Here’s what you need to know from the opening round of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Less than a week ago, Thomas Detry was leading the Farmers Insurance Open in the third round when he spun a wedge from 90 yards back into the water and made double bogey. He admitted it was “a punch in the face.” He went on to shoot 2-over 74 a day later and finished T-20. On Thursday at Spyglass Hill, he was cruising along once again when he fatted his approach at the final hole. But this time there was no penalty area to ruin a good round. This time, he pitched in from about 20 yards short of the green to shoot 9-under 63 and take a one-stroke lead over Patrick Cantlay after the first round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
“It was an uphill lie, I felt pretty comfortable I would put it within 3 feet to be honest,” Detry said in his post-round interview. “And it rolled nicely, just trickled in the hole. It was lovely to watch.”
Detry, a 31-year-old pro from Belgium, said having an extra day to get over last week’s disappointment – the Farmers Insurance Open is the only PGA Tour event that ends on Saturday – helped put it behind him.
“Last weekend was a tough pill to swallow,” he said. “I played some great golf and I didn’t really have the finish that I wanted to. I was in contention the whole weekend except the last five or six holes.”
On Thursday, the weatherman was wrong with his dreary forecast and sunshine prevailed during the opening round. It still was breezy and the tree-lined Spyglass course served as a buffer and allowed for slightly better scoring than at Pebble Beach Golf Links. Detry birdied his first three holes of the day and came home in 30 with a flurry of three straight birdies to cap the day.
Here are four more things to know from the first round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
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 PGA Tour is back on the Monterey Peninsula for this week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the second signature event of 2024.
The old Crosby Clambake got a facelift this offseason, with amateurs playing on just Thursday and Friday. Monterey Peninsula Country Club was cut from the rotation, meaning the field will play Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill for the first two rounds before the pros battle for the championship at Pebble over the weekend.
Thanks to its elevated status, this year’s field is loaded: World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Viktor Hovland, Jordan Spieth, Max Homa, Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay will all tee it up Thursday morning.
Golf courses
Pebble Beach Golf Links | Par 72 | 6,972 yards
Spyglass Hill | Par 72 | 7,041 yards
Matt Fitzpatrick of England putts on the seventh green during the third round of the 2023 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am at Pebble Beach Golf Links in Pebble Beach, California. (Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)
“It was awesome because the ball comes to him in the middle of them talking, he kind of fumbles it, ends up getting the guy out at first and says, you know, ‘Hey, I’ve been lazy lately, I didn’t get my knee down or whatever,’” Homa said. “I was like, man, I just learned a lot in 15 seconds.”
The pitch was simple: let’s bring that same idea to golf. Homa realized he and his fellow players weren’t just athletes but also entertainers, so he took the bait and played the role of guinea pig during the third round of last year’s Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines on the par-5 13th hole.
One of the most outgoing players on Tour, Homa – who was in fourth place at the time at 7 under – spoke with CBS analysts Trevor Immelman, Ian Baker-Finch and Frank Nobilo about the hole and how he planned to attack it. With an iPhone and an AirPod, Homa helped usher in one of the best golf broadcast innovations since shot tracer.
“I thought it was good to have insight on the golf course,” Homa said after his round in 2023. “Obviously it’s going to take us as players being a lot more flexible, but this is an entertainment product and that means we should entertain.”
“If it makes you super uncomfortable, that’s all good, but it wasn’t so bad, that was the first rendition,” he continued. “Hopefully, like I said, people at home appreciated it and enjoyed it because I just think it’s a little different than an interview. You’re learning about a hole, about not just the player but about the tournament and the golf course and what it takes to be playing, you know, high-level competitive golf.”
Sellers Shy, the lead golf producer for CBS Sports, said last year the walk-and-talk is now “a box we have to check every week,” but players like Xander Schauffele were hesitant to partake at first as many thought it would negatively impact their round and take their focus off the task at hand. Homa was quick to throw water on that fire as he went on to win the tournament the next day.
“I think that the walk-and-talk at least was kind of something risky and different, but I think it turned out quite good,” Homa said earlier this week ahead of his title defense. “I’m sure there’s other variations that we could do, but just in general I think that’s kind of the direction at least, I’ll just speak for myself, I’d like to see golf go do. It’s not too crazy, it’s not too unbelievable to have people do something like that. I thought that it was nice. I mean, it’s nice to do it and then win and then look at people who said it might be distracting and then at least have that to say.”
Homa has some ideas for what the next entertainment innovations could be but didn’t share specifics. He did, however, praise MLB for its new pitch clock and the NBA for the in-season tournament.
“They seemed really extreme,” Homa said at first. “Yeah, it was a jump and it was a stretch, but it worked … so as crazy as those things sounded, I – as a fan of those sports – was like really pleased with what I saw.
“I just think trying stuff to entertain is really what the point of this all is,” he added, “just kind of evolving and being creative and things of that nature.”
Which begs the question, what comes next?
The NFL will have players wear a mic for an entire game, and then producers pick out the highlights to air during downtimes on the broadcast or as bumpers before and after commercials. Despite Homa’s success at the Farmers and Nick Taylor’s triumph at the RBC Canadian Open after doing a final round walk-and-talk, many players still don’t feel comfortable wearing a mic for one hole, let alone an entire round.
“We imagine that every single word we’re saying is being broadcast and it’s just not very comfortable,” said Homa, who also pleaded for his fellow players to get out of their comfort zones to give back to the viewership so that it gives them not just a reason to watch, but a reason to keep watching.
We’ve heard Homa, Rory McIlroy, Rickie Fowler, Collin Morikawa, Min Woo Lee and more on the mic, but it truly doesn’t matter who’s participating. Almost any player or caddie, no matter how outgoing they may or may not be, can provide the viewer with a level of expertise they simply don’t possess. The more who get involved, the better off the broadcast will be.
Outside the ropes and up in the tower, NBC has yet to replace Paul Azinger with a full-time color analyst. Instead, the network has opted to use a rotating cast of voices including Kevin Kisner, Brandel Chamblee and Paul McGinley. The fresh voices have each brought something new to the broadcast and have kept the early-season events from going stale. Whether they meant to or not, avoiding a rushed hire has been an added benefit to the broadcast.
Maybe caddies will wear a mic next to help call the action. An on-the-range segment where players discuss what they’re working on would be interesting. What about an alternative show, similar to Monday Night Football’s ManningCast, for some of the marquee events?
There’s no shortage of ways for the game to modernize and entice its growing fan base. Like Homa said, the players and executives calling the shots just need to get out of their comfort zones.
Homa is looking to become the first player to defend his title at Torrey Pines since Tiger Woods won from 2005-08.
SAN DIEGO — Max Homa grew up watching the Farmers Insurance Open and even skipped class to sneak down to Torrey Pines to watch Tiger Woods play the South Course one year.
“One hole, 15, another bear of a hole, I remember he hit a massive drive and it looked like he hit a 9-iron and spun it back to like two feet. That’s the hole that I just remember sticks out so much to me,” he said Tuesday. “It’s graceful and it’s powerful, something you have to almost see up close.”
“Even when I got out here as a professional, just the vibe around him,” Homa continued. “One year there was a fog delay and we were all stuck on the putting green and he’s playing with two very popular and amazing golfers, Billy Horschel and (Rickie Fowler). The first day there was a thousand people on the putting green and the next day he had withdrawn that afternoon, the next day there was the same fog delay and there were like 22 people around us. It was like ‘Dang, this guy really controls the world.’ Just stuff like that I always thought was fascinating about him.”
Making his eighth Farmers Insurance Open appearance this week, Homa has returned to the 36-hole municipal gem along the cliffs of the Pacific Ocean with a lofty goal: become the first player to defend his title at Torrey Pines since Woods won four consecutive years from 2005-2008. A title defense wouldn’t be anything new for Homa, who went back-to-back up the coast in Napa in 2021 and 2022 at the Fortinet Championship for two of his six PGA Tour wins.
In fact, four of the Burbank native’s victories have come in his home Golden State, but don’t just chalk up his California success to good vibes. Homa noted a similarity between Torrey Pines and Riviera – where he won the 2021 Genesis Invitational – and how both courses demand elite ball striking, which happens to be one the best parts of his fine-tuned game. Not to mention his comfort with putting on those pesky poa annua greens.
“A lot of guys seem to struggle on poa annua. I know a lot of guys complain about it. I don’t know, I’ve just had a lot of success putting on poa annua,” Homa explained while also noting his struggles at last year’s U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club. “I grew up putting on it. It’s just one of those things I probably have a bit more comfort in it around the whole state.”
Homa’s title defense isn’t the only reason he’s in the headlines this week. On Tuesday Capital One’s “The Match” announced Homa would compete against Rory McIlroy, Lexi Thompson and Rose Zhang in the next version of the made-for-TV series. Usually one to never shy away from having a little fun, Homa declined to start the trash talk with his three opponents.
“I need to save my bullets because they’re all phenomenal golfers and I have a feeling if things get going sideways, I’m only going to have one bit of value left and it will be my mouth,” he quipped. “I’m going to save those for when I need them.”
Admirable as his humility may be, Homa is riding the best wave of form of his career these days. Homa followed his 2022 campaign that featured two wins and five top-10 finishes with two more wins and a whopping 13 top-10s in 2023. He also had a runner-up and a third-place showing as well as a win in November in South Africa on the DP World Tour.
“Wins, you leave a legacy with wins so I’m never going to discount them or discredit them,” said Homa, “but when you’re talking about the best players, they’re around the lead a lot.”
“I was incredibly proud of last season not as much because of two wins, but I was really pumped about the top-10s,” he added. “I just want to put myself in position as much as possible. I know there’s going to be weeks that I get it done and weeks that I don’t, but being around it I think shows the, I guess, skill and talent of a golfer.”
Tiger Woods made Torrey Pines his personal ATM for a 14-year stretch of his PGA Tour career.
Seven of his 82 victories on Tour came at the famed southern California muni, the first in 1999 and the last in 2013. And don’t forget his 2008 U.S. Open win over Rocco Mediate.
Woods isn’t in the field for this week’s 2024 Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, but a handful of the players who are competing just couldn’t help but talk about Tiger in their pre-tournament press conferences. Check out what Max Homa, Xander Schauffele and more had to say about Tiger Woods and his history at Torrey Pines.
For the first time in its history, “The Match” series will feature two of the biggest stars in the women’s game, Rose Zhang and Lexi Thompson. Joining them will be Rory McIlroy and Max Homa, with the event slated for Feb. 26 at The Park golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida.
The made-for-TV event will be 12 holes, and the format will be skins. For a player to win a skin, they must win the hole outright. If two or more players tie for the best score on a hole, the skin carries over to the next hole.
All four players will use the same tee boxes on par 3s, while varying tee boxes will be used for the remaining holes. This match will benefit the First Tee program.
TNT’s broadcast team will include Charles Barley, Ernie Johnson, Trevor Immelman, Kathryn Tappen, Christina Kim, Paul Bissonnette and DJ Khaled.
The event will also be available to stream on Max.
Here are some fast facts you’ll need to know about the 2024 version of the Farmers.
It’s Week 4 on the PGA Tour’s 2024 schedule, which marks the return to the calendar-year-based format.
Torrey Pines Golf Course in San Diego is once again the host for the Farmers Insurance Open.
The golf tournament first started as the San Diego Open in 1952. In 1968, it moved to Torrey Pines and became the Andy Williams San Diego Open. Tom Weiskopf won that first tournament there.
Tiger Woods has famously won the event seven times. He had an eighth victory on the golf course when he won the 2008 U.S. Open.
Here are some fast facts you’ll need to know about the 2024 version of the Farmers Insurance Open.
During Saturday’s third round in Hawaii, Homa staked his claim to being the Tour’s biggest bopper.
Max Homa isn’t the biggest pro golfer and if you didn’t know better you might think he’d pass for an accountant playing in the pro-am. In short, his isn’t the first name that pops to mind when the PGA Tour’s longest drivers are mentioned.
After all, he averaged “just” 305 yards off the tee during the 2022-23 season, which ranked 62nd on Tour. He’s slightly better than average, a good 21 yards behind Rory McIlroy league-leading average of 326 yards per blast.
But during Saturday’s third round of The Sentry in Hawaii, Homa staked his claim to being the Tour’s biggest bopper, smoking a tape-measure drive at the par-4 525-yard seventh hole at Kapalua Resort’s Plantation Course that measured an eye-popping 477 yards. It is the longest recorded drive on the Tour in the ShotLink Era (since 2003).
Before the calls that this should be entered into evidence as proof the ball goes too far and must be rolled back as soon as humanly possible (such as before Sunday’s final round in Maui), it should be noted that the seventh hole is a downhill, sharp dogleg right and it played downwind on Saturday. The locals call Plantation “The Planet” and the pros typically hit it out of this world at The Sentry. In 2023, 89 of the 121 drives of 400-plus yards on the PGA Tour were launched here.
Thanks in part to a tailwind, Homa’s blast is in the record books.
Four. Hundred. Seventy-Seven. Yards. Wind-aided, downhill, rolls forever on a sloping fairway, plays shorter than it’s posted yardage, sure, but 477 is still 477 and we bow down to Homa, who delivered quite the poke.
For it being uphill into the wind with no roll I was pretty proud of this one https://t.co/3UXfT97tFB
