(Orlando Ramirez // Getty Images)
In years past, the Pebble Beach Pro-Am was a fun weekend filled with celebrities, philanthropists, billionaires, and a lot of unrecognizable PGA Professionals (at least for the average fan). The tournament featured a large field of over 140 golfers and another 140 amateurs. The pros were paired with the amateurs and they played a best-ball format, with a 56-hole cut. The top 25 made it to Sunday, and then it was the lowest score wins from there. It was fun, it was light, and it was not taken all that seriously by the best in the golf world.
This year, almost none of that is the case. The PGA Tour made the Pebble Beach Pro-Am a signature event on the schedule, which brings a lot with it. This year, Pebble Beach will feature 14/15 top players in the world right now, and all of 50 leading scorers in the FedEx Cup Rankings of 2023. Rory McIlroy will play this weekend for the first time since 2018, and Scottie Scheffler (Word No. 1) will tee off in the event for the first time in his career. There are only 80 members in the field this weekend, and the professionals will play independently from their amateur pair. The amateurs head out for Thursday and Friday and then leave the weekend to the professionals.
What attracts all these high-profile players this year, you may ask? Well, money. A $20 million purse will be sure to bring some of the best in the game into the fold. The winner will take home $3.6 million of the purse, the rest spread amongst the field. The winner will also receive 700 critical FedEx points in the race for the FedEx Cup. The other benefit of this year's new format is that there is no cut. With the smaller, and in theory, more competitive field, all 80 guys will make it to Sunday. In the players' minds, they are all making money this weekend. If you’re lucky enough to be one of the top 80 selected, you’ll go home with money in your pocket.
Some controversy clouds this weekend in San Diego regarding the handling of the player exemptions. To get into this tournament, you have to be playing at the top of the sport right now. You may receive an invite through a variety of avenues, including 2023 FedEx Cup Results, combined points from the last three tournaments, and Race to Dubai (DP World Tour scoring), among others unless otherwise previously exempt.
Well, 4 invitations were sent out to round out the field: Adam Scott, Maverick McNealy, Webb Simpson, and Peter Malnati. All four happen to serve as Player Directors on the PGA Tour Policy Board. Yep, that’s the same board that guided the PGA through their recent $3 billion investment from Strategic Sports Group. Now that would be all fine and dandy if these guys were playing well, but they’re not.
Scott didn’t play enough last year to receive significant FedEx Cup points, McNealy is 197th in World Rankings, Simpson is 225th, and Malnati comes in at 249th. Remember, there’s no cut. Everyone gets paid. Seems pretty shady to me, and PGA professionals are taking notice. Personally, if the PGA wants to make this Pro-Am a marque tournament, it’s unacceptable to hand out invitations like this when there are more qualified, and frankly better golfers out there ready to roll this weekend.
As far as the amateurs are concerned, it’s a bit less of a star-studded field. Some names you’ll recognize: Tom Brady, Josh Allen, Aaron Rodgers, Buster Posey, Larry Fitzgerald, and Pau Gasol to name a few. Besides that, it’s a pretty forgettable field, mostly filled with people with big pockets and even bigger checkbooks. This may be because the PGA reportedly raised the amateur entrance fee from $36,000 to $75,000 (which has not been confirmed, but a PGA spokesperson claimed it was “in that ballpark”), it may also be due to the fact they only get two days out on the course. Either way, this year's “Pro-Am” feels much more about the pro.
This weekend should be a fun one to watch, as it brings a major-feel type of tournament into early February. Per usual, I love Justin Thomas this weekend, he’s coming off of two top-5 finishes and is playing revitalized golf. He looks like a new man. Collin Morikawa should bounce back after a missed cut last weekend at the Farmers. I’m going to fade Scottie this weekend, he scares me a little. Rory and Homa are guys who I think should stand out as well, both have been lights out with hitting the driver onto the fairway, and Pebble Beach demands accuracy unlike any other course.
At the end of the day, I think the PGA hit a home run by making this tournament such a highly contested weekend. It gets my juices flowing, it gets me excited for golf while I look outside at the snow, and we all get to see Tom Brady doing something athletic in early February (which seems like an American tradition at this point.)
Comments