Before the PGA Tour heads to the Sunshine State for the Florida Swing, it’s south of the border for the Mexico Open at Vidanta in Vallarta.
Defending champion Tony Finau — coming off a top-20 finish at the Genesis Invitational — is hoping to make a run at back-to-back titles. Last year, Finau beat Jon Rahm by three shots.
Other players in the field include Nicolai Hojgaard, Emiliano Grillo, Keith Mitchell, Patrick Rodgers and Ryan Fox.
Will Zalatoris — runner-up at Riviera Country Club — withdrew from the field earlier this week. With an important stretch coming up, it’s no surprise to see this field lack a bit of star power.
Golf course
Vidanta Vallarta | Par 71 | 7,456 yards
Course history
Vidanta Vallarta – Course History for the #MexicoOpen
Includes finish position and Strokes Gained per round from both events here in 2022 and 2023.
-It is currently the least predictive (out of 44) annual course on Tour.
The second signature event of the PGA Tour’s 2024 season is here as a loaded field of 80 pros has descended upon Pebble Beach Golf Links and Spyglass Hill for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on the Monterey Peninsula.
The amateurs in the field will play alongside their partners for the first two rounds — one at Pebble Beach, one at Spyglass Hill — before it’s just the pros at Pebble Beach over the weekend.
Among the world’s best in the field are Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Viktor Hovland, Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas and Collin Morikawa.
This week, a loaded 80-man field is on the Monterey Peninsula for the PGA Tour’s second signature event of the year, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
The Crosby Clambake will look a bit different this time around, with the celebrity amateurs playing in just the first two rounds. Monterey Peninsula Country Club has been removed from the rotation, so the field will play Pebble Beach Golf Links and Spyglass Hill over the first two days before just the pros take on Pebble over the weekend.
Thanks to its elevated status, this year’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am boasts its best-ever field that includes Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Xander Schaufelle, Patrick Cantlay, Max Homa, Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas.
Here are 10 of the best performers from the last five AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Ams.
The wind is the course’s main defense. Tiger emphasized shot-making and strategic decision-making.
LOS CABOS, Mexico — Tiger Woods doesn’t do many firsts these days in professional golf but he has this week as this marks the first time that a PGA Tour event will be held on one of Woods’ designs (with senior design associate Beau Welling).
With dramatic views of the Pacific Ocean and natural arroyos, mature vegetation and native dunes, El Cardonal at Diamante, which ranks T-33 on Golfweek’s Best Mexico, Caribbean, Atlantic Islands and Central America list and hosts this week’s World Wide Technology Championship, is a par-72 course measuring 7,363 yards and will rank as one of the tougher walks on Tour.
The wind is the course’s main defense. Tiger emphasized shot-making and strategic decision-making. The course’s variety of hole angles, including the par-5 14th, which offers the rare alternate fairway, challenging green complexes and diverse shot values provide a testing ground that requires players to think critically about their approach. It’s a course that invites players to showcase their versatility and creativity, in line with Tiger’s approach to the game and what made him one of the best to ever peg it up.
“I set up the golf strategy to make golfers think and make choices,” Woods said on the course website. “There are going to be different ways to play every hole. Angles of approach are going to be very important and will dictate the type of shots you should consider. I love this kind of golf.”
The course boasts a magnificent panorama of dunes, fairways, and ocean views that blend with the surrounding natural vegetation. Here’s what the pros have to say about Tiger’s first completed design and first course to host the PGA Tour.
Thoughts on TW design course El Cardonal at Diamanté:
-I’m not a massive course design junkie like Zac Blair and others so this is a pretty basic breakdown lol. -I always find it funny that famous players that became course designers end up designing courses that fit their… pic.twitter.com/GKpm09c5Pa
Surgery for his injured left shoulder “would have been like hanging a wall picture frame with a sledgehammer.”
LOS CABOS, Mexico – For Maverick McNealy, absence made the heart grow fonder.
The 27-year-old Stanford grad is making his return to the PGA Tour on Thursday at the World Wide Technology Championship after being sidelined for nearly five months with a left shoulder injury.
“I know it’s a cliché,” he said. “I have the coolest job in the world and I realized that when I wasn’t able to play here. It’s really easy to lose sight of that when you get wrapped up in the FedEx Cup and the world rankings and all this other stuff.”
McNealy tore the anterior sterno-clavicular ligament in his left shoulder during the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am in February. During the second round, while playing the seventh hole at Monterey Peninsula Club’s Shore Course, he remembers a long wait in cold weather and then making a “funny swing,” in which his angle of attack got too steep, leading to being stuck underneath and having to shallow late to get his shoulder back in position.
“Doing that repeatedly while slamming a metal rod in the ground wasn’t really good for my body,” he said.
He ranked 26th in the FedEx Cup standings when he injured himself. He tried rest and to play on for a few months before shutting it down in June after missing the cut at the RBC Canadian Open. Surgery wasn’t necessary.
“The doctors said that would have been like hanging a wall picture frame with a sledgehammer,” he said.
The recovery process consisted of physical therapy and regenerative stem-cell treatment, which accelerated the healing process. Three days after the treatment, he had a golf club in his hand, beginning with a pitch count of 15 balls swinging from hip to hip and slowly worked back up to a full volume of practice and play about a month ago.
McNealy also made changes to his swing mechanics to make sure he doesn’t put as much stress on the joint in his shoulder. McNealy worked on trying to be “less steep to shallow” with his golf swing and staying behind the ball. With his instructor Butch Harmon no longer traveling to Tour events, McNealy sought a second set of eyes when he’s on the road and began working with instructor Scott Hamilton at the Valspar Championship.
“It’s more of a complementary relationship than a replacement,” he said.
McNealy took a break from Harmon during last year’s off-season and tried to recapture some old swing thoughts. That’s when his swing went off-kilter and led to the injury.
During his downtime, McNealy earned his pilot’s license and his instrument rating so he can fly in adverse conditions. He said he flies in a Cirrus SR20 and plans to pilot it to some West Coast events next season. He also got engaged, flying girlfriend Maya Daniels to Lake Tahoe earlier this summer, where he proposed.
McNealy, who previously dated LPGA star Danielle Kang, met Daniels three years ago at his workout and physical therapy center. They started dating about 11 months ago and it hasn’t hurt that she helped him with his rehab.
Taking flight with Maverick McNealy ✈️
A man of many talents shares his passion to improve on and off the course.https://t.co/QqYuLTYRFo
“When your fiancee works in the physical therapy world it’s always a plus when you’re a professional athlete,” he said.
McNealy was ready to return to the Tour a couple of weeks ago at the Shriners Children’s Open in Las Vegas, where he lives and practices regularly, but that event was the cut-off point between a major and minor medical extension. (By waiting until this week, McNealy should have 11 events to keep his card.)
“I’m 121st in the FedEx Cup right now. I don’t know if my number’s good enough to hold up and I don’t want to leave it up to chance to maybe not be able to get all the events to start 2024,” he explained.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – There are some sponsorship partnerships that just are so obvious.
Sam Ryder and transportation and logistics giant Ryder System, Peter Malnati and Malnati’s Pizza and, maybe the best of all, Brooke Pancake and Waffle House are just a few of recent vintage that jump to mind. Well, add Maverick McNealy and Ford Motors Co., to the list. The PGA Tour pro and the American carmaker announced an endorsement deal that started this week at the PGA Championship at Oak Hill.
McNealy, 27, and his three brothers – Dakota, Colt and Scout – are all named after American cars, a nod to their family’s connection to the auto industry.
The family’s ties to the innovative spirit of the Detroit auto industry and cars run deep. McNealy’s grandfather, Raymond William McNealy Jr., was vice chairman of American Motors, and an avid golfer. While McNealy’s father, Scott, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems, claims he named Maverick after the Ford sedan, mom Susan says she named him after the Tom Cruise character in “Top Gun,” which was originally released in 1986.
The Ford Maverick was introduced in 1970 as the first American car to be marketed as a compact. It was designed to be an affordable, fuel-efficient car that could compete with the smaller, Japanese imports from Toyota and Datsun that were becoming popular in the U.S., and was produced until 1977.
According to Wikipedia, the Ford Maverick’s name was derived from the word for unbranded range animals, and the car’s nameplate was stylized to resemble the head of Longhorn cattle. The Ford Maverick was reborn as a compact pickup truck, starting with a 2022 model.
McNealy only has had two cars in his life. He drove a hand-me-down 2011 Ford Explorer in college and bought himself a 2021 Ford Explorer SC when he earned his PGA Tour card. On paper, the sponsorship deal with McNealy sounds like a no-brainer, but it took several years of dogged efforts by McNealy’s agent, Peter Webb, to bring it to fruition.
“It’s a tough brand to crack, so many layers, so many agencies but finally got it done,” Webb said.
As part of the program, McNealy will drive select Ford vehicles at different PGA Tour stops, including this week where his yellow Ford Mustang sticks out like a sore thumb in a parking lot full of Cadillacs, which is the official car of the PGA.
He will carry a customized Ford Maverick yardage book in his back pocket, and there also will be a digital campaign highlighting the different Ford cars and McNealy’s history with the brand.
“I’ve always driven Fords, my whole family drives Fords and it’s really cool now to be a Ford ambassador because it couldn’t be more who I am and what I like to drive,” McNealy said.
It’s time for the weekend at the AT&T Byron Nelson in McKinney, Texas, and that means some in the field are packing their bags.
The 36-hole cut at TPC Craig Ranch came in at 4 under, which makes sense due to its score-ability. K.H. Lee won the last two Byron Nelsons with scores of 26 under and 25 under. Lee made the cut right on the number this time around.
Through the first two days, Texas local Scottie Scheffler holds the lead at 14 under after consecutive 64s. He leads Ryan Palmer and Mackenzie Hughes by a shot.
Here are seven players who missed the 4-under cut at the 2023 AT&T Byron Nelson.
Everything you need to know from the first round of the Valspar Championship.
It was a busy day at Innisbrook Resort’s Copperhead Course for the first round of the Valspar Championship in Palm Harbor, Florida.
Jordan Spieth got off to a hot start thanks to his putter — we’ll cover that in a minute — while Ryan Brehm used an ace at the par-3 17th to vault to the top of the leaderboard at 5 under. Stephan Jaeger and Adam Schenk sit with Brehm after matching 66s.
Maverick McNealy, who is still searching for his first win on the PGA Tour, opened with a 4-under 67. This is McNealy’s first trip to Innisbrook, but he’s been impressed with the golf course so far.
“I’ve heard from so many players that this is just a fantastic golf course,” he said after his round. “I’m a West Coast guy, I’ve played, usually play a heavy West Coast Swing and Florida’s usually a little different but everyone kept saying, this doesn’t feel like a Florida golf course. I got out here and I saw pictures. It kind of looks like the golf course I grew up at, Sharon Heights and Stanford back in the Bay Area.”
We’ll see if those hometown feels carry him to success the rest of the way.
Sam Burns, who’s looking to win outside Tampa for the third year in a row, opened with a 2-under 69, as did Justin Thomas. Thomas finished one shot out of the playoff last season and 13th in 2021.
“I think for me it’s just trying to put together a solid week and a lot of winning is out of my control,” Burns said after signing his card. “So I just try to go out there and play the best that I can and add it up at the end.”
If you missed the action Thursday, no worries, we have you covered. Here’s everything you need to know from the first round of the Valspar Championship.
McNealy withdrew from the WM Phoenix Open five holes into his second round on Friday for the same reason.
After opening with a 5-over 76, a round he completed Friday morning due to frost delays on Thursday, McNealy was 1 over through his first five on day two.
Despite pulling out early, he did add to the highlight reel with an unlikely bogey at the par-3 12th after putting his second in the water.
From putting it in the water to a chip-in bogey save.
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In all, 15 golfers have withdrawn from the Pro-Am.
It’s been a challenging week at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on the Monterey Peninsula and the leaderboard has been filling up with withdrawals.
Before his Thursday round started, Philip Knowles was the first of 15 WDs of the week. He was replaced in the field by Jonas Blixt.
During the first round, Justin Suh WD’d due to a shoulder injury. Prior to Friday’s second round, Cameron Percy withdrew.
Weather started rolling in Friday and the wind really picked up Saturday. Third round tee times were moved up an hour and the high winds eventually forced the suspension of play, guaranteeing a Monday finish.
Sunday morning, the PGA Tour announced that nine more golfers were calling it a week at Pebble, including two – Will Gordon and Carson Young – who are on the list for the Monday qualifier for the WM Phoenix Open at McCormick Ranch in Scottsdale.
Gordon shot a 69 on Pebble Beach Golf Links on Thursday despite a triple-bogey 8 on the 18th hole. He was 4 over through 15 in the third round. Young shot 69-77 and was 2 over with four holes to go in his third round before calling it.
In all, 15 golfers have withdrawn from the Pro-Am.