The drama and unpredictability of the 2026 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am reached a fever pitch on Sunday, February 15, as inclement weather forced officials to move up tee times, sending the tournament's leading contenders out in threesomes from split tees. As the winds whipped across the iconic coastal course, Akshay Bhatia clung to a slender two-shot lead, setting the stage for a final round brimming with both opportunity and peril.
Heading into Sunday, Bhatia was the man to watch. After a blistering start in Saturday’s third round—where he notched six birdies in his first seven holes—he looked poised to run away with the tournament. By the turn, he’d built a five-shot cushion, but Pebble Beach is notorious for humbling even the steadiest of hands. "It’s brutal," Bhatia admitted, referencing the unpredictable winds that swept through the course. "It’s just so hard to get settled in, especially when it gets late in the day."
Bhatia’s 4-under-par 68 on Saturday pushed him to 19-under 197, giving him a two-stroke advantage over a surging field. But the back nine proved treacherous. He bogeyed the par-3 12th—his first dropped shot of the tournament after 47 holes—and then again on the par-3 17th, as gusts battered his approach and putts alike. "Happy to make 5 on (No.) 18 with how the weather was," he said, sounding relieved to escape further damage as the conditions worsened.
Despite the late stumble, Bhatia maintained his composure. This was his fourth time holding at least a share of the lead after 54 holes on the PGA Tour, and he’d converted one of those previous opportunities into victory. Still, the 22-year-old was quick to keep things in perspective. "I still have always tried to put one foot in front of the other and that’s just what I’ve got to keep doing," he said on Saturday. "It’s so early in the season. Whether I win tomorrow or not, it’s just continuing to contend in tournaments. And these last two weeks, having a chance is really nice."
With an ominous forecast looming, tournament officials acted decisively. Tee times for the final round were moved up by an hour, with players grouped in threesomes and sent off both No. 1 and No. 10 tees to beat the incoming storm. The action began as early as 10:22 a.m. ET, with the final group—Bhatia, Collin Morikawa, and Sepp Straka—teeing off at 12:45 p.m. ET. The urgency was palpable, as players and fans alike braced for the worst that Pebble Beach’s weather could throw at them.
Broadcast coverage adapted to the schedule shift, with early streaming on PGA Tour Live via ESPN+ starting at 10:15 a.m. ET, followed by live windows on Golf Channel from 1-3 p.m. ET and CBS from 3-6:30 p.m. ET. For those unable to tune in live, Paramount+ offered streaming access to CBS’s broadcast, ensuring that no shot—or slip—went unseen.
While Bhatia’s lead was notable, the chasing pack was stacked with talent and momentum. Collin Morikawa, a two-time major champion, rocketed up the leaderboard on Saturday with a jaw-dropping 62—an 11-birdie, one-bogey masterclass that vaulted him 25 spots into a share of second place. Remarkably, Morikawa hit every green in regulation, a feat he’d achieved only twice before on the PGA Tour. "I’ve been really focused on just trying to build this momentum, just making it myself and it’s finally paid off today," Morikawa reflected. "We’ve got some work tomorrow, for sure."
Jake Knapp, who joined Morikawa and Austria’s Sepp Straka at 17-under, delivered fireworks of his own. Knapp became the first player in a non-major at Pebble Beach to bookend his round with eagles, holing out from 130 yards on the par-4 first and sinking a 13-foot putt for eagle on the par-5 18th. "Starting your day out with a hole-out like that isn’t what you expect," Knapp said, clearly still riding the adrenaline rush. His steady play and resilience in the face of tough elements put him firmly in the mix for a breakthrough win—and a coveted invitation to the Masters.
Straka, too, was a force on Saturday, carding six birdies on the back nine alone. "Once we turned to the back, I got the wind off to my left and was able to kind of hook it into the breeze," Straka explained. "I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but it worked out." Straka’s experience leading after the second and third rounds in last year’s tournament gave him a sense of unfinished business as he eyed the final stretch.
The leaderboard’s depth didn’t end there. Jacob Bridgeman sat alone in fifth at 16 under, while Hideki Matsuyama—bogey-free in his third round—was just a shot further back at 15 under. Notably, the top six players had carded sub-70 scores in each of the tournament’s first three rounds, a testament to both their skill and adaptability as conditions grew increasingly volatile.
Defending champion Rory McIlroy, however, found himself out of contention after a third-round 72 left him at 9 under and tied for 39th. McIlroy’s struggles were emblematic of the course’s capricious nature: a triple bogey on No. 4, a double on No. 18, and a pair of three-putt doubles from short range earlier in the week. "He can count five holes that put him that far back," one observer noted, as the Northern Irishman’s title defense faded into the background.
Elsewhere, Scottie Scheffler quietly extended his streak of top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour, posting a bogey-free 67 to remain eight shots back. Sam Burns, after a dramatic eagle to open his round, ultimately carded a 72 and found himself five strokes off the pace alongside Tommy Fleetwood and Maverick McNealy.
The third round’s closing stretch provided a preview of Sunday’s chaos, as winds toyed with balls on the greens and forced players into creative, sometimes desperate, recovery shots. Min Woo Lee, for instance, found himself 75 yards across the fairway in the hedges on 18, ultimately opting for a penalty drop. Ryo Hisatsune watched his golf ball repeatedly move on the green, waiting more than 10 seconds for a gust to potentially push it into the cup. "No one was expecting a walk on the beach," Knapp quipped, summing up the unpredictable nature of Pebble Beach in the elements.
As the final round unfolds, all eyes are on Bhatia and the chasing trio of Morikawa, Knapp, and Straka. With weather threatening to upend the leaderboard at any moment, the 2026 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am promises a finish as wild and beautiful as the course itself. For the leader, the challengers, and the fans, it’s a day to buckle up and embrace the uncertainty—because at Pebble Beach, anything can happen.