Tag: Pure Insurance Championship

PURE INSURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP: Late birdie gives Flesch a comeback win

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Steve Flesch gets the pictured Pure Insurance Championship Trophy Award at Pebble Beach on Sun Sep 25, 2022 (@PUREFirstTee photo)

By Jeremy Harness

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Steve Flesch lost his lead on the back nine and appeared to be sunk momentarily but nonetheless hung in there long enough to give himself a chance at the end. And when that chance presented itself, he took full advantage.

He found himself tied for the lead at the par-five 18th as others fell back late, and he nailed an eight-foot birdie putt to claim the Pure Insurance Championship, his second win on the PGA Champions Tour this season.

“It’s exciting; I’ve always played well here,” said Flesch, who also won the Mitsubishi Electric Classic earlier this year in Hawaii. “It really felt good to get that win. I’m just glad I capitalized on 18.”

Flesch started the final round in a tie for second and didn’t waste any time moving his way up. He birdied each of his first four holes to spring into the lead by two shots. He then added a birdie at the iconic par-3 seventh to add to his advantage.

However, Steven Alker, playing alongside Flesch on Sunday, rolled one in for birdie at the seventh to cut Flesch’s lead back to two. Paul Stankowski, who began the day tied for the lead at eight-under, could not get any traction early on but finally got going when he got back-to-back birdies at the sixth and seventh to join Alker in a tie for second.

Moments later, Ken Duke, who was tied with Stankowski at the top when the day began, made birdie at the par-four eighth to join both men at 10-under before Brett Quigley himself got to that number with a birdie at the par-four 10th.

He got himself into a tie for the lead at the 14th after knocking his approach shot stiff and then holing a short birdie putt but fell right back on the next hole with a crippling double-bogey.

Flesch began coming down to earth on the back nine and momentarily lost the lead. He suffered back-to-back bogeys at the 12th and 13th holes, the latter being the result of a three-putt. However, he steadied himself following that while others, such as Duke, stumbled.

The low round of the day belonged to Ernie Els, who fired an eight-under round of 64 and capped things off by getting up and down for birdie at the par-five 18th and ended up in a tie for second. He was actually in position for a playoff had Flesch missed the eventual winning putt.

The final round did not begin until 11:15am PST, as roughly half of the field could not finish their second round on Saturday due to a three-hour fog delay and had to wait until early Sunday morning to do so.

PURE INSURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP: Late birdie gives Flesch a comeback win

By Jeremy Harness

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Steve Flesch lost his lead on the back nine and appeared to be sunk momentarily but nonetheless hung in there long enough to give himself a chance at the end. And when that chance presented itself, he took full advantage.

He found himself tied for the lead at the par-five 18th as others fell back late, and he nailed an eight-foot birdie putt to claim the Pure Insurance Championship, his second win on the PGA Champions Tour this season.

“It’s exciting; I’ve always played well here,” said Flesch, who also won the Mitsubishi Electric Classic earlier this year in Hawaii. “It really felt good to get that win. I’m just glad I capitalized on 18.”

Flesch started the final round in a tie for second and didn’t waste any time moving his way up. He birdied each of his first four holes to spring into the lead by two shots. He then added a birdie at the iconic par-3 seventh to add to his advantage.

However, Steven Alker, playing alongside Flesch on Sunday, rolled one in for birdie at the seventh to cut Flesch’s lead back to two. Paul Stankowski, who began the day tied for the lead at eight-under, could not get any traction early on but finally got going when he got back-to-back birdies at the sixth and seventh to join Alker in a tie for second.

Moments later, Ken Duke, who was tied with Stankowski at the top when the day began, made birdie at the par-four eighth to join both men at 10-under before Brett Quigley himself got to that number with a birdie at the par-four 10th.

He got himself into a tie for the lead at the 14th after knocking his approach shot stiff and then holing a short birdie putt but fell right back on the next hole with a crippling double-bogey.

Flesch began coming down to earth on the back nine and momentarily lost the lead. He suffered back-to-back bogeys at the 12th and 13th holes, the latter being the result of a three-putt. However, he steadied himself following that while others, such as Duke, stumbled.

The low round of the day belonged to Ernie Els, who fired an eight-under round of 64 and capped things off by getting up and down for birdie at the par-five 18th and ended up in a tie for second. He was actually in position for a playoff had Flesch missed the eventual winning putt.

The final round did not begin until 11:15am PST, as roughly half of the field could not finish their second round on Saturday due to a three-hour fog delay and had to wait until early Sunday morning to do so.

PURE INSURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP: Despite delay, Stankowski, Duke pick up the pace

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Pure Insurance Championship concludes on Sun Sep 25th at Spyglass Hill at Pebble Beach (PGA photo)

By Jeremy Harness

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Saturday’s second round got off to a slow start, as foggy conditions caused a three-hour delay, forcing roughly half of the field to not be able to finish their rounds, meaning that those groups will resume play early Sunday morning, barring any more fog.

Timothy O’Neal, Steve Flesch and Chris DiMarco closed their first round on Friday tied for the lead, as each player shot a six-under 66.

However, it was Paul Stankowski who overtook all of them on Saturday, as he shot a five-under 67 at Spyglass Hill to vault into a tie for the lead. Since he was one of the few players who was able to finish, he’ll get few more hours of rest, as he would have to wait until the entire field has concluded its second round, which is not expected to happen until Sunday afternoon.

Stankowski birdied the first two holes of the day and then added another birdie at the par-5 seventh. He added two more birdies on the back nine without a single blemish on his scorecard. In addition, he hit all 14 of his fairways while hitting 12 of his 18 greens.

Ken Duke, who was one of the last players to keep his PGA Tour card by earnings alone – the PGA Tour discontinued this following the 2017-18 season – went on a tear on the back nine at Pebble Beach with three birdies, including a birdie at the par-five 18th to tie Stankowski at the top, shortly after the horn went off to announce the completion of play.

For clarification, when the horn is sounded, a player has the option of either finishing the hole (s)he is on, or simply marking his or her ball and going back to that spot the following morning.

Lee Janzen was briefly tied for the lead after birdieing his 15th and 16th holes at Spyglass, but a damaging double-bogey on his 17th hole, the par-four eighth, dropped him out of the lead and into a three-way tie for third.

Flesch finished his second round one shot behind Stankowski, as his one-under round of 71 placed him in a tie for second with Steven Alker.

Cal grad Charlie Wi matched Stankowski for the low round of the day, as he shot a bogey-free round of 67, including an eagle at the par-five seventh. He is in a tie for third at six-under overall with Brett Quigley.

Play was officially been suspended at around 7pm PDT, and play will commence at 7:30am PST in order for the second round to be completed, with the intention of allowing enough time for the third and final round to be completed.

PURE INSURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP: Langer jumps into lead

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Photo credit: PGA Tour Champions (@ChampionsTour)

By Jeremy Harness

Golf can change dramatically from one day to the next, and Saturday’s second round at the PURE Insurance Open at Pebble Beach showed that.

Bernhard Langer, who entered Saturday’s second round behind only one stroke, did not light it up like he and first-day leader Scott McCarron did on Friday, but he was proficient enough to grasp hold of the top spot heading into the final round Sunday.

Starting on the 10th hole Saturday, Langer got off to a bit of a slow start, bogeying his seventh hole before picking up a birdie at the scenic par-5 18th to draw even for the round.

Then he really picked things up on his back nine. He ran off three birdies in a row at holes two through four before picking up shots on both the sixth and eighth holes to finish with a round of 67 and a one-shot lead.

To accomplish this, he hit 9 of his 14 fairways as well as hitting 14 of his 18 greens in regulation in the second round. He made four fewer birdies on Saturday, but he did a much better job of getting up and down, as he recorded only one bogey.

McCarron, meanwhile, did not get any momentum at all, and by shooting an even-par 72, he lost quite a bit of ground to the field, as he is now four strokes back at eight-under in a tie for the fifth position.

Vaulting into the second spot and only one stroke back of Langer is Kenny Perry, who shot a nine-under 63 on Saturday. He shook off a bogey on his first hole and birdied four of the next eight holes. He then picked up even more steam with an eagle at the par-5 second before he birdied the fourth and ran off three birdies in a row at holes six through eight.

Scott Parel sits one shot behind Perry after his second-round score of 66 while Jerry Kelly, who came within a shot of winning the PGA Tour’s Travelers Championship last year, is three shots behind the lead after his 66 on Saturday.