02-12-26

16 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY FEBRUARY 12-18, 2026 www.montereycountynow.com 2026 AT&T PEBBLE BEACH PRO-AM The PGA Tour signature event involves 80 of the world’s best professionals playing Feb. 12-15. They are joined by 80 amateurs for the first two rounds. COURSES: Pebble Beach Golf Links, 1700 17-Mile Drive, Pebble Beach Spyglass Hill Golf Course, 3206 Stevenson Drive, Pebble Beach PURSE: $20 million WINNER’S SHARE: $3.6 million SCHEDULE: Thursday 8:45am • Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill, Professionals and amateurs Friday 8:45am • Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill, Professionals and amateurs Saturday 8:25am • Pebble Beach, Professionals Sunday 7:55am • Pebble Beach, Professionals TICKETS: $119-$452 attpbgolf.com PRO-AM SCHEDULE the area’s woods and dunes). It is also visually compelling, opening to the Pacific Ocean and winding through the Del Monte Forest. But the subtleties have given Spyglass a reputation, one summed up by ScHoolboy Q on a blustery day in 2023—the last Pro-Am involving celebrities before the format changed to attract the top tour professionals. As he took stock of the situation, the rap star shook his head ruefully. “Pray for me, bro,” he said. By the numbers, Spyglass Hill is on terms with any other championship course. Average scores from amateur tournaments played there suggest that it dings golfers by just a single stroke compared to Pebble Beach Golf Links. Statistics compiled by Data Golf specifically from PGA Tour events since 2015 paint Spyglass as comparatively meek. Tour pros recorded an average score to par of -1.27 to Pebble’s -0.66. Both look mild against the windswept Torrey Pines South course outside of San Diego (+2.57) or England’s fearsome Royal Troon (+3.01). How that can look in reality is quite different. For example, after Friday rounds wrapped up during the 2024 edition of the AT&T Pebble Beach ProAm, Mathieu Pavon was the only golfer who tested Spyglass to land in the top five on the leaderboard—and he was clinging to a tie for fifth. “They’re entirely different golf courses,” explains John Sawin, senior vice president of golf for the Pebble Beach Company. The famed links course hugs the coast, making it more exposed to the whims of weather, but it also offers golfers some respite. PIRATE’S TREASURE While Pebble Beach is a bucket list course—even for professionals—Spyglass Hill has a reputation. By Dave Faries Brian Harman tees off at Spyglass Hill during the opening round of the 2025 Pro-Am. Tommy Fleetwood studies his options. The greens at Spyglass can punish a wayward putt. Nick Taylor is more charitable than many when he speaks of Spyglass Hill Golf Course. “It’s a clever design, the doglegs are subtle,” says the 2020 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am champion. He speaks of the 1st hole, which forces golfers to target an unseen patch of fairway from the tee and then taunts them with a slope down to the green. “There are just a lot of subtleties you don’t see a lot these days.” While new technology—clubs with greater striking power and precision, balls that fly further—have clipped the talons of many seminal courses, Spyglass Hill remains a threat. True, the course can appear playful. Many of its holes bear names drawn from Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, such as Billy Bones or Black Dog (the author wrote about roaming DANIEL DREIFUSS DANIEL DREIFUSS

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