Colonial champion Daniel Berger wins at Pebble Beach

Daniel Berger eagled the 18th hole to capture the 80th edition of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am for his second victory since golf returned to after its pause due to Covid-19.

Berger also won the first event back, the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth. While the Colonial had the greatest field in tournament history, the field at Pebble Beach only featured five of the top 50 in the world rankings on hand to play one of the great golf courses in the world.

The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am had a different feel this year with no fans on the grounds and no ams in the field, which meant none of the celebrities that often make this one of the most unique events every year on the PGA TOUR. The tournament was also played on only two courses — Pebble Beach Golf Links and Spyglass Hill — and as is often the case with great golf courses, the best players were at the top of the leaderboard.

Berger, the second highest ranked player in the field topped the first page of the leaderboard that included the highest ranked player at Pebble Beach, Patrick Cantlay and three-time major winner Jordan Spieth.

“I feel like I got a little bit of revenge on the 18th. I knew it was going to be a tight finish and I just stepped up there and hit a great drive and hit maybe the best 3-wood I’ve ever hit in my life and the putter was just kind of icing on the cake,” Berger said. “I was really looking to 2-putt that. But it was a great feeling when it went in and I’m just, it’s so hard to win out here. It’s, you know, I feel like everything has to come together to win and I was able to do that this week.”

Stanford grad Maverick McNealy finished solo second.

Spieth began the final round with a two-shot lead as he attempted to capture his first win since the 2017 Open Championship, but that lead was erased by the second hole when Berger made his first of two final round eagles.

“I’m as confident as I’ve been in a long time. Not only the current outlook but also looking forward. So it’s still mechanics. It’s still dragging on,” Spieth said. “It’s still going too long and therefore getting late into the ball and I made some really, really good swings this week under pressure and I made some not so good swings under pressure and there were more good ones than there were last week. So as I go into next week at arguably my favorite golf course in the world, at Riviera, I look to have more swings that I know are getting into position, hitting the spots I know that I can kind of turn and burn from than I had this week.”

Next up on the PGA TOUR is the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades.