Lebioda fires sparkling 63 to take Pebble Beach first round lead

SAN FRANCISCO: Hank Lebioda was firing on all cylinders on Thursday, firing nine birdies in an 8-under-par 63 to take the first round lead in the US PGA Tour Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

Lebioda said it “felt like everything” was working for him at Monterey Peninsula, the par-71 course that is one of three in use over the first three rounds along with Pebble Beach Golf Links and Spyglass Hill — both par-72 layouts.

“I hit a lot of great iron shots. I made the putts when I was close. It was a really nice day,” added the 29-year-old American, who is ranked 420th in the world and in search of a first US PGA Tour title.

Lebioda, who hasn’t made a cut on Tour since the 3M Open in July, tied his career-low score and was a stroke clear of England’s Harry Hall and Americans Kurt Kitayama and Chad Ramey.

Hall and Kitayama both carded seven-under 64s at Monterey Peninsula while Ramey posted a seven-under 65 at Pebble Beach.

Lebioda said recent work on his putting was finally starting to pay off.

“For probably the last couple weeks or so I felt like my putting had really turned a corner,” he said. “Even though I may not have shown the results. But I felt more confident standing over the ball. I liked what I was looking at visually standing over it. I knew it was just a matter of time.

“So today, fortunately it was one of the days where quite a few of ‘em did go in. Not every day is like that. I was glad I was able to take advantage of it today.”

Hall teed off on 10 at Monterey Peninsula and his seven-under effort featured an eagle at the 16th hole and a string of five straight birdies from the third through the seventh, a run that ended with his second bogey of the day, at the eighth.

“Kept it in play off the tee,” Hall said.