Hart shares lead with Singh
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. -- Dudley Hart has gone more than 10 years since he was atop the leaderboard going into the final round, and nearly eight years since his last PGA Tour victory. Now he gets to go head to head with Vijay Singh, a past champion at Pebble Beach and formerly No. 1 in the world.
Considering the fears Hart faced last year at home, don't expect that to rattle him in the least.
Hart skipped the final six months of last season when doctors discovered a softball-sized tumor in his wife's lung, and he invariably feared the worse while tending to their preschool triplets.
Suzanne Hart is recovering beautifully, and her husband isn't doing too badly at the moment, either.
Hart, who hasn't been in serious contention in nearly four years, finally got the best of Spyglass Hill on Saturday with a bogey-free round of 4-under 68, giving him a share of the lead with Singh at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.
"It opens your eyes to what's truly important sometimes," Hart said.
Singh made an eagle on the par-5 11th at Spyglass on his way to a 67 to join Hart at 9-under 207, the highest score to lead after 54 holes at Pebble Beach since 1990.
They were 2 shots ahead of PGA Tour rookie Dustin Johnson and Michael Allen.
Defending champion Phil Mickelson lost all hope of being the first repeat winner at Pebble since Mark O'Meara in 1989-90 when he took an 11 on the par-5 14th and went from trying to stay in contention to missing the cut. He finished with a 78.
"It's not fun when it goes this way," Mickelson said.
Hart hadn't had at least a share of the lead since the 1996 Canadian Open, which he went on to win for the first of his two victories. And he is still trying to get back into a rhythm of tour life after a summer of uncertainty involving Suzanne, who had two-thirds of her right lung removed but is getting back to normal.
"It definitely scared me," Hart said. "I kept looking at those kids and I can't imagine … God forbid, when they get that tumor out, it comes back bad and they don't have their mom around. That fortunately wasn't the issue. You have a lot of positive and negative thoughts, but the negative ones really scare you."
It's been all good at Pebble, from his share of the lead to weather that makes the Monterey Peninsula feel like paradise.
Saturday at Pebble traditionally is for the celebrities, and their antics were limited to leaping into the gallery at the 15th tee and being passed through the crowd, although they struggled with hefty actor Kevin James.
Some of the best golf was found elsewhere on the peninsula.
Hart traditionally struggles with Spyglass, and he had his moments. He made good escapes from the bunker on Nos. 9 and 16 to save par, made birdies on the short par 3s, and finished with 2 birdies that put him atop the leaderboard.
Johnson, who made it through all three stages of Q-school last year, shot a 68 at Pebble Beach that included a wedge he holed out from 85 yards for eagle on No. 13.
The group at 6-under 210 included Steve Lowery, who had 2 double bogeys, 6 birdies and one par on the back nine at Poppy Hills that eventually added to a 70. Also in that group was 20-year-old Jason Day of Australia, who made 6 birdies at Pebble Beach to overcome some sloppy errors on his way to a 71.