8am Round-Up: Jordan Spieth will '˜not let up' after Pebble Beach win

Jordan Spieth vowed he will 'not let up' in the countdown to The Masters after the Texan returned to winning ways on the PGA Tour with an impressive victory in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
Jordan Spieth won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am by four shots. Picture: Gettty ImagesJordan Spieth won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am by four shots. Picture: Gettty Images
Jordan Spieth won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am by four shots. Picture: Gettty Images

The two-time major winner closed with a two-under-par 70 to finish on 19-under-par on the Californian coast, winning by four shots from compatriot Kelly Kraft (67).

US Open champion Dustin Johnson finished a stroke further back in third, but the day belonged to Spieth as he claimed his first PGA Tour title since the Hyundai Tournament of Champions in Hawaii at the beginning of last year.

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“I could afford to make a couple of mistakes today if I needed to but fourtunately I didn’t and managed to stay ahead,” said Spieth, referring to the fact he’d taken a six-shot lead into the final round.

It was the 23-year-old’s ninth Tour triumph, and he is the youngest person to reach that landmark since Tiger Woods.

“It has been a tremendous four years on the PGA Tour with ups and downs,” added Spieth. “I am really looking forward to what is to come, I have had four great starts to the new year.

“I am going down to the Riviera (Country Club) next week (for the Genesis Open) and I am not going to let up.”

Spieth will be a man on a mission in this year’s Masters, having been on course for a successful Green Jacket defence until he ran up a 7 at the short 12th in the final round last April.

World No 1 Jason Day tied for fifth with John Rahm as the young Spaniard maintained the impressive form that saw him win the recent Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.

Martin Laird finished in the “made cut, did not finish category” after rounds of 71-73-71.

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Colin Montgomerie recorded a top-10 finish in the first full field event on this season’s Champions Tour - the Allianz Championship in Florida.

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The Scot followed two opening rounds of 68 with a closing 66 at the Old Course at Broken Arrow in Boca Raton for a 14-under-par total.

It secured him a tie for sixth behind American Scott McCarron, who eagled the last for a 67 to beat compatriot Kenny Perry (66) and Paraguay’s Carlos Franco (65) by a single shot.

“All wins are exciting but this one, to be able to finish it off the way I did, was really something special,” said McCarron.

Senior Open champion Paul Broadhurst finished a stroke further back in joint-fourth after a closing 64.

On their Champions Tour debuts, Paul McGinley and Jose Maria Olazabal finished alongside each other in joint-41st. Sandy Lyle ended up 70th.

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Jimmy Gunn finished in a tie for 34th in the latest Web.com Tour event - the Club Colombia Championship.

In an event won in a play-off by American Ethan Tracy, the Dornoch man recorded rounds of sandwiched a second-round 66 with a brace of 71s for a three-under-par total.

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Robert Jenkins has made a flying start to his over-50s career by winning the Spanish (International) Seniors’ Championship.

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The Lanarkshire carded rounds of 70-70-74 at Las Colinas for a one-shot victory over Englishman Ian Crowther.

“This was my initiation to the ‘old’ boys and what a friendly bunch of guys,” said a delighted Jenkins.

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Haggs Castle’s Barry Hume finished joint-26th in the Portuguese Amateur Champinship after a closing 73 at Montado.

In an event won by Finland’s Sami Valimaki with a seven-under-par 281 total, Euan McIntosh, Alasdair McDougall and Christopher MacLean all failed to make it to the final round.

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Italian Lorenzo Gagli won the Lumine International Pro-Am in Spain with a three-under-par total at the new venue for the European Tour Qualifying School later this year.

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Entries are picking up the pace for the MENA Golf Tour Qualifying School to be held at El Jadida Royal Golf Club in Morocco from 7-9 March.

Open to all professionals and amateurs with a handicap of one or better (four or better for MENA nationals), the 54-hole Q-School will see a minimum of 50 players earn category-7 membership of the third-tier circuit.

It will have close to 16 events this season, covering destinations in Morocco, Kuwait, Thailand, South Africa, Oman and the UAE.

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