Pebble Beach Pro-Am to Be Designated as Event in 2024, May Reduce Amateurs, Celebrities, Report
Pebble Beach is getting a makeover. It will be Pebble Beach Pro-Am, not actual golf like one of the PGA Tour’s long-standing events The report will be featured as a designated event in 2024.
Jack Nicklaus, of all people, made the news in time Honda Classic last week as he noted that Pebble Beach will replace the Phoenix Open as one of the PGA Tour’s 16 designated events next season. Round 16 will include four pro, Players, three FedEx Cup Playoff events, and eight mid-season events, with the general rhythm being one designated event followed by two unassigned events.
That’s great news for Pebble Beach, which has struggled in recent years after decades of success. The fields at Pebble Beach have been lackluster for several years with winners like Nick Taylor, Tom Hoge, Ted Potter Jr. and Vaughn Taylor emerging in its recent history. The strength of its field orbit is not great.
This is also good news for the Tour, which couldn’t host tournaments in a place like Pebble Beach given the quality of the pitch it took place there. Ultimately, this is good news for fans, who can now watch the world’s best games tee off at one of America’s iconic venues.
It’s been a big week for designated event news. The Tour announced on Wednesday that the 2024 designated events will have limited fields and no cut. It also removes the mandatory nature of top player events, instead incentivizing players to participate by increasing FedEx Cup points and hanging the carrot that you must be in the top 50 in the FedEx Cup season. advance to automatically be eligible to participate. it’s next.
All of these have the potential to create more and more important golf events. The fact that some of that golf will be played at Pebble Beach is a big bonus.
The interesting way, as reported by Golfweek, the amateur portion of Pebble Beach Pro-Am — which is a major part of the tournament — can be shortened to two days and played on Thursdays and Fridays. If we’ve learned anything over the past year, it’s that it’s no big deal when it comes to PGA Tour changes. That’s wise for the Tour as a business and yields great results for Pebble (for 2024 at least).
