One of the hottest players in the world over the last two weeks could not be extinguished on Thursday at Pebble Beach Golf Links. Ryo Hisatsune continued to stoke the flame in his opening round of the 2026 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, signing for a bogey-free, 10-under 62 to grab the early lead in the first signature event of the season.

Hisatsune’s 62 represents his lowest career round on the PGA Tour, and it comes in his tournament debut at Pebble Beach. His previous low of 63 came just last weekend at the WM Phoenix Open, where he finished in a share of 10th place. The young man from Japan rolled in more than 150 feet of putts and even chipped in for birdie on the par-4 16th to start a run of three straight into the clubhouse. 

His lead going into Friday, where he will play at Spyglass Hill, is just a single stroke over American Sam Burns, who was similarly on fire on the greens en route to his 63. Keegan Bradley came in late at the same number as he missed a chance on his last hole to tie the course record on Spyglass. Burns just barely led the field in strokes gained putting on Thursday, gaining more than five strokes with the wand in hand. Hisatsune cleared more than five strokes on the greens as well.

“Anytime you can go bogey-free, regardless of where you’re playing, is always a good thing, and especially to do it around here,” Burns said. “It was nice. I made a significant amount of putts and feel like I was hitting it pretty nice. It was a good combination for today. The weather was perfect, so we were just trying to enjoy the day.”

Pebble Beach played nearly four strokes under par in Round 1, while Spyglass Hill played roughly two strokes more difficult. 

While conditions were ripe for the taking, world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler struggled yet again in the opening refrain. One week after starting his tournament with a 73, his first over-par round since June 2025, the four-time major champion signed for a 72 to fall 10 strokes off the pace — the same deficit he faced after 18 holes at the WM Phoenix Open.

Over on Spyglass Hill, Bradley was the low man with a stellar 9-under performance. The most recent U.S. Ryder Cup captain appears to have found something, while Jordan Spieth showed signs of life with a bogey-free 66. Meanwhile, last year’s champion, Rory McIlroy, ran into some speed bumps on the greens and signed for a 68 to open up his title defense despite a pair of double bogeys.

Leader

1. Ryo Hisatsune (-10): The experience is beginning to stack up for the 23-year-old. Hisatsune was a member of the final group at Torrey Pines on Sunday, where he finished runner-up to Justin Rose, and he was in the final group on Saturday at the WM Phoenix Open alongside his golf hero, Hideki Matsuyama, before ultimately cashing a top 10 finish. Playing with serious confidence, the right-hander wielded the putter effectively in Round 1, cashing putts from 42, 31, 17, 16, 13 and 12 feet.  He noted that he loves putting on these poa annua putting surfaces, but his ball-striking will need to improve over the next 54 holes if he is to turn this momentum into his first victory on the PGA Tour.

Contenders

T2. Sam Burns, Keegan Bradley (-9)
T4. Chris Gotterup, Tony Finau, Patrick Rodgers (-8)
T7. Nick Taylor, Akshay Bhatia, Andrew Novak, Tom Hoge (-7)
T11. Russell Henley, Jake Knapp, Jordan Spieth, Sepp Straka, Rickie Fowler, Matt Fitzpatrick, Patrick Cantlay, Mackenzie Hughes (-6)

Lot of big names on the first and second pages of the leaderboard, including Gotterup, who has already won twice this season, but it is hard not to notice what Spieth accomplished on Spyglass. Not only did he hole out for eagle on the par-4 9th, he also managed his way around the par 72 without dropping a shot, maintaining the momentum he had garnered. The reason? Spieth’s putting from close range. Typically good for one miss from near distance, Spieth was solid inside 10 feet and added makes from 14 and 12 feet, the latter coming on the last hole to save par and maintain his bogey-free round.

“I thought I was really good on and around the greens,” Spieth said. “I actually didn’t hit many greens for how kind of well I thought I was swinging the club. I pulled a few kind of the wrong clubs. It’s easy to do out here. You can pull a club you think’s going to go far enough, and it just doesn’t go anywhere here. So I’ve got to get a little tighter on some of that decision making, but when I got into trouble, I got out of trouble. 

“Obviously, holing a wedge shot was probably the highlight of the day. But I just really plotted my way around. When I missed, I missed in the right spot. I’d like to get a little bit tighter as we go around Pebble, but at Spyglass 6 under may be the best I ever shot around here, so, very pleased.”

Scheffler’s struggles

For the second straight week, Scheffler will attempt to mount a comeback from 10 strokes down across the final 54 holes of a tournament. While at the WM Phoenix Open he was upended by one hour out of an otherwise decent round, Scheffler’s first round at Pebble Beach was more of a slow bleed. He missed birdie chances from 8 feet on Nos. 1-2, connected from that distance on No. 4 and then gave it back from 4 feet on No. 5. A birdie flew onto his scorecard on the par-5 6th after nearly finding the surface in two, but that was his last birdie until the last hole of the day.

In between them, Scheffler continued to struggle with the putter — he missed a par putt from just inside 3 feet on No. 12 — but it was the iron play that was uncharacteristically poor. He lost about 2.50 strokes on approach, ranked 73rd in the 80-man field in that category and failed to give himself looks from hole high consistently — a rarity in his game.

2026 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am updated odds, picks

Odds via DraftKings Sportsbook

• Keegan Bradley: 8-1
• Chris Gotterup: 19/2
• Sam Burns: 10-1
• Ryo Hisatsune: 13-1
• Matt Fitzpatrick: 17-1
• Rory McIlroy: 17-1
• Jake Knapp: 18-1
• Patrick Rodgers: 18-1

For those wondering, Scheffler is listed at 35-1, a far cry from the 3-1 price tag at tournament open. No suggestion either way here, but a 65 seems certain on Friday. McIlroy may ultimately be the guy, though, as he left so many strokes out there on the greens and still managed to beat the scoring average on Spyglass by a couple of strokes. The return to his blades looked like a smart move, at least on Thursday.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — In the wake of the United States launching a military strike on Venezuela to capture its president, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, on Jan. 3, executives throughout Major League Baseball mostly coalesced around one plan: get their Venezuelan players to the U.S. as quickly as possible.

Those early arrivals quelled a lot of teams’ fears about the players’ safety and, ultimately, their ability to report on time for spring training, which began in camps throughout Florida and Arizona this week. Most of those who stayed behind have since been able to secure visas without navigating tougher-than-usual logistical hurdles, according to several front office executives and agents who spoke to ESPN this week.

“As soon as the Maduro thing happened, teams were like, ‘Let’s get guys here sooner rather than later,'” said one agent who represents several Venezuelan-born players. “So, a lot of guys have just been here for a while.”

Venezuelan players who are not citizens or residents — and thus don’t possess U.S. passports — must secure P-1A visas to travel to the U.S. and play out their baseball seasons. Because the U.S. embassy in Venezuela’s capital city of Caracas has been closed since 2019, Venezuelan players travel to Colombia or the Dominican Republic to secure their visas before flying to the U.S.

Two agents told ESPN their clients have had to endure exceedingly long waits while getting their visas processed in Colombia, with one in particular spending more than three weeks in limbo before finally being able to travel to Arizona for spring training. With the U.S. making a concerted effort to crack down on immigration, others have pointed to longer-than-usual delays to obtain visas and green cards for players from both Venezuela and the Dominican Republic, countries that made up 61.5% of players on Opening Day rosters in 2025.

In an attempt to soften the blow, teams started their process much earlier than usual.

“I’ve never dealt with a team in December trying to process visas, especially for a guy who’s never been in trouble,” one agent told ESPN. “Just based on that, things are different.”

Full-squad workouts for the 30 major league teams will begin either Sunday, Monday or Tuesday. A lot of players still need to report to camp. Among the pitchers and catchers, though, there have been only a handful of late arrivals, as is annually the case. Only two reported ones, Atlanta Braves reliever Robert Suarez and Chicago Cubs catcher Moises Ballesteros, hail from Venezuela.

“We were proactive in having our [Venezuelan] players come out early,” Angels general manager Perry Minasian said, echoing the sentiments of many of his peers.

Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Jackson Chourio was playing winter ball in Venezuela when the U.S. launched a military operation in his home country. He wanted to stay and finish out the season, but Brewers personnel urged him to come to the U.S.

“They’re under a lot of pressure,” Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold said. “They want to play for their country, and locally there’s pressure. I understand that. But we have to make sure they’re safe.”

In June of last year, President Donald Trump signed a travel ban against 12 countries — Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen — in a move he described as “protecting the national security and national interest of the United States and its people.” There were also partial restrictions and limitations on entry for nationals of seven countries, including Venezuela.

But the order contained an exemption for “any athlete or member of an athletic team, including coaches, persons performing a necessary support role and immediate relatives, traveling for the World Cup, Olympics or other major sporting events as determined by the Secretary of State.” A league official said the U.S. Department of State has been cooperating in getting MLB players from Venezuela into the U.S. for spring training.

The U.S. embassy is expected to eventually reopen in Caracas and commercial airlines are scheduled to resume direct flights from Venezuela to the U.S. after a seven-year hiatus, giving agents to Venezuelan players hope that the process of getting them to their teams will be made easier in the near future.

This year, though, many of them are simply relieved a potential crisis was averted.