{"id":468730,"date":"2026-02-14T19:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T19:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/468730\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T19:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T19:14:09","slug":"bhatia-and-hisatsune-share-pebble-beach-lead-as-tough-weather-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/468730\/","title":{"rendered":"Bhatia and Hisatsune share Pebble Beach lead as tough weather looms"},"content":{"rendered":"

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Far removed from the false hopes Taylor Swift<\/a> would make an appearance at Pebble Beach, Akshay Bhatia and Ryo Hisatsune went about their business quietly at Spyglass Hill and wound up with a share of the lead Friday in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-am<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bhatia was bogey-free over two days at Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill, both dry days with a mild breeze and soft greens that allowed for good scoring on both courses. He had six birdies and chipped in from 50 feet for eagle on the 14th hole on his way to a 64.<\/p>\n

Hisatsune, who opened with a 62 at Pebble Beach, stumbled in the middle of his round with consecutive bogeys, which he offset with enough birdies (and one eagle) before and after for a 67.<\/p>\n

They were at 15-under 129, the lowest 36-hole since the tournament moved to a two-course rotation in 2024 as a signature event.<\/p>\n

Rickie Fowler (64) and Sam Burns (67), both at Spyglass Hill, were one shot behind. Xander Schauffele, Jordan Spieth and defending champion Rory McIlroy were lurking. Scottie Scheffler finally got it going by playing his last seven holes in 5 under for a 66, though the world\u2019s No. 1 player was still nine shots behind going into the weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d say \u2018inched\u2019 would be the operative word there,\u201d Scheffler said of his progress. \u201cWe\u2019ll see how it shakes out at the end of the day. I mean, it\u2019s going to take two pretty special rounds, really three special rounds, but you\u2019re never out of it. We\u2019ll see what happens with the weather.\u201d<\/p>\n

The big speculation Friday was not so much the weather, but if Swift was going to show up to watch her fianc\u00e9, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce<\/a>, playing at Pebble Beach.<\/p>\n

There was a big crowd. There was a big buzz. There was no Swift, who is said to be in town, but not on the golf course. She still led to a spike in ticket sales \u2014 $60,000 worth when Kelce was announced as part of the amateur field, $21,000 in the 12-hour window before he played Pebble.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was busy without her,\u201d said Mackenzie Hughes, who played in the group. \u201cWith her, I think it would have literally been pandemonium.\u201d<\/p>\n

The only pandemonium was keeping track of who was going low and where. The best of the weather was Thursday, and it\u2019s no surprise the leading four players played Pebble Beach that day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought that yesterday was a good day to be out here,\u201d Spieth said after he wrapped up a 68 at Pebble Beach. \u201cGot decently challenging towards the end here today, but the greens are so receptive and they\u2019re not super fast out here right now.<\/p>\n

\u201cPebble\u2019s going to show more of its teeth the next two days.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is no 36-hole cut at this signature event, except for Kelce, Pau Gasol, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the rest of the amateurs.<\/p>\n

Bhatia, who tied for third in the Phoenix Open last week, now has gone 44 holes without a bogey over his last three rounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cBogey-free around these golf courses is great,\u201d Bhatia said. \u201cGreens can get bumpy, you can get some really tough putts with how much slope\u2019s on the greens. So I\u2019ve been really steady inside 5 to 6 feet. … It\u2019s just fun when you feel like you\u2019re in a groove.\u201d<\/p>\n

McIlroy has been trying to get there in his first U.S. start this year. He had a pair of three-putt double bogeys from the 4-foot range that slowed him at Spyglass Hill. He started well and was trending early on the back nine at Pebble Beach until he shanked a chip into a bunker from an awkward spot right of the green on the par-5 14th, leading to a bogey.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I\u2019ve been a little bit wasteful the last two days and maybe not capitalized on those great starts,\u201d said McIlroy, who was six shots behind.<\/p>\n

Scheffler felt he wasn\u2019t scoring very well Thursday, and he got more of the same at Spyglass Hill until a string of good shots, good putts and a chip in for eagle on the par-5 seventh hole. He was nine shots behind, with another challenge trying to extend his streak of 17 straight finishes in the top 10. He was in a tie for 33rd.<\/p>\n

They all head to Pebble Beach for the final two rounds, and Hisatsune figures he might not see the same course where he shot 62 on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully, no wind,\u201d Hisatsune said.<\/p>\n

One thing was certain \u2014 the wind had a better chance of showing up than Taylor Swift.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP golf: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/golf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Far removed from the false hopes Taylor Swift would make an appearance at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[29446,2356,2808,427,25860,45317,26795,2819,6082,212735,25858,5758,200479,99,4915,1022,4144,1059,11385],"class_list":["post-468730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-akshay-bhatia","tag-california","tag-florida","tag-golf","tag-jordan-spieth","tag-mackenzie-hughes","tag-rickie-fowler","tag-ron-desantis","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-ryo-hisatsune","tag-sam-burns","tag-scottie-scheffler","tag-send-to-apple-news","tag-sports","tag-taylor-swift","tag-texas","tag-travis-kelce","tag-tx-state-wire","tag-xander-schauffele"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}