Esteban Toledo of Mexico closed with a 3-under-par 69 to beat Tom Watson by one stroke in the Nature Valley First Tee Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links.
The 53-year-old Toledo held a two-stroke lead after playing the first 16 holes of the final round in a flawless 4-under, before sinking a clutch five-foot putt for his only bogey at No. 17 and making a solid par on the iconic 18th hole.
“I got a little nervous on the 17th hole, but that was a clutch putt,” said Toledo, a former resident of Irvine who won for the third time on the Champions Tour. “I knew it was close, but I didn’t know I had a one-stroke lead until my caddie told me before my third shot on the last hole.
“It’s unbelievable to win for the third time. It was a battle from the first hole to the 18th.”
Watson, 66, the Stanford grad who won the 1982 U.S. Open and the old Bing Crosby National Pro-Am in 1977 and 1978 at Pebble, finished with a 67 that included a costly bogey from a greenside bunker on No. 17.
That’s were he chipped in for a memorable birdie 33 years ago en route to a two-stroke victory over Jack Nicklaus in our national championship, one of his eight major championships.
Vijay Singh of Fiji, who won the 2004 Crosby after it became the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, finished with a 69 to wind up two shots back in a tie for third with Woody Austin, who had a 70, and Colin Montgomerie of Scotland, who held the 54-hole lead but struggled to a 74.
Fred Couples, who lives in Newport Beach, shot 71 and wound up three strokes behind in a tie for sixth with Olin Browne of Occidental College in Los Angeles, who totaled 73, and David Frost of South Africa, who came in at 69.
Scott McCarron of Sacramento and UCLA was another stroke behind in solo 10th after a 67.
