World’s top-ranked golfer will make season debut at Pebble Beach
PEBBLE BEACH — The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am’s desire to have golf’s finest players in its field won’t be foiled by a kitchen incident involving homemade ravioli and shattered glass.
A few hours before the final field deadline, Scottie Scheffler, the world’s No. 1-ranked player, confirmed Friday he will compete this week in the PGA Tour’s second of eight Signature Events.
Scheffler, 28, won nine times in 2024, including seven PGA Tour events. The three-time PGA Tour player of the year has had two tenures as No. 1 in the Official World Golfing Ranking, including his current top perch since May 22, 2023.
With Scheffler’s participation, the 80-player AT&T field will include eight of the game’s top 10 players and 17 of the top 20 through rankings ending this weekend.
Xander Schauffele, No. 2-ranked, is recovering from a rib injury. Englishman Tyrrell Hatton, ranked No. 8., and Bryson DeChambeau, the two-time major winner and No. 12, play on the LIV Golf circuit and are banned from the PGA Tour.
Steve John, the AT&T tournament director and CEO of the Pebble Beach Foundation, the event’s organizers, succinctly reacted to Scheffer’s confirmation.
“I am thrilled Scottie is coming here,” John said via a text message.
Championship rounds will begin Thursday at Pebble Beach Golf Links and Spyglass Hill Golf Course.
Scheffler, who won the Masters, the Players Championship, the Tour Championship and the Olympic Gold Medal in 2024, hasn’t competed this season.
While preparing Christmas dinner for his family, Scheffler had an entanglement with ravioli and a glass. A puncture wound and fragments embedded into his right hand which would require surgery.
Scheffler missed the first four PGA Tour events this season — the Sentry and Sony Open in Hawaii, the American Express near Palm Springs and the Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego.
Scheffler won the Hero Challenge in the Bahamas for the second straight year Dec. 8. He also teamed with Rory McIlroy on Dec. 17 to win a 14-hole made-for-television match in Las Vegas against LIV Golf’s Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau.
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The AT&T last season dispatched its history as a celebrity pro-am event and the accompanying frolicking lore that began in 1937 with founder Bing Crosby. As part its then-new Signature Event status, the AT&T also ended its 156-player field, third-round cut and three-course rotation. Gone also are the usual three-dozen celebrity and high-profile business world participants.
With its new status, last year’s AT&T offered a $20 million purse with no cut among the 80-player and a $3.6 million winner’s share.
The event was reduced to 54 holes via inclement weather with 2023 U.S. Open winner Wyndham Clark claiming the title by one shot via his third round, record-setting 60 at Pebble Beach. Scheffler, who hadn’t previously played in the AT&T and didn’t miss a cut in 19 events in 2024, finished sixth.
The AT&T will also feature several additional intriguing storylines in its international field:
* Maverick McNealy — It took five seasons, 142 starts, two second-place finishes and one third-place finish before the Stanford graduate claimed his first PGA Tour win last November on the final hole of the final event of the season. Confidence renewed, McNealy, ranked 29th in the world, is back at Pebble Beach, his uniquely defined home course. He’s among four siblings whose extended backyard is the 16th hole home owned by the McNealy family. McNealy’s father, Scott, is co-founder of Sun Microsystems, a former company CEO and long-time top amateur golf. Now in his sixth PGA Tour season, McNealy, 29, will compete at the AT&T for the sixth time. He finished second in 2021, fifth in 2020, tied for 33rd in 2022 and tied for 39th last year. He withdrew in 2023.
* Collin Morikawa — The former Cal star had his most consistent season last year. He had eight top 10 finishes and made 20 of 22 cuts to finish second in the FedExCup standings.The six-time PGA Tour winner qualified for the FedExCup playoff for the sixth straight and advanced to the Tour Championship for the five consecutive year. Morikawa, ranked No. 5, competed in the 2024 Summer Olympics and on the victorious U.S. Presidents Cup team. His PGA Tour titles was on Oct. 22, 2023 Zozo Championship in Japan.
* Jordan Spieth will be playing in his 13th straight AT&T and at age 31 has become among the event’s elder statesmen. He’s a former winner (2017), runner-up (2022), tied for third (2021), tied for fourth 2014) and tied for ninth (2020). More importantly, the 13-time PGA Tour winner will be playing in his 282th career event but first since last August when he had wrist surgery to repair a torn ligament suffered in 2023. He competed in 22 events last season but had only three top 10s. Spieth’s last PGA Tour title was April 17, 2022 at the RBC Heritage when shot a final-round 66 and defeated Patrick Cantlay with a par on the first playoff hole. Spieth didn’t qualify for this year’s AT&T via his current FedEx Cup standings or his Official World Golf Ranking (72nd). But he has a longstanding partnership with AT&T and received a sponsor’s invitation.