The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am has undergone a series of updates this season. Every single one of them is fantastic for the long-term health of the event. North America’s golf Mecca gently sweeps along the Pacific coastline of Northern California, providing stunning views and unparalleled quality on the links themselves.
My dad brought me to Pebble Beach as a kid. We followed Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh around Spyglass Hill and met up with Bill Murray and Ahmad Rashad at Pebble Beach. These are cherished memories indelibly seared into the story that leads to writing this column today. The top golfers in the world did not migrate here for many years, but their patterns have once again merged with 17 Mile Drive under the Cypress shade and salty marine layer.
The PGA Tour has designated the Pebble Beach Pro-Am as a signature event this season, enticing the world’s best players with a record purse. The players may only skip one such event during the season, making it nearly impossible to choose this one as their only holiday. Eighty top golfers are in the field, with the celebrities and amateurs only playing on Thursday and Friday (instead of all four days). There is no 36-hole cut, and the golfers will play an extra round at Pebble Beach instead of Monterey Peninsula Country Club like in years past.
PGA DFS: AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (2024)
Spyglass Hill and Pebble Beach are both short courses with brutally difficult layouts. The green complexes are miniscule thimbles of Poa Annua. The fairways are generous, but many holes will require less than driver off the tee. Each course will require the golfers to be absolutely nails on approach, mostly from wedge distances. Scrambling and short game will also be important, with the weather forecast showing conditions that will resemble Scottish squalls.
In this type of event, leverage is of utmost importance. DFS players will flock to the top of the board with Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy gracing us with their presence. Viktor Hovland is here too, but my advice is to steer clear of the expensive chalk this week. All 80 men in this field are capable of appearing in an optimal lineup, with many underpriced and under-rostered players rising to the top of my weighted statistical model. Let’s make like a sea lion and dive in.
High-Priced ($9,000 & Above)
- Chalk Plays: Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Max Homa
- Chalk Fades: Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Viktor Hovland, Patrick Cantlay
- Leverage Plays: Collin Morikawa, Ludvig Åberg
Mid-Priced ($7,600 to $8,900)
- Chalk Plays: JT Poston, Russell Henley, Beau Hossler
- Chalk Fades: Tommy Fleetwood, Ben An, Adam Scott
- Leverage Plays: Hideki Matsuyama, Sam Burns, Sungjae Im, Matt Fitzpatrick, Nicolai Hojgaard
Value-Priced ($7,500 & Below)
- Chalk Plays: Eric Cole, Nick Taylor, Brendan Todd
- Chalk Fades: Taylor Montgomery, Mark Hubbard, Maverick McNealy
- Leverage Plays: Chris Kirk, Adam Hadwin, Kurt Kitayama, Lucas Glover, Brandon Wu, Alex Smalley, S.H. Kim, Sam Ryder
