Photo credit: Pebble Beach Company
For better or worse, the AT& Pebble Beach Pro-Am takes place this week down on the Monterey Peninsula.
The tournament for years was known a party with the top field of celebrities of any PGA Tournament and was right there with the American Century Tournament in Lake Tahoe each summer.
Last year, the tournament changed the format, becoming a PGA Tour Signature event.
Gone is the 156-player field, with players paired with an amateur partner, and the duo playing 54 holes over Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill, and the Monterey Peninsula Country Club before the cut on Saturday afternoon.
In its place is a $20 million purse for only 80 players, with 80 amateurs paired with the professionals for the first 36 holes at Pebble and Spyglass.
Only the professionals advance to the weekend rounds at Pebble Beach with no cut for the professionals. The format is designed to increase the quality of the professional field, which has been dwindling over the years.
Many blamed the pro-am format for causing long rounds, something many of the top players in world had grown to detest and avoid.
You now have a $20 million purse and a loaded field.
The sacrifice is the demise of the festive atmosphere that was Saturday at Pebble Beach during what was still known by some as the Clambake, dating to the days when singer/golfer Bing Crosby hosted the party. It was a party that raged during the day and often moved from Pebble to downtown Carmel-by-the-Sea in the evening.
The professional field is awesome, better than the old tournament would have except in years the U.S. Open was being played at Pebble.
Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa, Jordan Spieth, Hideki Matsuyama, Patrick Cantlay, and defending champion Wyndham Clark are just a few of the players entered in the tournament.
For more information on the tournament, please go to www.attpbgolf.com.