{"id":1115,"date":"2023-02-04T17:16:50","date_gmt":"2023-02-04T17:16:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/gareth-bale-retired-wales-captain-puts-in-strong-first-round-in-pebble-beach-pro-am\/"},"modified":"2023-02-04T17:16:50","modified_gmt":"2023-02-04T17:16:50","slug":"gareth-bale-retired-wales-captain-puts-in-strong-first-round-in-pebble-beach-pro-am","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/gareth-bale-retired-wales-captain-puts-in-strong-first-round-in-pebble-beach-pro-am\/","title":{"rendered":"Gareth Bale: Retired Wales captain puts in strong first round in Pebble Beach Pro-Am"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Gareth Bale, who has built a three-hole golf course at his home plays off a two handicap<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gareth Bale is in a strong position after round one of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am on the PGA Tour.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The former Wales captain, 33, and professional partner Joseph Bramlett shot a seven-under-par 65 to sit tied 18th on the amateur leaderboard at the Spyglass Hill course.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

American Hank Lebioda shot an eight-under-par 63 to lead the pro leaderboard.<\/span><\/p>\n

Britain’s Harry Hall (64) is tied-second.<\/span><\/p>\n

A highlight of former Real Madrid forward Bale’s round was a recovery shot off a path to save par on the second hole.<\/span><\/p>\n

“It was a great shot,” said Bale, who retired from football on 9 January.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I tried to play it into the bank and hope for the best, as all amateur golfers would.<\/span><\/p>\n

“It was nice to see it roll up nice and close. I finished it off nicely as well. I can’t really say much more.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Bale, who has a two handicap, announced his retirement from football shortly after leading Wales at the World Cup finals in Qatar.<\/span><\/p>\n

He joins actor Bill Murray, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, actor Jason Bateman and rapper Mackelmore among the 156 amateurs taking part in the competition, which runs until 5 February. <\/span><\/p>\n

Top professionals taking part include England’s US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick and former major champion Justin Rose.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite playing in front of big crowds during a glittering playing career that included five Champions League titles with Real Madrid, Bale admitted to being nervous on the first tee.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I think every amateur will tell you that,” he said. “Even if we are used to playing in front of 80,000 or more on live TV it’s a completely different sport.<\/span><\/p>\n

“It’s a good experience but luckily I hit one of my best shots down the first fairway.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The first three rounds take place over three courses, including Pebble Beach, Monterey Peninsula and Spyglass Hill. The top 25 pro-am pairings in the better ball format will go through to play in the final round on the Pebble Beach Links Course.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Around<\/span><\/span>\"Around<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gareth Bale, who has built a three-hole golf course at his home plays off a two handicap Gareth Bale is in a strong position after round one of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am on the PGA Tour. The former Wales captain, 33, and professional partner Joseph Bramlett shot a seven-under-par 65 to sit tied 18th on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1116,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1115"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1117,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115\/revisions\/1117"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}