The PGA Tour heads back to California this week for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. A field of 156 players and their amateur partners will tackle a three-course rotation of Spyglass Hill, Monterey Peninsula and the host course, Pebble Beach.
Be sure to join the all-new Golf Channel Fantasy Challenge - including a new One & Done game offering - to compete for prizes and form your own leagues, and log on to www.playfantasygolf.com to submit your picks for this week’s event.
Jordan Spieth won this event last year by four shots over Kelly Kraft. Here are 10 names to watch on the Monterey Peninsula:
1. Dustin Johnson: The world No. 1 has only made one start since torching the field at Kapalua, and that was a tidy T-9 finish in Abu Dhabi. Johnson won this event back in 2009 and 2010 and has had five top-10 finishes since, including the 2010 U.S. Open. He deserves the top spot here until proven otherwise.
2. Jon Rahm: Rahm’s fiery demeanor got the best of him during the final round in Phoenix, but he still remains perhaps the hottest player in the world. After four good rounds in Palm Springs led to a playoff win, he added two good rounds in San Diego and three good rounds last week. A T-5 finish last year in his tournament debut showed he can handle the event’s quirky setup.
3. Jason Day: Day is teeing it up for the first time since his overtime win at Torrey Pines, and he does so at an event where he has finished T-6 or better three of the last five years. Day’s back is likely still not 100 percent, but any lingering injury wasn’t holding him back in San Diego on a tougher test than any of the three tracks he’ll face this week.
4. Jordan Spieth: The defending champ is searching for answers on the greens, which certainly can’t be said often. Spieth couldn’t buy a putt en route to a rare missed cut in Phoenix, and he’s now among the cellar dwellers on Tour in strokes gained putting. But as last year’s four-shot romp proved, his third top-10 here in the last four years, a turnaround is sometimes only a week away.
5. Rory McIlroy: McIlroy is making his first tournament appearance, and he’s teeing it up in the U.S. for the first time since the BMW Championship nearly five months ago. The Ulsterman took time off to rest his lingering back injury but came out of the gates on fire last month, playing his first eight rounds on the European Tour in a combined 40 under par.
6. Phil Mickelson: Mickelson is a four-time winner of this event, and his runner-up performance in 2016 is perhaps the closest he has come to winning on Tour since the 2013 Open. Lefty is coming off a T-5 finish in Phoenix in which he had a chance to join the playoff with a closing eagle, and there’s reason to think that another start on a course where he’s won multiple times could spark further success.
7. Brandt Snedeker: Snedeker can run hot and cold, but he usually heats up on the poa annua greens that this tournament offers. The veteran won this event in both 2013 and 2015, finished fourth last year and enters off a top-25 finish at TPC Scottsdale that gave further proof to the notion that his injury woes from the end of last season are now behind him.
8. Gary Woodland: Woodland finally turned weeks of strong play into a victory last week in Phoenix, defeating Chez Reavie in a playoff for his first title since 2013. Woodland is now second on Tour in total strokes gained this season, eighth in strokes gained putting and returns to an event where last year he tied for fifth.
9. Patrick Reed: Reed has quietly been recording solid if unspectacular results, including a T-23 finish at Torrey Pines and a T-17 finish last week in Phoenix. But Reed could be primed to contend this week given his Pebble Beach track record, which includes five straight top-30 finishes including two top-10s.
10. Pat Perez: Perez returns to the U.S. after a brief stint in the Middle East, and he has chosen a familiar landing spot. The veteran is coming off the best season of his career, kept the momentum going with a win in Malaysia earlier this season and boasts three top-15 finishes in the last four years at Pebble Beach, including a T-4 in 2015.
