{"id":16137,"date":"2026-06-05T14:59:01","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T14:59:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/16137\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T14:59:01","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T14:59:01","slug":"pebble-beach-features-wild-weather-and-strongest-field-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/16137\/","title":{"rendered":"Pebble Beach features wild weather and strongest field this year"},"content":{"rendered":"

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Scottie Scheffler had a fresh scar on his right hand and plenty of rust the last time he was at Pebble Beach<\/a>, courtesy of a freak accident while making ravioli<\/a> that set him back at the start of the year.<\/p>\n

Chris Gotterup wasn\u2019t even at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. He was at No. 206 in the world, ineligible for signature events, his only PGA Tour title coming at Myrtle Beach in 2024<\/a> when the best players were somewhere else that week.<\/p>\n

So much has changed in a year. Scheffler and Gotterup have played in the same tournament seven times since July and they have combined to win five of them. Scheffler remains No. 1 in the world and carries an astonishing streak of 17 consecutive top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour. Gotterup is up to No. 5 in the world, a winner in two of his last three starts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it\u2019s been awesome,\u201d said Gotterup, a New Jersey native built more like Los Angeles Angels center fielder Mike Trout than a PGA Tour player on the rise.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were joking around, Scottie was following me at lunch and he\u2019s like, \u2018I\u2019m just going to eat whatever you\u2019re eating.\u2019 Yeah, he\u2019s doing pretty good on his own, so I\u2019m not worried about him.\u201d<\/p>\n

They are headliners, sure, without having all the headlines to themselves. Rory McIlroy makes his first start on the PGA Tour this year<\/a> as the defending champion, and this is the best two-week stretch of courses on the tour schedule with Pebble Beach and Riviera, both signature events.<\/p>\n

But the star of this particular show always has been Pebble in any weather. And there already has been every kind of weather leading into the first round Thursday, minus the snow.<\/p>\n

Sunshine on Monday gave way to high wind on Tuesday and rain on Wednesday. That didn\u2019t keep players from being at Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill.<\/p>\n

Justin Rose, coming off his win in glorious San Diego weather<\/a>, walked parts of the course Tuesday with a putter and a wedge. Ahead of him were Scheffler and Si Woo Kim in gusts over 30 mph.<\/p>\n

He watched them hit driver on the par-3 17th, starting the shot over the ocean and trying to let the wind bring it back toward the green. They did the same with their tee shots off the famous 18th with the ocean down the entire left side.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as you don\u2019t have a scorecard in your hand, these conditions can be really fun,\u201d Rose said. \u201cBut the minute you put a scorecard in your hand, it\u2019s amazing how the brain doesn\u2019t seem to enjoy it quite as much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gotterup was headed out Wednesday after the rain cleared, even if he didn\u2019t seem to mind what the conditions were like.<\/p>\n

One of the few scorecards he keeps at home is from the time he broke par for the first time at Rumson Country Club in New Jersey. He was 13, and his father had promised him a trip to Pebble Beach the first time he broke par. Gotterup also played Pebble when Oklahoma \u2014 where he played as a senior after three years at Rutgers \u2014 finished second in the 2021 Carmel Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one of the only places all year where if it\u2019s raining, you\u2019re still pretty happy to be here,\u201d Gotterup said.<\/p>\n

The forecast called for rain to clear out for the opening two rounds at Pebble and Spyglass before returning at various levels on the weekend. The 80-man field is the largest for the signature events because of the pro-am Thursday and Friday, with amateurs ranging from Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to retired NBA center Pau Gasol.<\/p>\n

Gotterup found consistency with his iron play to go with his power, can confidently move the golf ball both directions and has been on quite the heater \u2014 three wins in his last 10 starts on the tour, and a third-place finish in the British Open.<\/p>\n

Scheffler, however, remains the standard.<\/p>\n

He tied for ninth at Pebble Beach last year<\/a> in his first competition since surgery on his right hand. He never seriously challenged during the rest of the West Coast and through the Florida swing. And then he was runner-up in Houston and hasn\u2019t finished out of the top 10 since.<\/p>\n

Scheffler started Phoenix with a 73 \u2014 his highest opening round in a non-major since the Memorial in 2023 \u2014 and finished the week one shot out of a playoff that Gotterup won.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s relentless,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cAnd I\u2019ll never stop singing Scottie\u2019s praises because he\u2019s incredible at what he\u2019s doing and the way he does it. I\u2019ve had nice runs like that, but I\u2019ve always been a little more up and down. I think anyone that wants to catch Scottie or get anywhere close is going to have to consistently bring that sort of game week in and week out like he does.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s really the first one since Tiger that\u2019s doing this.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP golf: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/golf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Scottie Scheffler had a fresh scar on his right hand and plenty of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[1338,182,1479,3854,1558,294,44,1146,6918,1210,1790,275,3733,399,208,3856,354,56,418,3616,1557],"class_list":["post-16137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-att-pebble-beach-pro-am","tag-att-pebble-beach-pro-am","tag-california","tag-chris-gotterup","tag-coastlines-and-beaches","tag-fl-state-wire","tag-florida","tag-golf","tag-justin-rose","tag-mike-trout","tag-new-jersey","tag-ok-state-wire","tag-oklahoma","tag-ron-desantis","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-scottie-scheffler","tag-send-to-apple-news","tag-si-woo-kim","tag-sports","tag-texas","tag-travis-kelce","tag-tx-state-wire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}