PEBBLE BEACH – Leave it to Scottie Scheffler, the world’s best golfer, to block out the state of his embattled sport and focus on his season debut at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
“We’re playing Pebble Beach this week, one of the most beautiful, iconic golf courses in the world, and we’ve got some of the best players in the world competing,” Scheffler said. “Let’s soak that in.”
In other words, why ruin a picturesque setting by droning on and on about golf’s woes?
Enough already about the PGA Tour competing or merging with the LIV Golf world. No need to decode the TGL start-up pitting top names indoors (Tiger Woods’ Jupiter, Florida team beat Rory McIlroy’s Boston club on Monday) as they pepper golf balls into a screen at a Florida arena.
And all due respect to the growing legion of YouTube content creators (hello, Bryson Dechambeau), it’s time for the golf world to pause and enjoy the Monterey Peninsula’s majestic shores.
The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am again offers a streamlined format: 80 players and 80 amateurs playing two courses (Pebble and Spyglass Hill) over a four-day spread that should avoid the inclement weather that nixed last year’s final round. Disclaimer: Rain is in the forecast Friday and Saturday.
”What people like is competition,” Scheffler told reporters Tuesday. “The more we can stop talking about all the other BS that’s going on in the game of golf. … I mean, we’re playing Pebble Beach this week, and I’m sure a lot of the talking points in here are about pace of play and TGL and all this other stuff.”
There’s no Tiger and no Phil, but plenty of elite golfers should attract eyeballs to behold one of the PGA’s eight Signature Events.
There’s also no Bill Murray masquerading as the tournament’s fun-loving mascot, or heartthrob actors to steal hearts. But the celebrity circuit includes former 49ers quarterbacks Steve Young and Alex Smith, as well as two-time pro-am winner Larry Fitzgerald, soccer icon Mia Hamm, former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, NBA star Pau Gasol, musical artists Eric Church and Pat Monahan, and PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan.
Scheffler should command the biggest draw in his season debut, after a phenomenal 2024 campaign that spawned seven wins, including The Masters. He also won a gold medal at the Paris Olympics, the overall FedEx Cup crown, the Presidents Cup, and a made-for-TV duel last month. Oh, and charges were dropped in the aftermath of a strange traffic arrest at the PGA Championship.
It added up to a Tiger Woods-esque dominance, but in Scheffler’s own subtle style, and he’s not going to go out of his way to mimic Woods other than use on-course dominance to attract fans.
“People tune into Tiger because he’s a great player. Tiger, his golf clubs always did his talking for him,” Scheffler said. “He wasn’t going out and trying to do anything extra or try and put on a show. He was going out there to compete and play golf.”
Woods has not played in this tournament since 2012, which was his first appearance since a 1997-2002 stretch, though he’s returned to Pebble Beach for the U.S. Open in 2000 (won by 15 strokes), 2010, and 2019 (and presumably 2027).
Scheffler tees off Thursday at 9 a.m. on Spyglass’ back-9, so the galleries may not engulf him until Friday and the weekend rounds at Pebble. He certainly knows how magnetic Woods was here, and how their approaches differ.
“It was electric at times because he would kind of go nuts when things would go well, but he also was really, really good at going crazy and getting right back into a different state of mind like that,” Scheffler said. “I try not to get too amped or too come down, I try to stay as even keel (as possible).”
Scheffler’s immortal moment came Christmas Day, when he punctured his right hand with the broken stem of a wine glass while carving ravioli. ”When you make raviolis, we wanted to make them from scratch so you’ve got to roll the dough and you’ve got to cut the dough,” Sceffler said, “but we were at a rental house so we didn’t have like the right tools and the only thing there was a wine glass that we found. I had my hand on top of it and it broke.”
Related Articles
Pebble Beach Pro-Am: Revamped format should be focus this time around
World’s top-ranked golfer will make season debut at Pebble Beach
Indoor golf league created by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy has a loud, swift debut match
LPGA and USGA to require players to be assigned female at birth or transition before male puberty
Kai Trump gave Kimberly Guilfoyle ‘major side eye’ but welcomes Elon Musk as ‘uncle’
McIlroy joked Tuesday that Scheffler should have simply hired a chef with his winnings ($65 million in 2024). Alas, McIlroy was relieved that Scheffler’s recovered well from hand surgery and will join him back on a course, having partnered together last month to win The Match against LIV’s Dechambeau and Brooks Koepka in Las Vegas.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a golfer play as many bogey-free rounds as Scottie,” McIlroy said. “He just doesn’t make mistakes. It’s so impressive.”
McIlory’s press conference Tuesday preceded Scheffler’s and it was besieged by questions about golf’s future, trials, and tribulations. McIlroy returned to Pebble Beach as a defending champion, albeit in the pro-am portion with partner Jeff Rhodes.
“It was obviously a bit of a weird week last year with the weather on Sunday and not being able to finish,” McIlroy said. “The forecast looks a bit better this week. It’s shaping up to be a good one.”
