The Celebs (And Pros) Are Out To Play At The Pebble Beach Pro-Am
Pebble Beach time! One of the golf's greatest gems hosts the most renowned pro-am tournament on the planet. The pro-am has been a tradition in Cali since Bing Crosby founded it in San Diego all the way back in 1937. After a brief hiatus during WWII, it moved to the Monterey area to be played here at Pebble Beach, Cypress Point, and Monterey Peninsula CC.
It's gone through some minor changes throughout the years (including no amateurs last year due to COVID). The modern format has us at Pebble, Montery Peninsula, and Spyglass Hill. The players (and their amateur partners) will rotate among those 3 courses on the first 3 days, and the top 60 pros make the 54-hole cut. Final round on Sunday at Pebble for all the marbles.
Last year it was Daniel Berger who went out and took it, holding off the likes of Maverick McNealy, a red-hot Patrick Cantlay, and Jordan Spieth, who was making magic happen early on his comeback tour. Berger found himself tied for the lead with McNealy on the 72nd tee on Sunday with a few groups behind him with holes to play. He was able to hit the green in 2 on the iconic par 5 and most presumed he would two-putt birdie his way to -17 to move past Mav, who was already in the clubhouse. Instead, Berger buried the bomb of an eagle putt to push the number to -18, essentially squashing the already slim hopes of everyone else behind him. Big balls putt.
Front page of the leaderboard and other recent winners at Pebble…
2021 Leaderboard
Recent Winners
The Course
Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill, and Monterrey Peninsula are each par 72's (okay MP is a par 71 for the pros and a par 72 for us mortals) in the neighborhoods of 7,000 yards, which is just about as short as it gets for Par 72's on the PGA Tour. Most of the golf played at Spyglass and Monterrey won't be televised, so I'll focus on the more notable Pebble Beach.
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Pebble Beach is iconic for a reason. It was designed by Jack Neville and Douglas Grant and opened in 1919. Throughout it's history numerous famous names have been consulted on design tweaks such as Alister Mackenzie, Jack Nicklaus, and Arnold Palmer, but the goal from the jump was to create as many holes along the Monterey coastline as possible. They sure as hell accomplished that with picturesque views of Carmel Bay directly along 8 of the holes and easy sightlines out to the water on nearly the entire course.
In terms of play, this is a 2nd shot golf course, maybe more so than any course on Tour. If you're digging into meaningful statistics, Strokes Gained: Approach is where to look. Biggest reason for this is that the average green size at Pebble Beach is merely 3,500 square feet, which is nearly half the size of the Tour average. The greens are tiny. Players will miss plenty of greens, so Strokes Gained:Around the Green is a point of emphasis. There are 118 bunkers on the course too, so give sand save percentage a look too. All four Par 5's are reachable (the uphill 14th being the longest) provided you put your tee shot in the right place and you're not hitting into the wind. More on that later. Both courses feature poa annua greens which can provide for some bumpy putts late in the day. Saw that in a big way last week at Torrey Pines. Best remedy there, as always, is to hit em tight.
Best Hole - 7th Hole, 106 yards
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So many of these holes would take this honor easily at other courses. The 6th, 7th, and 8th is up there with the greatest 3 hole stretches in all of golf. It just might be the best. The 17th and 18th provide for some great finishes as well. But I simply must give this award to the par 3 7th. It's a top 5 par 3 in all of golf. It's also the shortest hole on the entire PGA Tour.
You might think it's as simple as flipping a lob or sand wedge down the hill, but it's also one of the most vulnerable greens on the course to the wind off the water, which is often in the face. It's nearly completely surrounded by bunkers and long is no good here, which can come into play when they put the pin back right. But really it's all about the views. Nothing better. Nothing.
The Weather
This is pretty typical of the weather here every year in February. Temperatures in the 40's, 50's, and low 60's. We're going to be seeing a lot of QZ's, sweaters, and maybe even the occasional umbrella out there. Lot of sunshine in the forecast currently, but wouldn't be Pebble Beach without a little rain. Hell, even this guy knew to bring his umbrella to knock-off Pebble Beach.
The thing to keep an eye on is the wind picking up as the tournament progresses. Like most coastal tracks, the wind is one of the course's most useful defenses. There's not a ton of wind in the forecast now but with how small these greens are, this course could change dramatically if it starts to pick up. Can't wait.
TV Coverage
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It's a CBS weekend y'all. Always is for this tourney. The Saturday broadcast is one of the more controversial broadcasts of the year. If you want to watch a ton of live golf from the world's best, you might have a bad time. They format the tournament so most of the notable celebs play Pebble on Saturday, and the broadcast leans heavy into that. If watching Larry the Cable Guy's swing get analyzed in slow motion or watching Clint Eastwood decay next to Jim Nantz on live television is your kinda thing, this is your Super Bowl. Personally I think it's fine and enjoyable for the most part, it just gets a bit stale because you spend half the day watching the par 3 17th, the pace of play stinks, and the lack of live golf gets to be a bit brutal.
CBS should really think about doing two broadcasts on Saturday where they ham it up with the celebs on CBS, and then have a a more golf-junkie oriented feed on CBSSN or elsewhere. Maybe PGA Tour Live on ESPN+ will help to alleviate that. But gotta admit PGATL has been a minor disappointment so far this year. We'll see.
Tiger Won Here By A Billion Highlights
Tiger Woods played probably the best tournament in golf history here at the 100th US Open. It's not often you see a guy beat the scoring average by 15 strokes in a tournament. Tiger beat the next best guy by 15 strokes in a major tournament. Absolutely insanity. That'll never happen again.
The USGA slays it with these docs. Here's another 45 minute gem capturing it all.
The Trophy
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Big time crystal for a very classic tournament. You can't just show up on the scene and flash crystal. It's earned by grinding as a Tour mainstay year after year after year. When you have a name like Bing Crosby attached to your tournament, these are the perks you get. This baby has the potential to own any room you put it in. Strong. 8/10.
The Celebs
Would be remiss not to give the list of notable celebs that'll be out there. A lot of these are annual regulars, but there's some great newbies like Josh Allen, Mookie Betts, and Mia Hamm.
- Josh Allen — Buffalo Bills quarterback
- Canelo Alvarez — Champion boxer
- Bret Baier — News anchor
- Mookie Betts — MLB All-Star
- Don Cheadle — Actor
- Kira K. Dixon — Golf Channel reporter, train Miss America
- Josh Duhamel — Actor
- Scott Eastwood — Actor
- Larry Fitzgerald — Future NFL Hall of Famer
- Colt Ford — Musician
- Macklemore — Musician
- Mia Hamm — Soccer legend
- Thomas Keller — Chief
- Charles Kelley — Musician
- Huey Lewis — Musician
- Michael Pena — Actor
- Bill Murray — Actor and comedian
- Lukas Nelson — Musician
- Kathryn Newton — Actress
- Chris O’Donnell — Actor
- Jake Owen — Musician
- ScHoolboy Q — Musician
- Alfonso Ribeiro — Actor
- Ray Romano — Actor
- Darius Rucker — Musician
- Alex Smith — Former NFL quarterback
- Clay Walker — Musician
- Steve Young — NFL Hall of Fame quarterback
The Board
Patrick Cantlay is the betting favorite by a good margin at +500 at the Barstool Sportsbook. You'll see that Spieth is the next closest guy at +1600. That's because the two guys who originally were 2nd and 3rd on the board have withdrawn. Defending champ Daniel Berger WD'd yesterday with a lower back injury and was around +800, and Will Zalatoris WD'd early in the week and was around +1500. Hopefully you put in some early futures on some other guys before those WD's shortened their odds a tad.
Even if those two guys hadn't WD'd, we still gotta talk about this field. It stinks. The biggest reason is probably the money grab over at the Saudi International. Guys like DJ, X, DeChambeau, Cam, Finau, and even Phil (no surprise but he has won Pebble FIVE TIMES) are all taking the cash. But that tournament also usually goes up against the Waste Management and not this one (the Tour flipped the WMPO and this tourney on the schedule to match the WMPO's traditional slot of Super Bowl week) and Pebble Beach fields have been growing weaker and weaker every year. There's just a ton of great events in the pre-Masters portion of the schedule (especially after THE PLAYERS moved back to March) and these guys can't play them all. Torrey and Riviera are each spots that the top guys on Tour would rather play than this. The Pro-Am aspect is probably the biggest reason of all. Guys just don't want to play 6 hour rounds. It's a shame because Pebble is such an iconic venue.
Anyways, at this point it's even chalkier than it was earlier this week, but I'm on Jordan Spieth +1600. Actually make that +1600 Top American. He has the same odds to simply be the Top American. No reason to take on extra risk. Former winner here, shorter course and small greens plays big into his favor here.
Other Plays
Christian Bezuidenhout To Win +3000 (and Top 5 +700/Top 10 +350) - I was impressed to learn this week that C-Bez (that's what I'm calling him) has made 33 of his last 34 cuts worldwide.
Matthew Fitzpatrick To Win +3000 (and Top 5 +700) - Guy hasn't played his best golf of late but he's too good a player to be this far down this weak of a board.
Kevin Streelman Top 10 +500 - When I think of Streels, I think of Pebble. Guy always comes to play here.
Brandt Snedeker To Win +8000 - Has missed nearly half his cuts the last 2 years but also has great history here at Pebble. Won big with him here back in 2015 and told myself I'd always bet him here so here ya have it.
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D.A. Points Top 10 +6600 - Old fella hasn't Top 10'd anything since 2018 but he's also won here back in 2011. Always plays with Bill Murray so he'll get some camera time. 66/1 is enough for me to take a flyer.
No Playoff -500 - There's been one playoff here since 1993.
Winning Margin 3 Strokes +550 - Winning margin has been 3 strokes in 3 of the past 7 years. Great payout here.
There ya have it. Enjoy Pebble Beach.