Hank Lebioda's Long Road Back to Contention at Pebble Beach

Lebioda's rise into contention comes after a period of off-course turmoil. Plus Marcel Siem returns and Kurt Kitayama holds the lead at Pebble.

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Playing professional golf requires, more than anything, concentration and avoiding distractions.

Distractions come in many forms. Some are on the course while others seep in from off the course and no matter how hard a pro might try, they make the task difficult.

Hank Lebioda’s distractions began 18 months ago when he withdrew from the 2021 3M Open after the second round.

Lebioda had not only made the cut, but was on a pretty significant run of three consecutive top 10s: a T5 at the Travelers Championship, T4 at the Rocket Mortgage and a T8 at the John Deere Classic.

So, the WD was a surprise.

“I had a family incident,” Lebioda said after his second-round 72 at Pebble Beach. “Not super ready to talk about it. I withdrew from the 3M Open in 2021. Dad was really sick. That's about all I really want to get into at the moment. But it's been a long year-and-a-half since then.”

When Lebioda did make it back to the Tour he missed the cut in the last two events of his season and the next four cuts of the new 2021-22 season before a T15 at the Houston Open. Then he missed his next two cuts after Houston.

Lebioda has not recorded a top 10 in his last 37 events and he came to the Monterey Peninsula on a run of seven missed cuts, making his current position, tied for second at the halfway point, seem somewhat miraculous.

“I know the work that I put in. I trust my team around me,” Leboida said. “The way that we saw it is that it was just going to be a matter of time. If I kept working our plan that we had made that good things would come. Yes, the beginning of the season hasn't been good. It's been a kind of a rough last 18 months almost. So, I'm very fortunate to be in this position today and this week. I know it's just part of a long climb back.”

Marcel Siem Enjoys Return to Pebble

Marcel Siem is not a household name.

But for a two week stretch in the middle of July 2021, the German was part of golf’s biggest story.

Siem had received some limited media attention when he won the La Vaudereuil Golf Challenge, the week before the Open Championship, on the Challenge Tour.

The win earned him an R&A exemption into the Open, but since Siem was trying to earn his card back on the DP World Tour, he wasn’t sure if he should decline the offer and play in Austria on the Challenge Tour.

He opted for Royal St. Georges and after back-to-back 67’s was in the championship discussion.

After a prosaic weekend, Siem finished T15, but would eventually get his card back.

Since that finish in England, Siem has struggled with form and health issues that have forced him to take significant time off to address an inflamed left shoulder. Even this week at Pebble Beach he’s not one hundred percent.

Siem’s visit to Pebble Beach is his second. He played in 2015 and finished T18, highlighted by a bogey-free 63 in the third round on Pebble Beach.

“I had a pretty good start to the season this year and then I didn't get into Abu Dhabi and Dubai,” Siem said. “So, I just sent a request by email and see if I could play.

The request went to tournament director Steve Johns, who remembered Siem fondly for how in 2015 he was always asking Johns if he could do anything to help that week.

“He was a great person,” Johns said of Siem. “Always willing to give his time for the tournament.”

Siem played in the Dunhill Links this year with Jim Davidson, the founder of Silverlake, a technology investment firm and a friend of Johns.

According to Johns, he received a call from Davidson, who told him he was playing with Siem at the Dunhill and what a great partner he was.

So, when Johns got the e-mail request from Siem, it was a no-brainer. Siem was the first sponsor’s exemption for this year’s tournament.

Siem is 5 over and tied for 140th place with Pebble Beach left to deal with.

“I always love to play PGA tour so the last few years I was injured and this and that and I just, I'm 42 now so I think I'm going to have five six more good years me and I'm going to give it up,” Siem said. “So, it's like every chance I get, I’m going to take it.”

Stray Shots

• Kurt Kitayama holds his second-career 36-hole lead or co-lead and fourth after any round; Kitayama is one of two players with multiple 36-hole leads/co-leads on Tour this season (first came at the CJ CUP in South Carolina)

• Second-round scoring averages: Pebble Beach (75.500), Spyglass (73.038), Monterey Peninsula (69.745)

• Ben Silverman and Aaron Rodgers lead the pro-am portion of the competition by five strokes at 21-under