The PGA Tour will play in California for the third consecutive week, this time on one of the iconic golf courses in the world, Pebble Beach Golf Links along the shores of Spanish Bay on the Monterey Peninsula.
The 83rd version of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am will begin Thursday at Pebble and Spyglass Hill Golf Couse, with all 80 golfers in the limited field playing both courses the first two days before the weekend rounds are played exclusively at Pebble Beach.
“There’s arguably no place better in the world when it’s like this,” Justin Thomas said after playing Pebble Beach earlier this week.
Justin Rose of England is the defending champion, while other players in the strong field include top-ranked Scottie Scheffler, second-ranked Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland, fourth-ranked Victor Hovland of Norway, fifth-ranked Xander Schauffele of La Jolla and San Diego State, sixth-ranked Patrick Cantlay of Los Alamitos and UCLA, seventh-ranked Max Homa of Valencia and Cal, eighth-ranked Matt Fitzpatrick of England, ninth-ranked Brian Harman and 10th-ranked Wyndham Clark, the reigning U.S. Open champion.
There are claims that the great poet, Robert Louis Stevenson, a great fan of the Monterey Peninsula, once said that Pebble Beach “is the greatest meeting of land and water in the world,” but there are those who say he wasn’t the one who made that statement.
No matter.
Said Jack Nicklaus, perhaps the greatest golfer of all-time, said: “If I only had one more round to play, I would choose to play it at Pebble Beach.”
Tiger Woods, another player on the short list of those who might be the best ever, captured the 2000 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and won the U.S. Open at Pebble, but is noy in the field this week and apparently will make his season debut in the Genesis Open a Riviera Golf Club in two weeks at Riviera Golf Club in Pacific Palisades, where he is the tournament host.
Past winners of the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am include Sam Snead, who won the first of his four titles in the inaugural event in 1937, Nicklaus, Johnny Dawson as an amateur in 1942, Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan, Tom Watson, Johnny Miller, Jimmy Demaret, Lloyd Mangrum, Billy Casper, Cary Middlecoff, Ken Venturi, Bob Rosburg, Doug Ford, George Archer, Gene Littler, Ben Crenshaw, John Cook, Phil Mickelson, Tom Kite, Hale Irwin, Mark O’Meara, Payne Stewart, Vijay Singh of Fiji, Dustin Johnson, Brandt Snedeker, Jordan Spieth and Davis Love III.
BEST BETS
1, Rory McIlroy, Northern Ireland – The second-ranked McIlroy is making his first PGA Tour start of the 2024 season and is coming off a victory in the Hero Dubai Desert Classic and a tie for second in the Dubai Invitational on the DP World Tour. He has 38 victories in his career, but missed the 54-hole cut in is only appearance in the AT&T Pebble Beah Pro-Am in 2018.
2. Scottie Scheffler, United States – The top-ranked player in the world incredibly is making his first appearance in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Scheffler, who has won five times on the PGA Tour in the last two seasons, including the 2022 Masters and the 2023 Players, has started the new season with a tie for fifth in The Sentry and a tie for 17th in The American Express.
3. Viktor Hovland, Norway – After claiming victories in the Memorial, the BMW Championship and the Tour Championship last season, the fourth-ranked Hovland is a man on the rise. He tied for 22nd in The Sentry to start the season and tied for 13th in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am last season after winning the United States Amateur Championship there in 2018.
4. Xander Schauffele, United States – The fifth-ranked Schauffele, a seven-time winner on the PGA Tour, has tied for 10th in The Sentry, tied for third in The American Express and tied for ninth in the Farmers Insurance Open to start the new season. He is making only his second appearance in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and he missed the 54-hole cut in 2017.
5. Ludvig Aberg, Sweden – After claiming his first PGA Tour victory and fourth as a professional in the 2023 RSM Classic, Aberg is up to No. 27 in the world, and after tying for 30th in the Sony Open Hawaii, he tied for ninth in the Farmers Insurance Open last week to start the 2024 season. He is making his debut this week in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
6. Patrick Cantlay, United States – The sixth-ranked Cantlay was in the hunt through the first two rounds of the Farmers last week, but stumbled to 74-75 on the weekend to tie for 56th after tying for 12th in The Sentry to start the season. He is making his seventh start at Pebble, and has three finishes in the top 10, including a tie for fourth in 2022 and a tie for third a year before.
7. Collin Morikawa, United States – Surpisingly, Morikawa is a Californian who is making his first start in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. A two-time major champion, winning the 200 PGA and the 2021 Open Championship, he started the new season strong with a tie for fifth in The Sentry, but then shot 67-75—142 to miss the cut last week in the Farmers Insurance Open.
8. Jordan Spieth, United States – Spieth claimed one of his 13 PGA Tour victories in the 2017 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am by four strokes, one of his six top-10 finishes in the event, including solo second in 2022 and a tie for third the year before. In his only event of the new year, he posted four scores in the 60s and wound up solo third in The Sentry at Kapalua on Maui.
9. Matt Fitzpatrick, England – The eighth-ranked Fitzpatrick, the 2022 U.S. Open champion, claimed his second victory on the PGA Tour in the RBC Heritage in a playoff over Jordan Spieth. This season, he has tied for 14th in The Sentry and missed the cut in the Sony Open in Hawaii. After tying for sixth in his Pebble Beach debut in 2022, he missed the cut there last season.
10. Justin Thomas, United States – Although he claimed earlier this week that he loves Pebble Beach, Thomas is playing in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am for only the second time and he missed the 54-hole cut in 2014. The 2017 and 2022 PGA champion has played only once in the new season and he redorded four scores in the 60w to tie for third in The American Express.
OTHER PLAYERS TO WATCH: Tony Finau, United States; Tommy Fleetwood, England; Jason Day, Australia; Sam Burns, United States; Sungjae Im, South Korea; Cameron Young, United States; Tom Kim, South Korea; Nicolai Hojgaard, Denmark; Eric Cole, United States; Hideki Matsuyama, Japan.
SLEEPERS
1. Kurt Kitayama, United States – Four time winner as a pro was T-29 in The Sentry and T-24 in the Sony Open in Hawaii this season. Kitayama was T-18 in 2020, T-29 at Pebble last season.
2. Christiaan Bezuidenhout, South Africa – Has won 10 times as a professional and two weeks ago was solo second in The American Express. Finished T-14 in only start at Pebble in 2002.
3. Stephan Jaeger, Germany – After winning six times on the Korn Ferry Tour, he came close last week in a T-3 in the Farmers after a T-18 in the Sony Open. T-43 at Pebble Beach in 2018.
4. Andrew Putnam, United States – Former Pepperdine star has won four times as a pro and finished T-10 in Sony Open in Hawaii this season. Putnam was T-6 at Pebble two years ago.
5. Thomas Detry, Belgium – Two-time winner as a pro held lead late in round two at Farmers last week, but closed with 73-74 to finish T-20. Detry wound up T-37 in Pebble debut last year.
For first-round tee times and complete results once the tournament starts, visit: https://www.pgatour.com/leaderboard
