The AT&T Pebble Beach

 There’s an 80-man field at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, which will be played at historic Pebble Beach (6,972 yards, Par 72) and stellar and almost as historic Spyglass Hill (7,041 yards, Par 72) for the first two rounds. The final two rounds will take place at Pebble. The greens are Poa annua, and will be rolling at 12 on the stimpmeter. The rough will get up to 3 inches in spots.

This is a Signature event on the tour and features a purse of $20 million with the winner taking home $3.6 million. Not bad for a long weekend’s work if you can get it. Second place earns $2,180,000, 3rd, $1,380,000, and fourth pays $980K. Everyone who finishes in the top 36 gets over six figures and 37th takes home $99K. So, a nice place to qualify to play in for 80 fortunate golfers.

Signature events are comprised of the top 50 players from the previous season’s Fed Ex Cup Standings, the Aon Next 10, consisting of the top 10 players in the current Fed Ex Cup Standings who did not finish in the top 50 in the Fed Ex Standings in 2024. The Aon Swing 5: the top five players who accumulate the most points between signature events and who are not exempt in the other categories. The current year tournament winners. This year it’s Hideki Matsuyama from the Sentry, Nick Taylor from the Sony Open, Sepp Straka from the American Express, and Harris English from the Farmers. The top 5 PGA Tour members in the top 30 Official Golf World Rankings who are not already qualified. And four sponsor exemptions per event.

Aon is a global professional services firm that provides risk, retirement and health solutions based in London. Thanks to AI and Wiki for that.

The AT&T Pebble is the second of the signature events on Tour this season. The first was the Sentry in Maui in early January, which, as stated, Hideki won, taking home $3.6M. There are eight Signature events this season. The Genesis Invitational, February 13-16th, is the third signature, which will be played this season @Torrey Pines in San Diego and is due to the wildfires that wreaked havoc in Pacific Palisades, CA where Riviera Country Club is located, among other places in the L.A. area. The fourth signature event is the Arnie Invitational, March 6th-9th, at Bay Hill Golf Club in Orlando. That event, which is a player hosted event, (the late Arnie, along with the Genesis, Tiger, and the Memorial, Jack) features a 36 hole cut and a $4M winner’s share from a $20 million purse with the winner of those player hosted events earning 20% of the total prize money. The fifth signature event is the RBC Heritage, the week after the Masters, April 17th-20th, at Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head. Then, the Truist Championship is the 6th signature event played May 8th-11th at The Philadelphia Cricket Club (Cricket anyone?), the Wissahickon Course. This is the first stop at the Philly Cricket Club. Philly hopes it’s still celebrating a Super Bowl LIX victory at that time. The Memorial Tournament, Jack’s event, the 7th signature event, will take place May 29th-June 1st  at Muirfield Villlage in Dublin, Ohio. The Travelers Championship, the 8th and final signature event, will be held June 19th-22nd at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, CT.

And, of course, there are the Majors. The fifth Major for the players is the Players Championship, which will be played at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra, FL, March 13th-16th, with a $25M purse and $4.5M going to the winner. It just keeps getting better for the successful ones. The 89th Masters will take place April 10th-13th featuring all the history and prestige surrounding Augusta National. The 107th PGA Championship will be played at Quail Hollow (Charlotte, N.C.) this year, May 15th-18th. The 125th U.S. Open will commence June 12th-15th at Oakmont Country Club, a historic venue in Oakmont, PA.just outside of Pittsburgh. All these tournaments are Thursdays-Sundays. And finally, the 153rd Open Championship will be played at Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland, July 17th-20th. The defending champion of the Players is Scottie Scheffler. Scheffler is also the defending champion at the Masters. Xander Schauffle, who is out this week due to a rib injury but is expected back soon, is the defending PGA champion.  He won in 2024 at Valhalla in Louisville, KY. Bryson DeChambeau is the defending champion at the U.S. after putting on a masterful performance to clinch the championship at Pinehurst No.2 in 2024. And Xander is the defending champion at the Open, winning it last season at Royal Troon in Scotland.

After all those epic events, the Fed Ex Cup transpires in August with the Fed Ex St. Jude Championship in Memphis at TPC Southwind, August 7th-10th. That event will be followed by the BMW Championship August 14th-17th at Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mills, MD. Finally, the Tour Championship, held at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, takes place August 21st-24th, with the winner most likely taking home the Fed Ex Cup and the $25M check that goes with it. That’s head spinning. Scottie Scheffler, of course, is the defending Fed Ex Cup champion.

 Finally, and just as importantly, the 45th Ryder Cup will transpire Friday-Sunday, September 26th-28th at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, N.Y. The European team is the defending champion having won 16 ½ to 11 ½ at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club just outside of Paris. Fourteen and a half points are needed for victory.

 I will have more on each of these events the day before they begin with my previews/predictions columns.

 Here are some of the key golfers’ odds for Pebble Beach:

 Scheffler, 4/1

 Rory, 11/1

 Justin Thomas, 14/1, finished 2nd at the American Express two weeks ago.

 Collin Morikawa, 14/1

 Ludvig Aberg, 18/1

 Patrick Cantlay, 20/1

 Hideki, 25/1

 Sungjae Im, 28/1

 Tommy Fleetwood, 33/1

 Jason Day, 40/1

 Vik Hovland, 40/1

 Sam Burns, 40/1

 Will Zalatoris, 45/1

 Wyndham Clark, defending champion, 45/1

 Jordan Spieth, back from a wrist injury that required surgery in the fall, 45/1

 Keegan Bradley, the U.S. Ryder Cup captain, 50/1

 Tom Kim, 50/1

 Sepp Straka. American Express winner, 60/1

 Max Homa, 70/1

 Harris English, coming off Farmers victory at Torrey, 70/1

 Weather

 Thursday: 52, partly cloudy, wind WNW 6 MPH, 10% rain.

 Friday: 56, PM showers, Wind S 8, 48% chance of rain.

 Saturday: 59, showers, wind S 15, 64% chance of rain.

Sunday: 60, showers, Wind S 12, 39% chance of rain.

So, some elements for the golfers to negotiate. The European Ryder Cup Captain is Luke Donald.

TV

 Thursday, 2-6 PM CT, Golf Channel

 Friday, 2-6 PM CT, GC

 Saturday, 12-2 PM CT, GC; 2-6 PM CT, CBS.

 Sunday, 12-2 PM, GC, 2-5:30 PM CT, CBS

Prediction

This is a spectacular field and that’s what we’re going to get with these signature events. With the LIV Tour posing such a threat to the PGA Tour as far as taking players from it, the PGA has to have these signature events. They make the season more interesting.

The obvious choice to win at Pebble is Scheffler, but he’s just recovered from a hand injury he suffered while rolling some Ravioli with a wine glass. The glass shattered in his hand and cut it severely. He’s now back after four weeks on the shelf. He was going to play in the Sentry and the American Express but was unable to due to the hand injury that required surgery. He suffered the injury back in December just before Christmas.

 There are no guarantees in sports, as has been said many times, but there are 95% athletes in my opinion. Michael Jordan was one; Tiger Woods was one; Jack Nicklaus was one; Tom Brady was one; Patrick Mahomes IS one, though I haven’t decided yet on my Super Bowl pick; Jannik Sinner in tennis has become one. And Scottie is one as well. He won 9 times last season including 7 times on tour with a Players, a Masters, an Arnie, a Tour Championship which led to a Fed Ex Cup among his illustrious victories. He also won an Olympic Gold Medal in Paris, and the Hero World Challenge in his last competition in December in the Bahamas.

 In 2024, Scheffler was No.1 in strokes gained tee to green, 2nd strokes gained off the tee, 1st in strokes gained total, first in approaches to the greens, third in greens in regulation, 2nd in proximity to the hole, a key stat since he was 77th in strokes gained putting. He was first from 50-125 yards, first from 100-125 yards, and 1st inside 100 yards. He makes a pretty compelling case to win at Pebble Beach.

 He played at the ultra-exclusive Cypress Point on Monday in the Monterrey Peninsula, where you need to be a President or something rivaling that title to get on, and posted 6 birdies in 9 hole.

 How do you go against this guy? I’m not gonna do it. I’ll take the 28 year old from Ridgewood, New Jersey, by way of the University of Texas, to get his 2025 season off and rolling.

Scottie Scheffler

Sleeper

Mark “Mother” Hubbard

 The 35 year old from Denver, by way of San Jose State University, finished tied 12th at the American Express a couple of weeks ago in La Quinta, California, where Sepp Straka won. He finished tied for 4th last season at Pebble shooting a 65 in the final round of a 3 day event that was cut short by the threat of severe weather. Wyndham Clark won the AT&T Pebble in 2024. Plus I like the nickname. Give me “Mother” Hubbard to be right there on Sunday with a shot at closing it out.