LOS ANGELES – Bubba Watson has the 54-hole lead at the Northern Trust Open, and that might not even be the most fun he’s had this week.

He took his 3-year-old son to hang out with Justin Bieber. The two-time Masters champion had a small part – one line that he said required four takes – in Disney Channel’s show “Girl Meets World.” And he couldn’t wait to leave Riviera on Saturday so he could get to an NBA game between the Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State Warriors.

“That’s the advantage is that I’m friends with a lot of the guys, friends with Steve Ballmer – I don’t know if you know him, he’s the owner of the Clippers,” Watson said.

Winning at Riviera for the second time in three years? That might be gravy.

Watson put himself in prime condition on a gorgeous afternoon along Sunset Boulevard with a 4-under 67, which included an efficient up-and-down for birdie on the par-5 17th to break out of the pack and a par save from the concession area down the hill and to the right of the 18th green.

Navigating the final 18 holes against a strong pack of contenders might be tougher than traffic on the 405.

Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy, Adam Scott and Hideki Matsuyama were all among the 10 players within three shots of the lead going into the final round. Watson was at 12-under 201, one shot ahead of Johnson, Jason Kokrak and Chez Reavie.

“We all feel good about our chances, even the guy that’s five back,” Watson said. “For me, I’m going to go out and try to do the same thing, keep my head down, try to take deep breaths and try to slow it down and hopefully it works out.”

Watson hit more fairways on Saturday (10) then the opening two rounds combined. He’s not bothered by being in the short grass as much as having the right angle to the green, and what has really left him at ease – as much as Watson is ever at ease – is making the short putts. He has made only three bogeys in 54 holes.

“Knowing that I’ve won here and knowing that I can play around here, obviously I have a little bit of an advantage on the guy that probably hasn’t won here,” Watson said.

Kokrak, the 36-hole leader, made three birdies on the back nine to salvage a 70 and remain in the final group. Reavie had a three-shot lead at one point on the back nine, courtesy of a perfectly placed drive that led to eagle on No. 2. But he missed a pair of 8-foot par putts on consecutive holes and had to settle for a 69.

For all the birdies, the final round was shaped largely by pars on the 18th hole.

McIlroy, making his debut at Riviera, made three birdies on the back nine to reach 10 under when he pushed his tee shot too far right on the 18th for the second straight day. This time, he played too much of a fade around the eucalyptus trees, and it tumbled down the hill next to the concessions stand. His chip raced by the hole, leaving a downhill par putt form 18 feet that he made for par.

“That’s one of the loudest cheers I’ve had in a while,” McIlroy said. “It would be nice to hear something like that again tomorrow.”

He shot 67 and was two shots behind, a group that included Scott (67), UCLA alum Kevin Chappell (66), the resurgent K.J. Choi (67) and Marc Leishman (68).

“Everyone is playing good, and it’s whoever probably wants it the most tomorrow makes it happen,” Scott said. “Not everyone is just going to fade away. It’s not that brutal hard and fast stuff where your slight miss is really punished and you can’t get it up-and-down.”

Watson’s par from about the same area was even better. He was able to clip the ball perfectly, and it checked up just 3 feet above the hole.

Matsuyama, who won in Phoenix two weeks ago, made five birdies on the front nine to get into the mix, only to put four 5s on his card on the back nine. He shot 68 and was three shots behind, along with Troy Merritt (70).

It’s still wide open, even with the experience at the top of Watson and Riviera, and the experience of winning anywhere by McIlroy, who’s at No. 3 in the world.

“It’s one of these golf courses, if you just stay around, hang in there and not make too many mistakes, stay patient, your time will come and it will present itself with a few opportunities,” McIlroy said. “And thankfully on the back nine, I was able to take some of them.”

Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C., shot 1-over 72 and sits T41 at 3-under. Adam Hadwin is T50 at 2-under.

LOS ANGELES – Rory McIlroy was leaving the scoring area when he looked over at a TV screen that was showing highlights of his round.

There were a couple of three-putt bogeys (one from just off the green) to go along with five birdies in his round of 2-under 69 that left him satisfied. It wasn’t his best, though he still was only four shots behind Jason Kokrak. Right before leaving the room, Golf Channel posted a chart that showed McIlroy has more comeback victories (six) after 36 holes than anyone since 2010.

“There you go,” McIlroy said with a smile. “That’s a good stat.”

That’s how the weekend is shaping up at Riviera. Kokrak birdied all the par 5s with his power and shot 7-under 64 to build a one-shot lead over Chez Reavie, who had a 67. Kokrak will be going for his first PGA Tour victory, which looks to be a long way off considering the tournament is only at the halfway point.

Even with Jordan Spieth missing the cut, there is plenty of star power – and simply power – lined up behind Kokrak.

Dustin Johnson and Bubba Watson were two shots behind. The large group four shots back included McIlroy, Adam Scott, Hideki Matsuyama and Charl Schwartzel, a winner last week in South Africa. Watson won at Riviera two years ago. Johnson has been runner-up each of the last two years.

Watson made the cut with two shots to spare in 2014 and then went 64-64 on the weekend. That’s one indication that anything goes on the weekend off Sunset Boulevard. And it’s an indication that Watson is pretty good.

Kokrak is a month away from the one-year anniversary of his last top 10 on the PGA Tour, but he took a lot out of the 67-69 finish he had last weekend at Pebble Beach. He was hitting the ball well. He sensed something good about to happen.

“The way I hit it on Saturday, Sunday at Pebble, I can definitely see something special coming,” he said. “But I just put myself in position, just like I’m going to try to do the next couple days and see what happens.”

It’s hard to call Riviera “Dustin Johnson’s Alley” when he’s never even won at the course (Ben Hogan won three times in two years, including a U.S. Open) but it clearly is one of his better courses for reasons he can’t explain except that it fits his eye. He has finished no worse than fourth in four of the eight previous times he has played, and he has more rounds at 67 or better (10) than anyone since he started playing.

And he might finally be shaking off the rust from taking nearly a month off in December, and not playing at all in the two weeks between Kapalua and Torrey Pines, and the one week before Pebble Beach.

Asked what he does in his spare time when he’s not playing golf, Johnson replied, “There’s a lot of things you can do other than golf. I do them all.”

Let’s move along.

Lanny Wadkins said when he set the scoring record of 20-under 264 at Riviera in 1985 that he played the final round with the goal of not having anything worse than a 4 on his card. Schwartzel couldn’t relate to that on Friday.

He had a 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and a 7.

And he still shot 68 and was four behind.

He had a double bogey on No. 10 from a plugged lie in the bunker (even clean lies are hard in the bunkers on No. 10). And he made a triple bogey on No. 2 when he was trying to chip out from a boundary fence and the ball hit him in the hand, costing him one shot. He also missed a 3-foot putt. Both irritated him. Between those two holes, which he described as “unfortunate,” he made seven birdies and an eagle. So that was fortunate.

Justin Leonard came in from the snow to post his best 36-hole start in 19 years at Riviera (67-69).

He moved from Dallas to Colorado last year with his wife and four children and loves it. Leonard said his psychologist told him he needed to start working harder and practicing more. “So I moved to Colorado so I can’t practice,” he said.

He is playing a limited schedule this year, wanting to play 10 or 12 events. He narrowed it down to the courses that make him excited.

Riviera makes him excited. Especially this year.

Charlie Danielson gets to wait before going back to school. A 22-year-old senior at Illinois, Danielson earned a spot in his first PGA Tour event through a college qualifier on Monday. He opened with a 67 and easily made the cut on Friday with a 72. He was seven shots out of the lead and guaranteed two more days at Riviera.

A pair of Abbotsford, B.C., natives lead the Canadian the contingent. A 3-under 68 performance propelled Nick Taylor into a tie for 22nd place, while Adam Hadwin posted a second consecutive 70 to sit T38.

LOS ANGELES – Camilo Villegas hasn’t make a cut all year and has only broken 70 one time in four previous trips to Riviera, so it was mildly surprising to see him with an 8-under 63 to build a three-shot lead Thursday in the Northern Trust Open.

That wasn’t the biggest surprise.

One spot from the bottom of the leaderboard was Jordan Spieth, the world’s No. 1 player who shot an 8-over 79 on one of his favorite courses. It was his worst start ever as a pro, and his highest score since an 80 in the third round of the 2014 Tour Championship.

“In the course of a career, I imagine it’s going to happen,” Spieth said. “Just unfortunate when it actually does.”

And there was one more surprise for everyone. Riviera, which played so fearsome during the practice rounds under a hot sun, was softer than usual after a steady overnight rain that never cleared until moments before the first round began.

Spieth said he couldn’t trust how the course was playing. Villegas also was stunned when he heard players from the morning round talk about 4-irons stopping on the green, instead of taking a hard bounce.

“You don’t really shoot 8 under around this place not playing good,” Villegas said. “Obviously, the rain yesterday made the golf course a lot more accessible.”

Bubba Watson, who won at Riviera two years ago with a 64-64 weekend, opened with a 66 along with Chez Reavie and Luke List.

Rory McIlroy, making his first PGA Tour start this year and his debut at Riviera, opened with two quick birdies and added two more on the front nine for a 67. He was in a large group that included 22-year-old Charlie Danielson, the Illinois senior who earned a spot in his first PGA Tour event by winning a collegiate qualifier on Monday.

“I just went out and tried to enjoy the day,” Danielson said. “I had no idea if I would shoot 80 or 66, so I just went out with no expectations and it worked out.”

Spieth didn’t have any expectations of a 79 – or worse. Still to be determined is whether his ball moved before hitting a chip on the ninth green. Spieth asked rules officials to review the video. He said he was fairly certain it didn’t move, but wanted to be sure. A decision was not expected until Friday morning. It would be a one-shot penalty under Rule 18-2 if the ball did move.

That was the least of his worries. The round got away from him on the back nine when he kept missing greens and leaving himself short par putts that are difficult on poa greens in the afternoon. Spieth dropped six shots over the last seven holes, including a three-putt double bogey from 8 feet on the 18th.

“I’m not throwing this tournament away,” Spieth said. “I’m not packing it in by any means.”

Only one other player in the 144-man field shot worse than Spieth. The Masters and U.S. Open champion was the last man on the practice range Thursday night when the first round was suspended by darkness. Fourteen players did not finish the round.

Villegas didn’t want it to end.

He opened with a pitch to tap-in range for birdie on No. 10, far less fearsome with slightly softer conditions. But his round really took off on the front nine when he ran off four straight birdies starting at No. 5 when he holed a 25-foot birdie putt. He hit his tee shot to 3 feet on the par-3 sixth, and holed a pair of 15-foot putts on the next two holes. Villegas needed one more birdie at No. 9 to match the course record of 61 that Ted Tryba set in 1999.

He missed the green to the right and chipped to 4 feet, missing the par putt and settling for a 63.

“I got on fire there for a little stretch,” he said. “And obviously, a little mishap on the last hole. But man, I thought I made the chip, too. It was a good day out there. Fun.”

McIlroy started birdie-birdie, and his lone mistake was a tee shot into a deep bunker on No. 15, leaving him no chance at reaching the green. Even so, he was happy to take advantage of the conditions.

“Put myself out of position a couple of times, but with the way the conditions of the golf course were, it didn’t punish you as bad as if it would have been as firm as it was the last couple of days,” McIlroy said.

Villegas figured it out quickly and played more aggressively, going at pins instead of planning for a big bounce.

“I would say I was a little surprised with my 8 under to be honest. This is a golf course where it’s not easy to shoot 8 under,” Villegas said. “I didn’t know Jordan shot 8 (over), but obviously he must have had a bad day. But again, everybody has bad days in this sport, man.”

Abbotsford, B.C., natives Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin opened with matching 1-under 70s to sit T39. David Hearn of Brantford, Ont., was 3-over 74 on the day, while Graham DeLaet from Weyburn, Sask., shot 4-over.

A person with knowledge of the negotiations tells The Associated Press that Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler are poised for a prime-time golf exhibition.

Quicken Loans is finalizing details for a match between McIlroy and Fowler that would be played June 7 under the lights at Detroit Golf Club. It would be televised live by Golf Channel and CBS.

The person spoke with the AP on Monday on condition of anonymity because the match has not been announced.

The first two hours would be televised live by Golf Channel, followed by the 9-11 p.m. slot shown live on CBS. It was not clear how many holes would be broadcast under the lights.

Unlike the Monday night matches involving Tiger Woods in 1999 and 2000, there would be a celebrity component with this exhibition. The person said it would be “Team Rory” against “Team Rickie.”

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Vaughn Taylor doesn’t know how he lost his game. Even more mystifying was the way it returned.

His goal Sunday when he teed off in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, trailing Phil Mickelson by six shots, was to finish in the top 10 so he wouldn’t have to rush down to Los Angeles and try to qualify for the next PGA Tour event.

It had been more than a decade since he won. It had been three years since he had a full PGA Tour card. And just 10 days ago, Taylor was throwing up in his hotel room in Bogota, Colombia, so sick that he withdrew from a Web.com Tour event and flew to Pebble Beach as an alternate. The one-time Ryder Cup player only had a carry bag with him to save money on baggage fees.

Taylor ran off four straight birdies on the back nine at Pebble Beach to close with a 7-under 65, and he wasn’t sure it was enough when Mickelson stood over a 5-foot birdie putt to force a playoff. And then Taylor got one last surprise.

Mickelson missed.

“Just absolutely amazing,” Taylor said. “Didn’t know if it would ever happen again, to be honest. Just lost a lot of confidence, lost a good bit of my game. I just kept working, grinding and kept at it. And I can’t believe it actually happened today.”

Neither could Mickelson.

Lefty was going for his record-tying fifth victory at Pebble Beach, and the 43rd title of his Hall of Fame career. He had a two-shot lead to start the final round, lost the lead after five holes, rallied with a birdie on the 17th hole and then delivered two good shots to within 60 feet of the hole, just short of the green on the par-5 18th.

“It never crossed my mind that I wouldn’t make that one,” Mickelson said after his 72.

Taylor had never given up on his career, though he was starting to rule out another victory, and he never imagined returning home to Augusta, Georgia, to play in the Masters. He is the first player this year to qualify by winning.

“Playing in the Masters is my Super Bowl,” Taylor said.

Taylor was No. 447 in the world and had never won a tournament against the best players. His previous two victories were the Reno-Tahoe Open (2004 and 2005), which is held opposite a World Golf Championship. He had a scare two years ago when his aluminum fishing boat capsized in a strong current, leading to a few moment of panic with cold water up his chin and a park ranger guiding him to shore.

He finished at 17-under 270 and earned $1.26 million, which is about $165,000 more than he made the last three years combined.

Jonas Blixt, the first player to catch Mickelson, made bogey on the par-5 14th to fall back and closed with four pars for a 69 to finish third. Hiroshi Iwata of Japan, who played with Mickelson in the final group, was one shot behind until he missed the 16th green and made bogey. He closed with a 72 to tie for fourth with Freddie Jacobson (71).

Taylor didn’t look like much of a threat when he went out in 34, but he poured it on the back nine. He hit his approach to 3 feet on the 13th and to 12 feet on the dangerous par-5 14th. Coming out of the rough on the 15th, his ball hit the golf ball of Matt Jones and settled 2 feet away for a third straight birdie.

The real blow came at the 16th, a 30-foot birdie putt on one of the toughest greens at Pebble. He rammed it hard enough and watched it break back into the cup, and Taylor ran around the green to celebrate.

“I’ve had that putt before. It’s a hard putt,” Taylor said. “I wasn’t even thinking about making that putt. I knew it broke a lot, and it’s a little uphill at the end. It’s really easy to leave that putt short. I just flushed it. It was kind of going in from the start.”

He missed two good birdie chances on the last two holes, but still wound up a winner.

Taylor didn’t even realize he was in the Pebble Beach Pro-Am _ he still has limited status as a past PGA Tour winner _ until Monday when he was learned Cal Pettersen had withdrawn. That no longer is a problem. He’s in the Masters and PGA Championship, and he gets to set his own schedule for the next two years.

Jordan Spieth, the world’s No. 1 player, closed with a 66 and tied for 21st, ending his streak of seven straight top 10s dating to September.

Nick Taylor and David Hearn were the top Canadians, tying for 30th place at 5 under. Taylor shot a 1 under on Sunday while Hearn had a 2-over 74. Austin Connelly was 2 over for the day and finished at 1 over.

Mickelson at least left Pebble believing he was closer to ending the longest victory drought of his pro career that dates to the 2013 British Open.

“It’s certainly disappointing, but it makes me more determined to get back to work and get this thing right,” he said. “I know that I’m close to being where I want to be. But if I was there, I would have been able to finish it off.”

Canada’s Nick Taylor and and David Hearn had a share of 30th at 5-under, while Austin Connelly finished 1-over to tie for 60th.

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Phil Mickelson stayed away from all the celebrity commotion Saturday at Pebble Beach. More importantly, he stayed away from bogeys on the toughest day.

Mickelson took only 21 putts and shot a 6-under 66 to take a two-shot lead in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, leaving him one round away from tying the record with his fifth victory at this event.

“It’s fun to be back in the thick of it,” Mickelson said.

It’s his first 54-hole lead on the PGA Tour since the 2013 U.S. Open at Merion. Mickelson has gone 52 events worldwide since his last victory at Muirfield in the 2013 British Open that gave him the third leg of the Grand Slam. It is the longest drought of his career.

He was at 16-under 199 and led by two shots over Hiroshi Iwata of Japan, who had a 69 at Spyglass Hill.

Freddie Jacobson had a 68 at Monterey Peninsula, which for the first time this week played the toughest of the three courses because of the brisk wind. He was three shots behind, along with Sung Kang, who had a 70 at Pebble Beach.

Jordan Spieth, the world’s No. 1 player, was happy to have a tee time on Sunday.

Spieth struggled on the par 5s for the third straight round, playing them at 1 over at Pebble Beach. He had to get up-and-down for par on the par-5 18th for a 74 to make the cut on the number. He has played the par 5s in even par for the week.

“I’m not in contention. It will be the first stress-free round that I’ve really had in quite a while where I’ve played a Sunday not having a chance to win,” Spieth said. “It’s not good, but at the same time, I think I can get into a groove and not lose any hair over the back nine. I’m going to fire at some pins.”

Mickelson got as much as he could out of his 66.

He played at Pebble Beach with the rest of the celebrities, which is a tradition on this course, except that he teed off on the back nine and was on the opposite end of the golf course from the dancing, clowning and raucous atmosphere on a gorgeous day once the fog lifted.

Mickelson’s pitch to the 18th went through the green, and he chipped in for a birdie to make the turn in 3 under. He had to scramble for par out of a bunker on No. 1. On the third hole, he drove into a fairway bunker and purposely played away from the flag, chipping just short of the green for a good angle at the pin.

He also had to get up-and-down for par on the short par-4 fourth hole. Those typically are the scoring holes, but he took off from there with three straight birdies, including a 20-foot putt on the 112-yard seventh hole, tougher than usual because of a firm green and a breeze at the back.

Even his birdie at the par-5 sixth was no picnic. Mickelson short-sided himself on his second shot and had to hit a flop shot over the bunker to about 4 feet. He closed with two solid pars (one from the front bunker on No. 8) and is trying not to look too far ahead to Sunday.

The next six players behind him on the leaderboard have combined for four PGA Tour victories. Mickelson is going for his 43rd.

Mickelson, however, wasn’t taking anything for granted. This was a good score on a tough day.

“It’s been awhile since I’ve been in contention and it would mean a lot to me to be able to play a good final round tomorrow,” he said. “And as well as I’ve been hitting the ball, the score was great, but the ball striking wasn’t indicative of how I’ve been hitting it. So I would like to get that dialed in for tomorrow’s round.”

PGA champion Jason Day had a 68 at Pebble Beach to get within six shots of the lead. Justin Rose was among five players to have at least a share of the lead at one point Saturday, reaching 13 under. He made four bogeys and no birdies over the final 11 holes, including going bunker-to-bunker around the 18th green for a bogey. That gave him a 72 and he was seven shots behind.

Canada’s David Hearn has a share of 17th at 7-under. Nick Taylor is tied for 29th at 4-under, while Austin Connelly is tied for 54th at 1-under.

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Sung Kang didn’t know anything about his amateur partner until he went on the Internet and looked up actor Ray Romano. He didn’t realize the par at Monterey Peninsula was 71 until he scrambled for par on his final hole and realized while signing his card Friday that he set the course record with a career-low 60.

It added to a memorable day at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, where Kang and Hiroshi Iwata of Japan wound up tied for the lead.

“I feel like I’m living a dream right now,” Kang said.

Kang and Phil Mickelson each brought the possibility of 59 into the conversation – one early in his round, the other late.

Mickelson took only 11 putts on the front nine at Monterey Peninsula. When he made a 40-foot eagle putt on the 10th hole, he was 7 under for the round and had a pair of par 5s remaining over his last eight holes.

He made bogey on one of the par 5s, hooking his fairway metal into shrubs and having to reach into the thick plants with a hybrid to punch out the ball and make sure it only went about 6 feet so that it wouldn’t go up the slope and roll back into the bushes. Lefty usually doesn’t hit great shots that go 6 feet unless he has a putter.

Then, he nearly lost his tee shot on the final hole and made another bogey for a 65, leaving him one shot behind.

“I thought I was going to shoot a lot lower than I did,” Mickelson said. “I didn’t expect to play 1 over coming in. But I’m not going to complain because I made a lot of good putts on the front.”

He goes to Pebble Beach on Saturday as he goes after a record-tying fifth win in this event.

Kang and Iwata were at 11-under 132.

Iwata, who tied a major championship record with a 63 at the PGA Championship last year at Whistling Straits, had a 66 at Pebble Beach.

Mickelson, Freddie Jacobson (69 at Spyglass Hill) and Chez Reavie (70 at Pebble Beach) were one shot to par behind at 10 under, while Justin Rose had a 68 at Monterey Peninsula and was at 9 under.

Jordan Spieth failed to birdie any of the par 5s at Monterey Peninsula – he is 1 under on the par 5s this week even though he could reach all of them in two shots – and his round of two birdies and 16 pars put him at 3-under 140 and eight shots out of the lead.

“I’m 1 under on the par 5s, and from where I’ve been, they have pretty much all been par 4s for me,” Spieth said. “So it almost feels like I’m playing them 7 over.”

Rose thought Monterey Peninsula was difficult because the greens are not as pure as the other courses. Then he was told that Kang was at 11 under and playing his final hole and Rose smiled and said, “The greens are obviously perfect.”

Kang couldn’t agree more. He lost track of the number of birdie putts he made in the 15-foot range, saying they were “too many to count.” Some of them he read on his own. Other times he brought in the experience of his caddie, Mike “Fluff” Cowan, who is working for Kang while Jim Furyk recovers from wrist surgery.

And the 28-year-old South Korean had an actor at his side cheering him along.

Romano, who has become a regular at this event, wasn’t sure the name of his partner earlier in the week. No offence taken. Kang didn’t know him, either.

“One of my buddies came up and said, ‘Oh, you’re with Ray. He’s very famous,”’ Kang said. “I did some research on it. I Googled Ray and he was like on a really famous TV show for six or seven years. He gets like almost a third more earnings from TV drama show.”

Asked if Romano knew him, Kang smiled and said, “I think he’ll remember me after today.”

Kang had three birdies and an eagle on the back nine to start his round, picked up a pair of birdies early on the front nine and then poured it on with three straight birdies that brought him to 11 under with only the par-3 ninth remaining.

“I still thought the par was 72,” he said.

He hit what he called his worst shot of the day, a big cut that came up short and in the rough. He chipped to 15 feet and saved par.

“It was just going in every single time,” he said.

Jason Day had a 66 at Monterey Peninsula to get within five shots of the lead. Patrick Reed, playing alongside Mickelson, had six birdies in a seven-hole stretch on the back nine and also was at 6 under.

Leading the Canadian charge is David Hearn at 6-under. Two-shots back of Hearn at 4-under is fellow Canadian Nick Taylor. Austin Connelly is 1-under, while Mike Weir rounds out the Canadians at 9-over.

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Justin Rose, a U.S. Open champion and the No. 7 player in the world, shot a 6-under 66 his first time playing Spyglass Hill and spent a gorgeous day listening to the fans call out his name. Except they weren’t calling for him, and he knew it.

His partner in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am is Justin Timberlake.

“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. “I said, ‘OK, that moved the needle a little bit there.'”

Rose did OK himself Thursday.

He got off to a strong start is his debut at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, where Chez Reavie had the low score at a tournament that needs three days to sort out because of the variety of courses.

Reavie made an eagle on the 16th hole and shot 8-under 63 at Monterey Peninsula, which played just more than 1 1/2 strokes under par and was the easiest of the three courses. Freddie Jacobson made five birdies in a six-hole stretch and shot 7-under 65 at Pebble Beach, the only course to play over par (72.06) on Thursday.

Cameron Smith of Australia and Bronson Burgoon each had a 7-under 64 at Monterey Peninsula.

Rose is among six players from the top 10 in the world, and the only one of them to break 70. This is his first time playing the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, partly because he chose not to play in the Middle East swing on the European Tour, and partly because of a partner (Timberlake) that he has come to know over the years.

Both did well at their crafts.

Rose strung together seven birdies, holing out from the bunker on No. 10 and ending his round with a 50-foot birdie putt that banged into the back of the cup. He played Pebble Beach and Monterey Peninsula for his practice rounds and realized he should have been at Spyglass “because it’s a pretty tough course.”

“There’s some strong holes on it,” Rose said. “And 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. That’s a pretty stellar golf course to me and really enjoyed playing it.”

Timberlake played too – the guitar.

He didn’t contribute any shots to their pro-am score, but Rose said the highlight was on the 16th tree when Timberlake grabbed a guitar for an impromptu performance, with Alfonso Ribeiro chipping in.

“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.”

Reavie enjoyed the pure weather almost as much as he enjoyed watching putts go in. Golf has been a grind for Reavie since he missed nearly all of 2014 because of surgery on his left wrist and had to return to the Web.com Tour Finals last year just to get his PGA Tour card back.

“Even on days I putt well, I still don’t make as many putts as I made today,” Reavie said.

Some of the biggest stars had to settle for enjoying the weather.

Jordan Spieth, the No. 1 player in the world, chipped poorly by his standards and three times failed to get up-and-down for birdies on the par 5s at Spyglass Hill. He opened with a 71, along with PGA champion Jason Day. Dustin Johnson had a 70 at Spyglass, while Bubba Watson had a 73. Patrick Reed had a 72.

All of them are among the top 10 in the world and were at Spyglass with the celebrity rotation.

“A bit weak,” Spieth said about his round. “I played the hardest holes on this golf course 4-under par, and then I played all the easy ones over par. Just kind of a bit odd. I just was not quite dialed in with the wedges or short game. But all in all, to actually shoot 1 under with what I felt like I should have shot today is promising, considering we’re going to the two easier courses in my mind.”

J.B. Holmes also shot a 66 at Spyglass Hill, while David Hearn lead the four Canadians in the field after a 67.

Mike Weir, playing his first PGA Tour event in nearly seven months, had a 77.

Phil Mickelson had a 68 while playing with a different setup in his driver that he regretted changing.

“Like an idiot, I switched drivers,” Mickelson said.

He said his driver has weight ports that can be adjusted to affect the spin rate and he didn’t think he was getting as much as he wanted last week in Phoenix. So he made an adjustment and “hit some shots I didn’t care for today.”

“So I’ll go back to my other driver,” he said.

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Caddies lost their class-action lawsuit against the PGA Tour when a federal judge in California ruled they signed a contract with the tour that requires them to wear bibs as part of their uniform and cannot claim that corporate sponsorship on the bibs makes them human billboards.

U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria dismissed the lawsuit Tuesday night without prejudice, which typically means it cannot be refiled.

The decision came just over a year after caddies filed the lawsuit in northern California, the same federal court where former UCLA basketball star Ed O’Bannon successfully sued the NCAA for keeping college players from selling their marketing rights.

The lawsuit began with 81 caddies and had grown to 168 caddies.

Chhabria dismissed all seven of the contractual claims.

The caddies and the tour had been odds for the last several years over what they perceive as poor treatment. They are not allowed in clubhouses and at some tournaments are not allowed in the locker room.

At the heart of the lawsuit was a claim that the tour was using them as “human billboards” because the bibs they wore on the course, which featured the logo of the title sponsor, amounted to advertising to which they received no compensation. Lawyers for the caddies estimated the value of the advertising at $50 million a year.

Chhabria suggested in his ruling that the caddies’ own complaint worked against them.

The contract a caddie signs to work a PGA Tour event says that caddies are to wear uniforms and identification badges prescribed by the tournament and the tour. Chhabria said the caddies in their brief acknowledge that “the PGA Tour has required caddies to wear bibs for decades.”

“In other words, for decades, the bib has been the primary part of the ‘uniform’ that the Tour requires caddies to wear,” Chhabria wrote. “The only reasonable interpretation of the contract is that the caddies agreed the Tour could make them wear bibs.”

Chhabria also found no merit to claims of antitrust and trademark law, along with complaints of publicity rights and that contracts were signed under duress.

“The caddies overall complaint about poor treatment by the Tour has merit, but this federal lawsuit about bibs does not,” Chhabria said.

The PGA Tour said in a statement it was pleased by the decision.

“We look forward to putting this matter behind us and moving forward in a positive direction with the caddies,” the statement said.

Lawyers for the caddies were preparing a comment. One option would be to appeal the ruling.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Rickie Fowler broke down in tears in the media center after his playoff loss Sunday in the Waste Management Phoenix Open, overcome by emotion talking about his family.

“The hard part is having all my friends and family and grandpa and my dad who haven’t seen me win,” Fowler said. “But I will be able to kind of hang with them tonight. I’ll be all right.”

He hit two balls into the water on the par-4 17th hole – the first in regulation and the second on the fourth and final extra hole – to give Hideki Matsuyama an unexpected victory.

“This one hurts,” Fowler said.

He blew a two-shot lead on the 317-yard 17th in regulation when he blasted a driver through the green and into the water, with the ball traveling nearly 360 yards.

“I’m hitting a chip-cut driver,” Fowler said. “Usually, don’t expect it to hit on the downslope and then go 360.”

Using a 3-wood on the hole in the playoff, he pulled his drive into the lake just short of the green.

“Hit it solid,” Fowler said. “Just hit it a little high on the face and it just got up and left a little quicker than I was expecting and wanted.”

Matsuyama birdied the hole in regulation to tie for the lead, chipping to 2 1/2 feet. In the playoff, he chipped to 6 feet and two-putted for the win after Fowler missed his 10-foot par putt.

“Surprised and sad that Rickie finished that way, but all I can do is my best,” Matsuyama said through a translator. “I was lucky to come out on top.”

Fowler forced the playoff with a 10-foot birdie putt on the par-4 18th after Matsuyama made an 18-footer. They each shot 4-under 67 to finish at 14-under 270 at TPC Scottsdale’s Stadium Course.

“The putt I made there was probably the best putt I have ever made in my life,” Matsuyama said.

The playoff was just as dramatic.

On the par-4 10th on the third extra hole, Fowler saved par with a 12-foot putt after driving into the left rough and skulling his approach long and right. Matsuyama made a 5-footer to extend the playoff.

They played the 18th hole twice to open overtime. On the first extra hole, Fowler chipped to a foot to set up a par after leaving his wedge approach short and right. Matsuyama rolled his 25-foot putt inside a foot. On the second playoff hole, Matsuyama matched Fowler’s 15-foot birdie putt to extend it.

“Maybe from the outside it looked calm, but then I was nervous inside,” Matsuyama said.

The crowd of 65,330 pushed the week total to a record 618,365, shattering the mark of 564,368 set last year. The event broke its own golf record Saturday at 201,003 after drawing a Friday-record 160,415.

“It was a blast playing in front of all these people,” Matsuyama said. “I’d say probably 99 percent were cheering hard for Rickie, but that gave me the motivation to go out and do it and win.”

Matsuyama won the 2014 Memorial for his only other PGA Tour title, beating Kevin Na on the first extra hole. The 23-year-old Japanese player tied for second last year in Scottsdale, a stroke behind Brooks Koepka.

Fowler missed a chance for his fifth worldwide win in nine months. He started the run in May at The Players Championship, and won the Scottish Open the week before the British Open, the Deutsche Bank Championship in September and the European Tour event two weeks ago in Abu Dhabi.

“With how good I’m playing, I know I can win,” Fowler said. “That’s the hard part.”

Fowler chipped in from 50 feet for birdie on the par-4 10th to take the lead and added birdies on the par-5 13th and 15th holes to pull two shots ahead. He missed a 10-foot birdie putt on the par-3 16th, the tournament’s signature stadium hole, before giving Matsuyama a chance with the long tee shot on 17.

“It didn’t look very good,” Matsuyama said. “Then Rickie opened the door for me, and I was able to walk through it.”

Harris English shot a 66 to tie for third at 12 under.

Abbotsford, B.C., native Adam Hadwin was the top Canadian after shooting a 3-under 68 on Sunday. Hadwin rose 14 spots to 17th place with a 6-under 278 for the tournament. Nick Taylor, also from Abbotsford, shots a 2-over 73 and entered the clubhouse with a 5-over 289.

Third-round leader Danny Lee had a 73 to drop to fourth at 11 under. The South Korean-born New Zealander began the day three strokes ahead of playing partners Fowler and Matsuyama.

Phil Mickelson followed his third-round 65 with a 71 to tie for 11th at 8 under. The 45-year-old former Arizona State won the event in 1996, 2005 and 2013.