The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am is headed towards a dramatic finish. With three rounds of action-packed golf done and dusted, it is now time for the big final on Sunday. However, while Akshay Bhatia holds the top spot on the leaderboard, his claim to fame will not be an easy task. Partly due to a stacked competition, and partly due to the volatile weather, which compelled the PGA Tour to make a major change. 

“Preferred lies in effect for the final round at Pebble Beach. Winds gusting to 35 mph will magnify the challenge. Hold on to your hats, it’s going to be a wild day,” read an update from Adam Schupak on X. 

Preferred lies, also known as ‘winter rules,’ give golfers the leverage to lift, clean, and place the ball. However, this is usually permitted within the 6-inch to one club-length range. It also does not attract penalties on fairways or fringes. 

However, enforcing this rule also means that there can be significant controversies with regard to the outcome. This is because the preferred lies rule comes in stark contrast with the traditional golf rule. The true essence of golf lies in hitting the ball from where it originally landed, even if it means hitting from an unfavorable spot. Thus, if a golfer decides to move the ball from a mud-covered or adverse spot to a pristine one, the scores can get significantly lower. 

Unfortunately, despite a close battle on the greens, the weather gods have been merciless. While the opening couple of days witnessed soft conditions, the weather deteriorated on Saturday. In order to cope with the adverse conditions, the tee times were moved up, split between 7:22 and 9:46 am. 

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But all of the safety measures turned out to be futile on Sunday. With forecasts of heavy storms accompanied by rain, the golfers might have to resort to the preferred lies rule in order to try and negate the conditions. 

Coming to how Saturday panned out, it was Bhatia who managed to cling to his two-shot lead at 19-under par. But giving him a stiff contest will be none other than Collin Morikawa. Dropping perhaps the best rounds of the entire tournament, Morikawa sizzled to a 10-under 62. Such an electric performance made him jump 25 spots and end round 3 at 17 under. Notably, Jake Knapp too, is in hot pursuit of Bhatia’s leading spot. 

Meanwhile, with the preferred lies rule coming in, the PGA Tour faced a major backlash last year. 

Preferred lies bothered fans in 2025 Tour Championship after weather disrupted tougher setup

In the 2025 Tour Championship, the administration introduced several changes. They primarily focused on the conclusion of the starting-strokes era. And it was an effort to make the competition at East Lake Golf Club more demanding. However, nature chose to play a bigger game, forcing the tour to again abruptly bring in the rule of ‘preferred lies’.

Fans and critics have always expressed their dissatisfaction and disdain towards this measure. Preferred lies allows the players to mark the position of the ball (it needs to be in the fairway), lift it from there and place it within a specific distance (mostly within one club length or six inches of the original spot), but not near the hole.

Thus, the officials ruled on a newsletter. Their statement implied that the greens were meant to be very fast (about 13.5 on the Stimpmeter) and the rough was planned to be taller at 3.5 inches, making the course harder than in previous years. However, rain and thunderstorms ruined what was predicted before. In the past, fans, too, have expressed their stance against these regulations as they believed it gives undue advantage to many. Now, as ‘preferred lies’ again makes an entry to the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, only time will reveal how things will pan out as far as the leaderboard is concerned.