Pebble beach –For an hour or two in a beautiful Sunday afternoon at Jewel Crown of American Golf, it felt like everything is right with PGA Tour.
At the height of his powers, Rory Mcilroy added a signature show in his career of the Hall of Fame. His presence, along with 43 others in the top 50 places of world ranking, set a call point in the evolution of AT&T Pebble Beach pro-am by a tired clamp, led by celebrities in a large tournament anchoring the western coast swing. Mcilroy mastery with Pebble as scenes made for Riveting TV. After fighting his way to a two-shot lead through 13 holes, Mcilroy began from 14 and one of the most memorable discs in the latest Pebble Beach story, a 339-Oborre missile that touched 190 miles per hour rapidly of the ball and 168 feet at its peak. He followed with a gorgeous 7-eat from 201 yards that left 27 meters for Eagle, a blow he performed as a round practice. Game over.
His game partner and close friend Shane Lowry could only shake his head eagerly. “I always say, when he or Scottie (Scheffler) have their game A, they are invincible,” says Lowry, who ended second after his 68 closing became better than 66 of Mcilroy. “That’s so simple. I’m not sitting for myself not to win – I’m not stupid.”
Mcilroy recently spoke openly about trying to imitate Efficient, wrong style of Scheffler’s errorAnd this is exactly what he produced in Pebble, especially during a 65 quiet Saturday at Vintage Crosby Weather. “He did all the right things,” says Justin Rose, who was tied to the third. “He had control of his wedges. He was controlling all his distances quite nicely. It was a very professional round of golf. “Rosa’s Smirk betrays that mcilroy clumsy, in the past, has been prone to school mistakes. Mcilroy has more power of fire than any other player in the tour, so it’s delicious to think about what he can Arrive if he marries his power with more control and discipline.
“I will still argue the issue for Rory,” Lowry says.
The 27th Mcilroy tour victory moves it inside one of Paul (Little Poison) Runyan and Leo Diegel for the 20th list of all time. The ban of UncREaseen, Mcilroy, 35, is one year or two away from legends passing like Lee Trevino (29 wins), Horton Smith (30) and Jimmy Demaret (31). Arriving in 31 wins would make Mcilroy among the 15 most productive winners in the history of sports. With this prevailing show he has set himself for another date with Destiny in Masters, the missing part in Mcilroy’s 11-year-old attempt to look for Grand Slam career. He has had many heart attacks in Augusta National, not to say anything about the old course. Pebble Beach ends the holy trinity of golf.
“And I had a large zero fat for everyone who entered here,” Mcilroy said after the last round. “So knocking one (in) pebble is very delightful.”
Good victory is exactly what needed the surrounded tournament. But four days with gas in Pebble Beach are not enough to radically change discourse. Absent in the field was The biggest star in the game, Bryson Dechambeau of Livwho last week had to go to India to find a game. The continued tournaments of the tournament also deprived the 5-time Pebble champion field Phil Mickelson; The most fruitful winner of the great post-Tirana era championship, Brooks Koepka; And the heavyweight duo of Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton, who, along with Mcilroy, will lead the European Ryder Cup team this September in Bethpage.
With their easy workload, liv’ers have mojo to travel to the world (like Dechambeau Cameo in Asian Tournament) and Produce abundant amounts of entertainment content for YouTube. The tournament has made some bacon made Attempts to co-chosen the crowd on YouTube But 80 amateurs were invited to play in Pebble’s pro-am format and not a single was a new influenza/hip or creator of content. D’H!
Pebble was a sign of times in other ways: the heavy load of the signature event era received a fee on the stars of the tournament. Xander Schauffle is still out with an annoying rib injury. Victor Hovland (TOE) and Jordan Spieth (hand surgery) made late season debuts at Pebble Beach. Meanwhile, a tired Mcilroy confirmed last week that he would shorten his beginnings around the world from 27 to 2024 to 22 this year, a serious loss of cash. Recently launched tgl Not helping: Mcilroy flew to Pebble last Tuesday after playing a TGL match the night before and then rushing from California back to Florida to compete in another TGL coming out the day after his victory.
The arrival of TGL, with its fast shot 40 secondsThere has been another consequence for the tournament, emphasizing his slow miserable game. This is not news: Lee Trevino appeared on the cover of Golf In 1973 under the title: Trevino declares war in a slow game. The tournament has always had numerous rules regarding the slow game, but zero determination to enforce them; Between 1995 and 2017, no single penalties with a slow blow was withdrawn. With so much the last anger for the Slow Play, the tournament felt forced to let go of the first round of Pebble a 4 -point plan to fight Scourge. It was hard not to think about Gordon Gekko’s Riffin path: “One thing I know is that our company lost $ 110 million last year and I will bet that half of this was spent on all the documents that went back and forth among all these vice presidents.”
Then came the right tour and Tom Kim spent more than a minute bowing over his ball in the 6th hole in Pebble Beach before waiting in the ocean, leading to more anger on Golf Twitter and with behavior Soft Frank Nobloo to sigh on national TV, “This is not worth waiting.” Some things never change. (At least the purpose of Kim; on Sunday, TV viewers lost leaders playing the 6th and 7th dramatic holes occurring in 2025. ”)
Returning Spieth to competition was a welcome development – who doesn’t love Jordan? – But the exclusion of his sponsor in the Pebble field highlighted the continuous crisis of the tournament of the tournament. When Liv began, the most powerful opposition of the tournament was that it is the meritocracy of the sports premiere. Holiness to make a cut became a kind of moral code. But signature events are now essentially puffy liv tours: no cuttings; guaranteed money; The players were given invitations based on popularity, not merit. Spieth, a long time AT&T Melorser, There has not been a top-5 finish in 20 Starters since 2024 pro-am. Mcilroy did not seem very interested in debating the correctness of the most important tournaments of the tournament by giving valuable points in this field: “If AT&T writes a great check …”.
When I asked Mcilroy after the first round if he worried about the future of the tour he grabbed, “I’m worried about myself.” After his victory he felt a little more stretched. “If I worry about myself and this (a kind of victory) happens, if that’s good for the tournament, it’s good for the tournament. But it’s better for me. I spent so much energy worrying about the tournament and where is it going everything , it is drying out.
On Sunday evening, tournament veteran Charley Hoffman sent a reprimanded email to his players and a line in particular seemed to Mcilroy, who continues to support the European tournament, “Many continue to say you want to play Little events, however, you find time for TGL, the race for Dubai and other non-PGA Tour events … “This followed Justin Thomas’s letter to players last week washing them to be more open with the media. Nearly three years in his existential battle with liv, the tournament has clearly reached a point of swelling.
For all speeches, Mcilroy is right: the best thing he can do is continue to produce wonderful golf. His performance at Pebble Beach was a necessary reminder why we all love this dumb game, and why we are so invested in the continued evolution of Mcilroy as a player.
“Funny pleasure to see, born?” Said Lowry. “When he’s going to go like this, it’s a helluva show.”
office For a moment mcilroy, everyone felt right with PGA Tour first appeared in MygolfSSS.
