It was a busy week at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, a star-studded Signature Event where we had wild weather on an iconic golf course, the return of Scottie Scheffler, a handful of interesting pre-round press conferences and, of course, Rory McIlroy’s 27th career PGA Tour victory. What’s your main Pebble Beach takeaway?
Josh Sens, senior writer (@joshsens): That a short injury layoff has done nothing to change Scottie Scheffler and that 2025 will be much like 2024. No, he didn’t win this week. But if his putter behaves even halfway decently, we will need two hands to count his victories this season. Also, a reminder that venues matter. Those Pebble views–and shot demands– never get old.
James Colgan, news and features editor (@jamescolgan26): Other than Rory McIlroy making our jobs easy prior to Masters week? In all seriousness, so impressed with the way he played this week. He talked on Tuesday about changing his wedge approach to fire at pins, rather than missing to “safe places.” That worked. I think he should keep doing that.
Dylan Dethier, senior writer (@dylan_dethier): The PGA Tour season is officially underway! Good golf. Familiar names on the leaderboard. Epic Pebble Beach visuals. And a proper champion with a heck of a weekend. Golf fans needed this.
Sunday was the third time McIlroy has won in his season debut on the PGA Tour (the others in 2021 and 2022 at the CJ Cup), but he’s still looking to end a lengthy major drought, which has now reached a decade. Which 2025 major venue sets up best for Rory?
Colgan: Hard to see him losing at Quail Hollow if he plays like he did in Pebble. That course is tailor-made for his game, and features none of the existential concern attached to two of the year’s four venues, Augusta National and Royal Portrush.
Dethier: I like Colgan giving him this year’s PGA Championship but let’s REALLY get wild and get drunk with recency bias: With Scheffler and Schauffele coming off injuries, this is basically his year to win ‘em all, right? (Consider this the reverse jinx.) Augusta still sets up well. He has epic history at Portrush. And Quail Hollow was built with his game specifically in mind. I think it’s really just a question of whether he can win at Oakmont and go four for four.
Sens: Exactly. And if the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes is still a thing, he’ll win that, too. Seriously, though, I said it a few months ago and I’ll repeat it. This is the year when recent history inverts and McIlroy wins the Masters. His vanquishing of the hobgoblins will be the story of the year.
Last week’s fourth installment of TGL might have been the best edition to date, as McIlroy’s squad clipped Tiger Woods’ team in an overtime tiebreaker. While the extra starpower helped, ratings came in at 864,000 average viewers (which ranks third among the four matches). Did that match and those ratings give you reason for optimism, or pessimism?
Sens: I’ve been skeptical about TGL’s staying power from the start, and those ratings did little to dispel my doubts. Ironically, I suspect that the league’s biggest impact may be not in the simulated game but in the green-grass world, where it stands to further the urgency of the conversation around pace of play. This is anecdotal, but the most popular feature of TGL appears to be the shot clock. It really is nice to see the guys have to step up and hit. Let’s hope that spills into the non-virtual game..
Colgan: Optimism! The TGL has delivered three decent ratings stories in four weeks, which is three more decent ratings stories than LIV has delivered in three years! There are obviously still major questions about the league’s long-term standing considering the contributions it will need from players not named Tiger and Rory. But in the same sense, it’s funny to think about how much better the week-by-week would be with LIV’s stars filling out the remainder of the rosters.
Dethier: Optimism, but more because of the match itself (compelling action) than the ratings (good, if unspectacular). Everybody seemed to walk away saying, “wow, that was fun!” which is the only real bar we should be using as measurement. Good TGL week. Good PGA Tour week. Just in time for the end of football season.
Speaking of Tiger, in a PGA Tour Champions presser, Paul Azinger said he feels Woods might feel “obligated” to join the senior tour when Woods turns 50. “The Tour has given Tiger a lot of money the last few years with that Player Impact Program,” Azinger said. “I’m sure he’s going to give back, and it’s going to be to all the benefit of these guys out here that are over 50.” Do you agree with Azinger?
Sens: His health permitting, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Tiger make some appearances on the over-50 circuit. But “obligation” won’t be the driving force. He lives to compete and I suspect he doesn’t think he owes anyone anything. And while I can’t see the week-to-week schedule of the Champions Tour satisfying his competitive appetite, playing in a few senior majors along the way might do the trick.
Colgan: I’m going to assume I didn’t hear the full extent of Azinger’s opinion and give him the benefit of the doubt. But from these words alone, it’s one of the worst golf opinions I’ve heard in a long time. The Tour could pay Tiger PIP money every year from now until the end of time and it still wouldn’t make up for the debt the Tour owes Tiger. Tiger Woods isn’t obligated to give the PGA Tour a bag of golf tees, let alone a few weeks per year of his time. If he chooses to play on the Champs Tour, good on him, but it’ll be because he wants to win and compete, not because he ‘owes’ anyone at Tour HQ anything.
Dethier: James nailed this one. Let’s hope this was taken somehow out of tone or context because Tiger Woods does not owe the PGA Tour one single thing and yet he’s still serving on its board just ‘cause. It’s certainly not his responsibility to prop up the champions tour.
The fourth LIV Golf season kicks off this week in Saudi Arabia — complete with a new TV deal — as the breakaway league plays on as a potential merger with the PGA Tour continues to drag on. What’s your biggest LIV Golf storyline or question you want answered as we head into Year 4?
Sens: It’s hard for me to separate any thoughts about LIV from thoughts about the majors, the only events where we get to see all of the best in one place. Will the LIV guys continue to show well in them? Or will the pessimistic predictions about the LIV guys losing their edge start to come true? Also, as more time wears on, and fewer LIV players have pathways into the biggest events, will disgruntlement spread? Any growing evidence of buyer’s remorse? It sure didn’t look like money bought Jon Rahm happiness last year. For him and other guys who might have expected a deal to have been worked out by now, how much disillusionment will they feel. And show.
Colgan: I’m interested in the TV broadcast, which seems to be driving tee times under the lights in Saudi Arabia and beyond. The tech is better than it gets credit for.
Dethier: I’m interested in whether people will be interested. Will LIV get momentum thanks to its Fox TV deal? We’ll get something closer to an apples-to-apples ratings comparison, which should inform the conversation around the pro game going forward.
At Pebble Beach, several PGA Tour executives met with reporters to discuss the pillars of their “Fan Forward” initiative. While our writers on-site already broke this down in detail here, we’ll ask for your succinct take: what nugget was most intriguing to you?
Sens: The tough talk around slow play, and the prospect of naming and shaming laggards by posting individual pace data. Will that tough talk turn into firm action? I hope so. Plenty of other sports have managed to pick up the pace. It’s long past time for professional golf to do the same.
Colgan: I was in that meeting (alongside my pal Dylan), and am intrigued by the changes hinted on the broadcast side. On one hand, I like the idea of focus group testing different broadcasts to see what fans really want. On the other hand, my social sciences degree says focus group testing might not be a cure-all for the issues the Tour can fix, to say nothing of the ones it can’t.
