways were soaked, and cart paths became rivers on the hilly parts of the courses making conditions impossible.

Many of these greens are on the “smallish” side making them “mushy” in areas.

World No. 1 Jason Day teed off early at MPCC and summed up the mood of the majority:  “It was tough.  The wind was pretty stiff and then we had the rain.  The hardest part was just committing to a shot and the commitment was huge so that could get you down.”

Pebble Beach’s greens were more inundated then the other two courses.

The increasing winds and gusting created driving problems for all as the day progressed. Day also volunteered, “Its a tougher wind than we usually play. I’m glad we only had four holes really in this rain today. I’m glad also we go to Spyglass tomorrow; I definitely think being on Spyglass today was a bit of an advantage with some of the cover of the trees.”

Only three of 28 pro’s managed to reach Pebble Beach’s ninth green in two today, an amazing statistic for these pros due to the conditions.

Topping the leaderboard Thursday afternoon when play was called at -4 was the American duo of Rick Lamb and Joel Dahmen along with talented South Korean Seung-Yul Noh.

Dahmen stated: “We might have got a break. Spyglass is usually the toughest course i the rota, but today being up in the trees was helpful.” Jordan Spieth, playing MPCC, lies tied fourth at -3 with two holes to play.

Amateurs’ balls were heading in all directions with hesitant shotmaking, errant drives and chips. Lucky am’s were out early in the milder conditions but quickly slide into struggles with the elements.