News

PGA Tour Spotlight Moves Up the California Coast

Published

16 years ago

Feb 9, 2010

Some will call this week’s AT&T Pebble Beach national Pro-Am a preview of the United States Open Championship set to play out over the same venue this June. However, those that do may not be looking as close as they should.

Sure the four champions of the Pebble Beach hosted U.S. Open’s – Tom Watson, Tom Kite, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods, also have Pebble Beach National Pro-Am Trophies (or versions of them under various sponsorship reigns) at home but that is about as far as the comparison should go.

As many players have stated, it does not take a lot of rounds to gain enough knowledge to play Pebble Beach Golf Links, the host of a three-course tournament rotation, well but playing there in February is far different than playing it in U.S. Open conditions.

Rain has already been falling this week on the Monterey Peninsula and the course set-up will be much softer than what the USGA will lay out from June 17-20, 2010. Yes, the 40 yard fairways at Pebble Beach have already been narrowed to almost half that span but at this time of year drives will land softly on them. Come June those same drives will be bouncing off wildly into the rough.

Of course, many players already know this, and combined with the normally slow pro-am format, a fair number of the tour’s best players, including last week’s winner Steve Stricker, will not be present this week in Northern California.

That is not to say that the field will not be flush with quality players. The overall recognition level of the combatants maybe the strongest of the season so far, rivaling the attendance at the limited-field season-opening SBS Championship.

Last year’s winner of the rain shortened event, Dustin Johnson, will be trying to improve on his third-place finish last week at Riviera in pursuit of his third PGA Tour victory. Just five men have won AT&T National Pro-Am’s in back to back years and undoubtedly Johnson would like to join the names of Snead, Middlecoff, Watson, O’Meara, and Nicklaus in having completed the feat.

Other leading players in the field this week include perennial contender (but yet a victor) Mike Weir, the now #3 player in the world, Phil Mickelson, and Padraig Harrington. Luke Donald could also be a factor, considering his ability to keep the ball in play and his high confidence level based on a second-place finish last week.

This year the players will not have to endure Poppy Hills GC (often soggy at this time of year), the layout has been replaced by the more acceptable Monterey Peninsula Country Club’s Shore Course. It will join Pebble Beach GL (Host) and Spyglass Hill in the tournament rotation for the first time since 1977.

The Shore Course is highly regarded by all who have played it. It was revamped in 2004 by the team of Forrest Fezler and Mike Strantz. It was the last project for the artistic Strantz who lost his fight with cancer the next year.

Of course, we cannot forget that there is an amateur side to this pro-am. The usual cast of suspects are back. With Golf Channel providing early round coverage you can expect a lot of air time for Ray Romano as he is the subject for their new Hank Haney Project rolling out on March 1^st.

Joining Romano and likely to show up in the TV coverage will be quarterbacks Tony Romo and Tom Brady, along with celebs Huey Lewis, Chris Berman, George Lopez, Chris O’Donnell, Michael Bolton, Kenny G. and John O’Hurley.

Golf Channel will have live broadcasts from 3 P.M. to 6 P.M. (all time quoted as EST) on Thursday and Friday. CBS picks up the weekend from 3 P.M. until 6 P.M. on Saturday and from 3 P.M. until 6:30 P.M. on Sunday.

Notes:

The event got its start in 1937 when Sam Snead won the first Bing Crosby hosted tournament in Rancho Santa Fe and won $500.

The winner this year will pick up $1.116 million out of the $6.2 million purse.

This year celebrates 25 years with AT&T as the primary sponsor.

The 3-course rotation began in 1947 and then included Pebble Beach , Cypress Point Country Club, and Monterey Peninsula Country Club.

—

This report provided to GolfWRX.com by Flagstick Golf Magazine (www.flagstick.com)

Tour Photo Galleries

Photos from the 2026 OccuNet Classic

Published

2 hours ago

Jun 9, 2026

GolfWRX Staff

With the PGA Tour across the border in Canada this week, GolfWRX Tour Photographer Greg Moore stayed stateside and headed to the OccuNet Classic presented by Amarillo National Bank in Amarillo, Texas.

It’s always interesting to see what the guys are playing on the KFT, and this week certainly hasn’t disappointed so far, with some incredible wedge stamping on display.

Check out links to all our albums below.

General Albums

2026 OccuNet Classic (KFT) – Monday #1

WITB Albums

Pullout Albums

Luke Potter’s custom Cameron putter – 2026 OccuNet Classic (KFT)

News

From the GolfWRX Classifieds: Scotty Cameron GOLO 6 with BGT Stability Tour2 2022 M Edition

Published

2 hours ago

Jun 9, 2026

Will Schube

At GolfWRX, we are a community of like-minded individuals who all experience and express our enjoyment of the game in many ways.

It’s that sense of community that drives day-to-day interactions in the forums on topics that range from best driver to what marker you use to mark your ball. It even allows us to share another thing we all love – buying and selling equipment.

Currently, in our GolfWRX buy/sell/trade (BST) forum, @HuskerFlyer is sharing a Scotty Cameron GOLO with a BGT Stability Tour2 2022 M Edition shaft. While the putter is certainly enviable, the Augusta-inspired shaft is equally noteworthy.

From the listing:

Scotty Cameron Golo 6 with BGT Stability Tour2 2022 M Edition Scotty Headcover 34″ $375

To check out the full listing in our BST forum, head through the link. If you are curious about the rules to participate in the BST Forum, you can learn more here: GolfWRX BST Rules.

News

J.T. Poston delivers career-changing victory after major gear changes

Published

24 hours ago

Jun 8, 2026

Alistair Cameron

J.T. Poston required extra holes Sunday to earn a handshake from Jack Nicklaus himself and walk away with the biggest victory of his career.

Poston outlasted Ryan Gerard on the second playoff hole at the Memorial Tournament, and the victory at Jack’s place was aided by two significant gear switches ahead of the tournament in Ohio.

Firstly, Poston swapped from the Titleist Pro V1x to the new Pro V1x Left Dash in his last start at the Charles Schwab Challenge. It’s the ball that made headlines just a month ago, when Jordan Spieth also transitioned into the low-spinning variant at the Cadillac Championship.

Poston’s ball change was spurred by a discussion with Titleist Tour reps about testing some options that could be a little better for him in the wind, after the now four-time PGA Tour winner had gained slightly more speed of late and was feeling like his irons and full wedge shots were overspinning.

Poston spent time testing both the current-generation Pro V1 and the new Left Dash at home the week after the PGA Championship, and at Colonial Country Club, he spent more time dialing things in on the range with J.J. Van Wezenbeeck before deciding to tee up the Left Dash that week. At the time, Poston was 85th in SG: Approach (+0.024); he gained +1.402 at Colonial.

“So we felt like today was going to be a good test of that and it obviously performed really well,” Poston said after a second-round 65 at Muirfield Village which propelled him into the lead. “We had a couple shots that I felt like didn’t quite hit ’em perfect and it hung in there pretty well. So I feel like just having that confidence in that too is big, where I just — we’re trying to hit the smart shot and hit the right shot and just trying to execute and go from there.”

On his way to victory, Poston delivered a dominant performance from tee-to-green and was +8.081 in approach and tied for fourth in greens in regulation.

Poston’s Memorial victory was also the first on Tour for the new torched line of TaylorMade’s 2026 Spider putters. Poston also added the L-Neck Tour X at the Charles Schwab Challenge the week prior, something prompted because “it seems to be working for a lot of the other guys.”

A usually reliable putter, Poston had dropped to as low as 89th on Tour in strokes gained, and when he saw his good friend Denny McCarthy using the Spider, he thought about the change. With the new flatstick in hand, Poston gained close to seven shots on the field at the Memorial and ranked third in SG: Putting for the week.

Poston was the first to agree, though, that neither switch was more important than the other.

“The ball got me there, the putter helped me get it in the hole,” Poston said.

See Poston’s full winning WITB here.