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The beautiful Monterey Peninsula in California will once again provide the spectacular setting for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. But this year there are some notable differences for this long-established stop on the PGA Tour’s West Coast Swing. The COVID pandemic means there will be no pro-am element to this year’s tournament. That will speed up pace of play but one of the trade-offs is that conditions will be tougher. With no amateurs to cater for, Pebble Beach will be able to show its teeth a little more. That means playing off some of the tees used for the 2019 US Open won by Gary Woodland. Pebble Beach Golf Links always takes centre stage but it has an even bigger part to play this year. Again due to logistics, the event has been streamlined to just two courses instead of the usual three. Those who make the cut will get three laps of Pebble along with a single pre-weekend round at Spyglass Hill. Some testing winds for Sunday’s final round will add to the difficulty of hitting these small Poa Annua greens. Angles to consider 1/ Form on California Poa Annua greens Pebble comes just two weeks after the Farmers Insurance at Torrey Pines. Both Pebble and Torrey Pines South are coastal tracks with Poa Annua greens and they aren’t for everyone. But others thrive. Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Brandt Snedeker, Jordan Spieth, Jason Day and Jimmy Walker are just some of the players who have excelled at both so good form at Torrey Pines provides a solid link. 2/ Course form Like many of the West Coast events, past course form counts for plenty. Nick Taylor seemed a surprise winner in 2020 but he’d posted a previous top 10 just three years earlier. Prior to him, the previous 10 winners had all had a top 20 in this event. 3/ Par 4 Scoring Playing the Par 4s is huge in this event. Kevin Streelman ranked 1st in that category last year and finished runner-up. And from 2015-2019 the five winners of this tournament were ranked in the top two for Par 4 Scoring. 4/ Strokes Gained Tee-To-Green Of all the Strokes Gained category metrics, Tee-To-Green is the most important when looking at the podium finishers. These small greens are hard to find. And, if you miss them, a sharp short game is required. Selections The above angles have been used to create a shortlist from which the following players are selected. Peter Malnati Malnati finished tied 11th in this tournament last year and again showed his liking for West Coast Poa Annua tracks with tied 10th at the Farmers Insurance Open two weeks ago. He ranked in the top 20 for SG: Tee-To-Green at Torrey Pines and to complete the set of ideal requirements he sits tied second in Par 4 Scoring this season. Patrick Cantlay The local man may just be hard to beat. California native Cantlay has finished T9, T11 and T21 at Pebble and we last saw him finishing runner-up at The American Express, another event in the Golden State. He gained 8.513 strokes Tee-To-Green last time and ranks a healthy 16th in Par 4 Scoring this term. Favourites have a good record in this event and Cantlay can add to that. Kevin Streelman A real course horse, Streelman has four top 10s here and that includes a run of 2-7-6 in the last three editions. He’s scored particularly well at Pebble so the extra round there should only help. He recorded his best SG: Tee-To-Green numbers in a long time at the Waste Management Phoenix Open last week and, as noted above, he can thrive on these Par 4s. Tips 0-3; -6.00pts 1pt e.w. Peter Malnati at 60/1 (Sky bet 1/5 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8) mc 2pts win Patrick Cantlay at 15/2 (General) 3rd 1pt e.w. Kevin Streelman at 33/1 (General 1/5 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8) 13th
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