2023 Pebble Beach Pro-Am Preview

The PGA Tour’s trip around Southern California continues this week at one of the most recognizable venues in golf. Check our 2023 Pebble Beach Pro-Am and Odds Courtesy of JazzSports.

2023 Pebble Beach Pro-Am Preview

The tournament dates back to 1937 when Sam Snead won the first two events and has four titles overall. Phil Mickelson and Mark O’Meara hold the record with five wins here with Mickelson winning his fifth in 2019. Tiger Woods famously won twice at Pebble Beach in 2000, winning this event along with the U.S. Open.

In addition to the individual competition, each of the 156 pros in the field is paired with an amateur—typically a celebrity or a pro athlete from another sport.

The Course

Pebble Beach Golf Links is one of the world’s most famous golf courses given its Pacific Ocean views. It also has the smallest total putting surface on the PGA Tour at 3,500 square feet.

Due to the amateurs also playing, the format is unique. Each player plays a round at three different courses—Pebble Beach Golf Links, Spyglass Hill Golf Course, and Monterey Peninsula Country Club—and the cut takes place after 54 holes instead of the usual 36. The remaining golfers play the final round at Pebble Beach on Sunday.

Brandt Snedker won for the second time at this event in 2015 and set the tournament record of a 22-under 265. In recent years, the winning score has been between 17- and 19-under. Tom Hoge is the defending champion after carding a -19 in 2022.

Trio of Golfers Favored Over Defending Champ Hoge

Of the three favorites at +1000, Jordan Spieth has the best history here. He won here in 2017, was runner-up to Hoge last year by two strokes, and finished third in 2021. He also has three other top-10 finishes here and hasn’t missed the cut in 10 total tries. We saw Spieth have the most up-and-down outing possible the last time we saw him at the Sony Open a few weeks ago, as he was the first-round leader and then missed the cut the next day. But Spieth has always been a golfer who will play well on the courses that he likes, and Pebble Beach is no exception.

Spieth, Hovland, and Fitzpatrick arrive as the favorites

Viktor Hovland is a greens-in-regulation machine, which will serve him well here at Pebble Beach. He won on a seaside course in December at the Hero World Challenge (You can check how Hovland defended the Hero World Challenge in 2022 in this recap). Also, in the Bahamas and was 18^th at the Sentry Tournament of Champions in his only appearance in 2023. Hovland doesn’t have experience in this event, coming in 38^th in 2020, but he won the U.S. Amateur here.

U.S. Open champ Matt Fitzpatrick was sixth here last year and came in 12^th in the U.S. Open that was held at Pebble Beach in 2019. He came in seventh in Kapalua and has been focusing on this event ever since. He picks and chooses his events, but since missing the cut at the Memorial in June, he’s made the cut in nine-straight events and finished outside the top 15 just twice in that stretch.

Other Contenders

Tom Hoge (+1800) is defending a title for the first time on the PGA Tour after cashing in his maiden victory here last year. He comes into Pebble Beach having taken a tournament off last week after three-straight events. He was third at the Sentry Tournament of Champions and placed 41^st and 32^nd the following two weeks. In the fall, he had a fourth and ninth along with winning the QBE Shootout with Sahith Theegala, an unofficial team money event in December. His accuracy with his irons makes this a good course for Hoge.

Seamus Power (+1800) played two events in Dubai on the DP World Tour and scored top 25s in both. After the final round was played there on Monday, he may have a little jetlag coming to Southern California, but he comes to a course where he led by five strokes at the halfway point a year ago before ending up ninth. He won last fall and also added a third- and fifth-place finish to his record during that portion of the season and was the FedEx Cup points leader at the end of 2022.

Maverick McNealy (+2000) could be the best bet for a first-time winner, just as Hoge was last year. He’s a native of the West Coast and came in second at this tournament in 2021 and was fifth the year before that. McNealy placed 31^st at Torrey Pines last week and finished seventh in the Sony Open in Hawaii last month.

Andrew Putnam (+2500) is riding a streak of 14 consecutive cuts made, which is the third-longest active streak on Tour. During that span, he’s come in the top 15 five times, including a fourth at the Sony Open in Hawaii a few weeks ago. In last year’s Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Putnam was sixth, so he’s a solid under-the-radar pick this week.

Longshots

Nick Taylor (+5500) won this event in 2020 and has two other top-15 finishes at Pebble Beach among the six of eight cuts he’s made in this tournament. He ranks 16^th in Shots Gained: Approach, which is a good marker at Pebble Beach, and he’s in decent form after a seventh-place effort at Waialae a few weeks back.

Troy Merritt (+6500) just gets better and better here. He missed the cut in his first six appearances here but figured things out with an eighth-place finish in 2018. Since then, he had two top 25s before finishing fourth here last year. His best finish this season is a third at Mayakoba back in the fall.

2023 Pebble Beach Pro-Am Odds & Pick

Of the favorites, we’ll back Spieth over Fitzpatrick and Hovland. Hoge is in good form and could be a threat to repeat. Our mid-range picks are McNealy and Putnam with Taylor as the longshot.

Here are the latest odds from Jazz Sports for the PGA Tour’s 2023 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

GOLFERS	ODDS TO WIN 2023 AT&T PEBBLE BEACH PRO-AM
Jordan Spieth	+1000
Matt Fitzpatrick	+1000
Viktor Hovland	+1000
Tom Hoge	+1800
Seamus Power	+1800
Maverick McNealy	+2000
Andrew Putnam	+2500
Justin Rose	+2500
Keith Mitchell	+2800
Joel Dahmen / Matt Kuchar	+3000