This ‘Rock’ Beats a Pebble

After a 45-minute delay because of frost, the AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am got going, which could only mean that Brent Schwarzrock started rolling.

Yes, that Brent Schwarzrock, a three-time survivor of qualifying school, a guy who sounds more like Barney Rubble’s next-door neighbor than the first-round leader at Pebble Beach, but that’s just who he is. Schwarzrock, a 29-year-old from Orlando, Fla., shot an eight-under-par 64 Thursday at nippy Pebble, including a course-record-tying 28 on the front side, and leads Matt Gogel and Pat Perez by two shots.

After he added up his 28 that featured an eagle, six birdies and two pars, Schwarzrock couldn’t say much.

“It was just an awesome day,” he said. “What more could you ask for? It was a great day.”

For many, including Tiger Woods, it was merely a long day. Woods toured Poppy Hills in a two-under 70 that took six hours and five minutes.

Woods didn’t have a birdie after his seventh hole, but at least he wasn’t sick, which is an improvement over Wednesday, when he wasn’t able to break his fever until the second hole of his practice round.

“I wasn’t 100%, but I was good enough to play,” he said.

The problem was, everybody played so slowly. If you combine the frost delay with a field of 180 pros and 180 amateurs playing semi-difficult courses with fast greens and plenty of trouble, it means rounds in excess of six hours.

Woods says something needs to be done about it. “It’s the time of the year,” he said. “You’ve just got to hang in there and battle through it. I think they should cut the field so we could get around in a reasonable time.”

Actually, in spite of the pace of play, it turned out to be a reasonably good day for scoring at host course Pebble, as well as Poppy Hills and at Spyglass Hill. That’s if you don’t count defending champion Davis Love III, who had a 76 at Spyglass.

Gogel made four consecutive birdies at the start and credited his putting and his mentality.

Two years ago, he had a seven-shot lead over Woods with seven holes to go at Pebble Beach and wound up losing by two shots. Nobody asked him about it Thursday, but it’s there, waiting in the shadows to jump out and surprise him Sunday if he’s still around.

Perez shot a 66 at Spyglass. Perez, 25, who graduated from qualifying school in the same class as Schwarzrock, is playing his fourth PGA Tour event and missed the cut at the Bob Hope and the Phoenix Open. He tied for 17th at the Sony Open in his debut.

John Rollins, still another qualifying school grad, shot a five-under 67 at Spyglass and is three shots off the lead, tied with Jesper Parnevik and Phil Tataurangi. Lee Janzen, Pete Jordan, Matt Kuchar and Paul Claxton are next at 68.

As for Woods, he’s feeling much better about himself, and part of that is due to the new driver he used for the first time Thursday. It’s a prototype of a new Nike driver, a forged titanium model with a thin face for greater club-head speed that is designed to create more power.

“New technology, everybody’s hitting it longer, I’ve got to keep up with the young pups. I’m just trying it out,” said Woods, who had nothing bad to say about his new club.

“It wasn’t my driver’s fault today,” he said. “I hit it well, I just wasn’t able to take advantage of the places I hit it.”

There was plenty of sun, but there was also plenty of wet ground at all three courses. Once players found shade, it was on the far side of cold, and a consistent breeze made it seem even cooler. Woods wore a turtleneck and a sweater and he still failed to look even reasonably comfortable.

“You just have to know that’s the way it’s going to be and you deal with it,” he said. “That’s the way the golf is around here.”

It only seems as if it’s all in slow motion.

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Leaderboard

Thursday’s Pebble Beach course scores (b-Pebble Beach Course, Yardage: 6,798; p-Poppy Hills GC, Yardage: 6,833; s-Spyglass GC, Yardage: 6,862). All three courses are Par 72 (36-36). Purse, $4 million:

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