The PGA Tour moves to not one but three of the most beautiful golf courses on the calendar – Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill and Monterey Peninsula – for the ever-popular Pebble Beach Pro-Am, which sees big-name players compete alongside amateur and celebrity golfers.
In the pre-LIV Golf days, the tournament could expect to attract many more of the world’s best players. Of course, everything has changed in the last 12 months, although there were signs of what was to come at last year’s tournament. Like 2023, it took place at the same time as the Saudi International. Back then, high-profile PGA Tour pros including Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau, all teed it up in the Middle East instead of California, and that turned out to be a solid indication of who would eventually sign for start-up.
While LIV Golf players are suspended from the PGA Tour nowadays, there is still an attractive field for this year’s tournament, including World No.10 Matt Fitzpatrick and two players with realistic aspirations of returning to that elite group sooner rather than later – World No.11 Viktor Hovland and World No.16 Jordan Spieth.
Of those, Spieth, in particular, should fancy his chances having won the tournament in 2017, finishing tied for third in 2021, and coming close last year before eventually settling for runner-up behind Tom Hoge. That appearance memorably included Spieth taking on one of the scariest shots you’re likely to see on Pebble Beach’s eighth, where his drive landed just inches from one of its many severe drops. He came through it safely, but didn’t have quite enough to beat Hoge. Still, Spieth clearly loves the tournament – he’s yet to miss a year since making his debut on it in 2013.
That’s not to discount the possibility of Fitzpatrick or Hovland winning either. Fitzpatrick finished tied for sixth last year, while Hovland won the 2018 US Amateur at Pebble Beach. The year after, the Norwegian then finished as low amateur in a tie for 12th in the US Open at the same venue.
Hoge will hope to draw from his recent tie for third in the Sentry Tournament of Champions as he aims to build on that maiden win last year. A clutch of other previous winners also appear – 2020 champion Nick Taylor, 2018 victor Ted Potter Jr, Jimmy Walker, who won nine years ago, and DA Points, who claimed victory way back in 2011. There is still no sign of 2021 winner Daniel Berger, though, who hasn’t played competitively since the US Open after sustaining a…
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