Zoeller Weathers Storm, Improves Lead to 5 Strokes

The first AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am will not be completed until today, but after Fuzzy Zoeller took a five-stroke lead in the third round Sunday, it was suggested that it had ended on schedule.

Zoeller has played Spyglass Hill, Pebble Beach and Cypress Point in the rain, wind and slop in 205 strokes for 54 holes. That’s 11 shots under par, a score that is not particularly astonishing when you consider that for 36 holes the players have been allowed to lift, clean and virtually tee up their balls on the fairway.

What is astonishing, however, is that nobody is closer. Zoeller shot only a 2-under-par 70 at Cypress Point Sunday and increased his lead by two strokes.

Tom Watson, who was only three shots behind Zoeller after 36 holes, is now six back after shooting a 73 at Pebble Beach on a day that, for the Monterey Peninsula, was calm and peaceful. Oh, it rained a little and the wind blew some, but that’s par for this lovely neighborhood.

Zoeller’s closest pursuer is Payne Stewart, who shot a 70 at Spyglass Hill for a total of 210, but who is better known for his spiffy knickers. Sunday he was attired splendidly in red, white and blue.

Tied with Watson at 211 are Mark Wiebe and Tony Sills. They don’t have much of a chance of catching an aggressive player such as Zoeller and the rest are playing for second place.

Jack Nicklaus didn’t even make the cut, shooting a 74 and finishing 11 strokes over par at 227. Nicklaus thought he had missed one only once before. “I know I have missed only one AT&T; cut,” he said.

Only 16 of the 180 players broke par for 54 holes despite being able to improve their lies like hackers at municipal courses. Sixty-one players made the cut of 220 and 25 teams qualified at 203 or better.

But while the elite of the PGA were struggling around the three courses with their amateur partners, Englishman Ken Brown shot a 6-under-par 66 at Spyglass Hill to equal the best score of the week. Zoeller and George Archer had the others. Meanwhile, Phil Blackmar, who had an 83 Thursday, shot an 85 Sunday.

Zoeller had a round he described as “up and down, all around.” He shot five birdies and three bogeys but was elated to get through Cypress Point’s ocean holes, Nos. 15, 16 and 17, in a strong wind in even par.

The gallery applauded when Zoeller pulled his 3-wood from his bag on the tee of the infamous 16th hole, the one that is 233 yards long with about 232 of them being over the ocean. “I didn’t get here by laying up, and I’m not going to lay up now,” he told the spectators.

He then knocked the ball onto the green 12 feet from the hole and two-putted for a par. Zoeller’s 3-wood is more like a 2-wood. “It’s juiced up,” he said, “and there was 195 pounds of Fuzzy behind that shot.”

Playing the back nine first, he shot a so-so par 35. But on the front nine he sank birdie putts of 10 feet twice and made another one from 8 feet. On No. 9 he chipped a 25-foot shot from the fringe of the green into the hole with a sand wedge. “I bellied it,” he said. “That’s like putting the ball.”

He three-putted twice for bogeys and made another one at No. 7 when he knocked his second shot over the green and missed an eight-foot putt.

Asked if the bogeys late in the round bothered him, he replied, “No. I have a red button in my bag but I haven’t pushed it yet.”

And he relishes the big lead. “I enjoy being in the lead,” he said. “I’m just going out tomorrow to beat Pebble Beach again.” He beat it Saturday with a 66.

Today, all the players will be at Pebble Beach where, if the weather cooperates, a score in the low 60s is possible, especially if someone gets rolling on the early holes. “A good score is possible,” Stewart said, “especially since we will be lifting, cleaning and placing the ball. It’s like putting it on a tee every time. You have nobody to blame but yourself if you don’t have a perfect lie.”

Nicklaus, who shot an 80 Saturday at Spyglass Hill, had what he called “one of those weeks. I didn’t play very well--and I couldn’t putt.”

Unaccountably, Nicklaus always has trouble putting at Cypress Point and Spyglass and usually makes up for it by playing well at Pebble Beach. Sunday, however, he couldn’t putt there, either. He also hit “a couple of silly shots” on the back nine, where he shot 40.

One of the silly shots, a drive, landed on the rocks at No. 18 and bounced back onto the fairway. Then he hit the next shot into a pine tree.

His putting was so bad all week that when he sank one from about four feet at No. 6 Sunday, it was the only one-putt birdie he had in the tournament.

The team of Nicklaus and Nicklaus (his son, Jack II) also blew the cut and that bothered the senior Nicklaus more than his embarrassing performance. “I feel worse for him than myself,” he said. “We finished second here last year, and I wanted to play well for him. That’s why I played at Phoenix last week. I wanted to be prepared.”

Uncharacteristically, Nicklaus came onto the tour this winter unprepared. His game showed it. His problem is his business. He is reorganizing it and it is taking all his time. But he said, sort of wistfully, “I’ll be all right.”

While Zoeller and others beat No. 16 at Cypress Point Sunday, some by laying up, U.S. Open Champion Andy North lost a stubborn fight with the hole. After driving to the right of the green near the edge of a cliff, and not being able to determine by looking through the mist whether the ball fell into the ocean, he hit a provisional shot onto the green.

But a marshall found North’s first ball nestled in some ice plant and he faced the option of declaring the ball unplayable and taking a penalty drop, or chopping it out of the plant. He flailed away. And flailed away. The final count: 9.