The weather this week in Carmel has been largely forgettable, but you won’t hear any complaints thus far from Jimmy Walker.
Here’s what You Oughta Know heading into the final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, where Walker holds a six-shot lead as he closes in on a third career PGA Tour title:
• Walker appears eager to make up for lost time. After failing to win in his first 187 starts on Tour, the veteran now sits 18 holes away from a third win in his last eight starts, having already claimed the Frys.com Open and Sony Open earlier this season.
• Should Walker hold on to win Sunday along the Monterey Peninsula, it would mark the fourth time in the last five years that a player won at least three times during a single PGA Tour season. Jim Furyk won his third title of 2010 at the Tour Championship, while Rory McIlroy took home four PGA Tour titles in 2012. Last year, Tiger Woods won five times en route to Player of the Year honors.
• While Walker’s advantage appears nearly insurmountable, it’s not exactly a done deal: recall that just last month, Patrick Reed entered the final round of the Humana Challenge with a seven-shot lead and ultimately won by only two strokes. The last player to blow a six-shot lead through 54 holes on the PGA Tour was Spencer Levin at the 2012 Waste Management Phoenix Open.
• Should Walker falter, it could open the door for a pair of veterans. Hunter Mahan begins the final round tied for second, six shots back, as he looks to win for the first time since the 2012 Shell Houston Open. Phil Mickelson, meanwhile, trails Walker by eight shots as he looks to tie Mark O’Meara’s record of five titles in this event.
• The winner’s trophy is not the only thing Ryan Palmer will be playing for Sunday. Entering the final round in a tie for fifth, Palmer has a realistic shot at moving up enough in the world rankings to earn a spot in the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship later this month. A runner-up earlier this year at Humana, Palmer will likely need a top-four finish to punch his ticket to Dove Mountain.
• As a graduate of the University of Washington that still calls the Evergreen State home, Richard H. Lee is no stranger to inclement weather and cloudy skies. The 26-year-old has made the most of difficult conditions this week and heads into the final round alone in fourth place, seven behind Walker as he eyes a career-best finish on Tour. Lee has three prior top-10 finishes to his credit, the highest being a tie for sixth in Las Vegas in 2012.
• Pat Perez may not want the West Coast swing to end. After a T-8 finish in Hawaii, Perez was a runner-up on his former home course at Torrey Pines, then notched a tie for 11th last week in Phoenix. The 37-year-old enters the final round at Pebble among a large tie for fifth after breaking par in each of the first three rounds.
• Darkness prevented tournament officials from making the 54-hole cut, but a number of notable names will be absent Sunday once the third round is officially in the books. Among the stars on the wrong side of the cut line - projected at even par - are Jason Day (+1), Nick Watney (+3), Vijay Singh (+4) and defending champion Brandt Snedeker (+6).
