Every stroke counts.
That adage was proven to be especially true on Sunday at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am as Scott Piercy raced to finish before darkness and ended up costing himself nearly $50,000.
While Phil Mickelson and Paul Casey had tournament-winning implications on the line as they conferred with PGA Tour rules official Mark Russell, Piercy was in a race against daylight to finish his final round at Pebble Beach.
Playing in the second-to-last group, Piercy was at 11-under par, tied for seventh place and facing a 15-foot birdie putt to get to 12-under par. With daylight fading, Piercy hit his birdie putt seven feet past the hole and then missed the comebacker for par, dropping him into a tie for 10th place at 10-under par.
Scott Piercy three-putted the 18th green Sunday evening.
Bad news for Piercy, but great news for Max Homa and Michael Thompson. Here’s why: https://t.co/yhnjdcbxdC pic.twitter.com/b6hXb5bjnw
— Golf Central (@GolfCentral) February 11, 2019
The difference between a four-way tie for seventh ($228,950) — where Piercy would have been if he two-putted — and a four-way tie for 10th ($182,400) is $46,550.
Beyond the monetary value of Piercy’s three-putt, there was some pretty big implications for a few players hoping to get into next week’s event at Riviera Country Club. By virtue of the PGA Tour’s top-10 rule, Max Homa, Michael Thompson and Chris Stroud all earned top-10s and a spot in the field at The Genesis Open.
Wowza that was a roller coaster
— max homa (@maxhoma23) February 11, 2019
In golf, 10th is a hell of a lot better than 11th #math
— max homa (@maxhoma23) February 11, 2019
“In golf, 10th is a hell of a lot better than 11th,” Homa tweeted on Sunday evening.
For Homa, an LA native, the Genesis is his hometown event. Prior to his T10 at Pebble, he had missed his last six cuts. For Thompson, the top-10 earns him entry into the event where he was slated to be the first alternate prior to Sunday’s events.
