Justin Rose off to a great start in his Clambake debut
Justin Rose had a full day on Thursday at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. He shot 6-under 66 at Spyglass Hill to trail leader Chez Reavie by two shots. He got to play golf with his pro-am partner Justin Timberlake, and the 2013 U.S. Open champion even was treated to an impromptu performance by the entertainer.
Rose quickly realized the gallery wasn’t there to see him.
“I’ve never seen a demographic like that on a golf course where you’re sort of running the gauntlet from one tee to the other. Everyone was under 21 and 80 percent female,” Rose said.
It’s a unique welcome to the old Crosby Clambake, as the world No. 7 is making his tournament debut this week.
Rose, who plays at Monterey Peninsula Country Club on Friday, said the scouting report he’d heard about Spyglass Hill was all wrong.
“I heard some strange reports about Spyglass, like the first few holes are great, then it disappears into the hills and it’s not that good. That’s not what I saw,” he said. “That’s a pretty stellar golf course to me and really enjoyed playing it.”
On the 16th hole, Timberlake, who didn’t help the team in the pro-am competition, did add to the experience when he got out his guitar and sang a few bars of his version of “Drink You Away,” which could well have been about his golf round.
“That was a cool moment,” Rose said. “Not many people saw it, because there was only like 20 people back there. That’s obviously when you really appreciate how someone can grab a guitar, go a cappella and sound so awesome. You have a better appreciation. You see him hit not maybe so many great golf shots, but then you realize, ‘Ah, that’s pretty damn special right there.’ So we all have our own skill set.”
Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
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