5 picks our expert likes

Welcome to our weekly PGA Tour gambling tips column, featuring picks from GOLF.com expert prognosticator Brady Kannon. A seasoned golf bettor and commentator, Kannon is a host and regular guest on SportsGrid, a syndicated audio network dedicated to sports and sports betting, and is a golf betting analyst for CBS Sportsline. You can follow Brady on Twitter at @LasVegasGolferand you can read his picks below for the 2026 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, which begins Thursday in Pebble Beach, California.

Last season we had JJ Spaun (100-1) lose in a playoff at the Players and Justin Rose (100-1) lose in a playoff at the Masters. We’re 0-for-1 in playoffs now in 2026 after our guy, Hideki Matsuyama (26-1) birdied the last hole of regulation and then lost to Chris Gotterup in a surprise playoff Sunday in Scottsdale. Sometimes you play it right and it just doesn’t happen. For him Pebble beach. Let’s see if we can play it correctly again.

West Coast Swing resumes on the incredible Monterey Peninsula. of AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am is the first PGA Tour signature event of the new season. The field is limited to 80 players, there is no cut, and amateurs will play the pros only on Thursday and Friday. Similar to what we saw two weeks ago at Torrey Pines, it’s a two-way rotation this week on Thursday and Friday between Pebble and Spyglass Hill. Each player will play one round at each course for the first two days and then over the weekend, it’s all Pebble Beach.

The two golf courses are undoubtedly similar, in terms of location and coastal influence, and both courses feature Poa Annua grass greens. Spyglass Hill, however, is mostly treed and wooded with only a handful of holes featuring views of Carmel Bay. The fairways are narrower and the greens are medium in size. Neighboring Pebble Beach is almost entirely exposed to the shoreline, has wide fairways and some of the smallest greens on Tour.

With three of the four rounds being played at Pebble Beach, that’s where most of my focus lies. Hitting the greens in regulation is a big part of the puzzle here and because the greens are so small, so is Scrambling. Greens will be missed and getting up and down successfully will go a long way towards claiming a win. That’s how it will be decided. Again, as we saw two weeks ago at Torrey Pines, Poa Annua is the setting ground and can be very tricky. I tend to lean towards players who are more familiar with this type of surface and have had success on it in the past.

Both golf courses are of the shorter variety. Pebble is just under 7,000 yards and Spyglass is just over 7,000 yards. What it adds are par 4s that measure between 350-450 yards and an emphasis on the approach game from 75-150 yards.

For comparison purposes, I used Sea Island where they play the RSM Classic in the fall. I also used Torrey Pineswhich in many ways is very different but shares the coastal location of California and Poa Annua greens. I also used Hamilton and St. George’s Golf and Country Club in Canada. These courses have hosted the last three Canadian Opens and we see many of the same names appear at the top of these tables. For example, Rory McIlroy is your defending champion here at Pebble Beach with Shane Lowry finishing runner-up. It was the exact same combination going 1-2 in Hamilton at the Canadian Open in 2019. McIlroy also went on to win in St. Louis. George’s in Canada in 2022.

Viktor Hovland (35-1)

Pebble Beach holds a special place in Hovland’s career. He won the US Amateur here in 2018 and then became the low amateur the following year at the 2019 US Open at Pebble Beach, finishing 12th. Even when he was really struggling in 2025, he managed to finish in the top 25 at Pebble. This year, he’s tied for 10th at TPC Scottsdale, where he ranked fifth in the field for SG: Approach and 16th for SG: Putting. I love the momentum to continue here in a place where it really thrives. Also, Hovland finished runner-up at Torrey Pines in 2021.

Cameron Young (38-1)

Young is two-for-two with interceptions this season and last week in Phoenix, he was especially good with the throw and scrambling. He’s never been spectacular here at Pebble Beach, but in two trips to Torrey Pines, he’s finished 20th and 22nd, so I like that he seems to be able to handle the greens of Poa Annua. Going back to last summer, Young played in 11 events. He finished in the top 5 five times, including a win at the Wyndham Championship. He finished in the top 11 three more times. Over the last 24 rounds, he ranks 25th in the field for Greens Won in Regulation, Scrambling, 350-450 yard Par 4s, and Approximate Holes from 100-125 yards.

Maverick McNealy (40-1)

We tried McNealy to open the season in Hawaii and he finished 24th at the Sony Open. Since then, he is 10th at Torrey Pines and was 13th last week at Scottsdale, where he finished sixth in the field for Greens in Regulation. McNealy grew up on the Monterey Peninsula and knows this course as well, if not better, than anyone in the field. Let’s not forget that his first PGA Tour victory came in the fall of 2024 at Sea Island in the RSM Classic. He is very solid in all the stats I looked at this week and ranks sixth in the field for SG:Putting (Poa Annua) and close to the hole from 125-150 yards over the last 24 rounds.

Taylor Pendrith (95-1)

We’ll go a little deeper into the odds table to round out the card, and I’ll go with the Taylor Canadian Dip starting with Pendrith, who has finished ninth and seventh in his last two visits to Pebble Beach and has also been ninth and seventh at Torrey Pines. He finished 21st in Hamilton at the Canadian Open in 2024 and has been 15th at the RSM Classic. Over the last 24 rounds, Pendrith is ranked 24th in this field for SG: Putting (Poa Annua). He has missed his last two cuts but started the year with a sixth-place finish at the Sony Open.

Nick Taylor (125-1)

The other half of the Canadian Taylors is Nick, a former champion here at Pebble Beach when he came from the gate to the wire in 2020. He’s probably one of the meanest and best players in the world it seems, who never gets that elite billing. A five-time winner on Tour, he has been particularly good in the West Coast Swing, winning last year’s Sony Open and taking the WM Phoenix Open in 2024. His best traits are accuracy off the tee, greens in regulation and scrambling. No surprise that has served him well here in the past. He is also ranked 35th in the field for SG: Putting (Poa Annua) in the last 24 rounds.