PEBBLE BEACH—For an hour or two on a beautiful Sunday afternoon at the crown jewel of American golf, it felt like all is right with the PGA Tour.
At the height of his powers, Rory McIlroy added a signature performance to his Hall of Fame career. His very presence, along with 43 others in the top 50 of the World Ranking, put an exclamation point on the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am’s evolution from a tired, celebrity-driven Clambake into a big-time tournament anchoring the West Coast swing. McIlroy’s mastery with Pebble as the stage made for riveting TV. Having fought his way to a two-stroke lead through 13 holes, McIlroy launched from the 14th tee one of the more memorable drives in the recent history of Pebble Beach, a 339-yard missile that touched 190 miles per hour of ball speed and 168 feet at its apex. He followed with a towering 7-iron from 201 yards that left him 27 feet for eagle, a putt he brushed in like a practice round gimme. Game over.
His playing partner and close friend Shane Lowry could only shake his head ruefully. “I always say, when him or Scottie (Scheffler) have their A-game, they’re unbeatable,” says Lowry, who finished second as his closing 68 was bettered by McIlroy’s 66. “It’s that simple. I’m not down on myself for not winning—I’m not stupid.”
McIlroy has lately been talking openly about trying to emulate Scheffler’s efficient, mistake-averse style of play, and that is exactly what he produced at Pebble, most especially during a bogeyless 65 on Saturday in vintage Crosby weather. “He did all the right things,” says Justin Rose, who tied for third. “He had control of his wedges. He was controlling all of his distances quite nicely. It was a very professional round of golf.” Rose’s smirk betrays that the impetuous McIlroy has, in the past, been prone to schoolboy errors. McIlroy has more firepower than any other player on Tour so it’s delicious to think about what he might accomplish if he marries his power with more control and discipline. So, Shane, at this very moment, whose best golf is actually the best?
“I’ll still argue the case for Rory,” Lowry says.
McIlroy’s 27th Tour victory moves him within one of Paul (Little Poison) Runyan and Leo Dingle for 20th on the all-time list. Barring the unforeseen, McIlroy, 35, is a year or two away from passing legends like Lee Trevino (29 wins), Horton Smith (30) and Jimmy Demaret (31). Getting to 31 Tour victories would make McIlroy among the 15 most prolific winners in the history of the sport. With this dominant performance he has set himself up for yet another date with destiny at the Masters, the missing piece in McIlroy’s 11-year quest to claim the career Grand Slam. He has had plenty of heartbreak at Augusta National, to say nothing of the Old Course. Pebble Beach completes golf’s holy trinity.
“And I had a big fat zero on all of those going in here,” McIlroy said following the final round. “So to knock one off [at] Pebble is very cool.”
The feel-good win is exactly what the beleaguered Tour needed. But four sparkling days at Pebble Beach is not enough to radically alter the discourse. Missing in the field was the biggest star in the game, LIV’s Bryson DeChambeau, who last week had to go all the way to India to find a game. The ongoing Tour wars also deprived the field of 5-time Pebble champ Phil Mickelson; the most prolific major championship winner of the post-Tiger era, 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 at Bethpage.
With their light workload, LIV’ers have the mojo to travel the world (like DeChambeau’s cameo on the Asian Tour) and produce copious amounts of fun-loving content for YouTube. The Tour has made some ham-fisted attempts to co-opt the YouTube crowd but 80 amateurs were invited to play in Pebble’s Pro-Am format and not a single one was a young/hip influencer or content creator. D’oh!
Pebble was a sign of the times in other ways: The heavy workload of the Signature Event era has taken a toll on Tour stars. Xander Schauffele is still out with a nagging rib injury. Viktor Hovland (toe) and Jordan Spieth (wrist surgery) made belated season debuts at Pebble Beach. Meanwhile, a weary McIlroy confirmed last week that he will cut his worldwide starts from 27 in 2024 to 22 this year, a serious loss of box office. The recently launched TGL isn’t helping: McIlroy flew into Pebble last Tuesday after having played a TGL match the night before and then was rushing from California back to Florida to compete in another TGL outing the day after his win.
The arrival of the TGL, with its brisk 40-second shot clock, has had another unfortunate consequence for the Tour by highlighting its deplorable slow play. This is not news: Lee Trevino appeared on the cover of Golf Magazine in 1973 under the headline: TREVINO DECLARES WAR ON SLOW PLAY. The Tour has always had numerous rules about slow play but zero resolve to enforce them; between 1995 and 2017 not a single one-stroke slow-play penalty was doled out. With so much recent outrage about slow play, the Tour felt compelled to release on the eve of Pebble’s first round a 4-point plan to combat the scourge. It was hard not to think of Gordon Gekko’s riff in Wall Street: “One thing I know is our company lost $110 million last year and I’ll bet that half of that was spent in all the paperwork going back and forth between all these vice presidents.”
Then came the tournament proper and Tom Kim spent more than a minute farting around over his ball on the 6th hole at Pebble Beach before slicing it into the ocean, leading to more outrage on Golf Twitter and mild-mannered Frank Nobilo to sigh on national TV, “That was not worth the wait.” Some things never change. (At least Kim’s shot was shown; on Sunday, TV viewers missed the leaders playing the dramatic 6th and 7th holes due to the dreaded coverage gap when Golf Channel switches to CBS. @NoLayingUp’s tweets captured the outrage: “There’s just no way this is happening in 2025.”)
Spieth’s return to competition was a welcome development—who doesn’t love Jordan?—but his sponsor’s exemption into the Pebble field highlighted the Tour’s ongoing identity crisis. When LIV launched, the Tour’s most powerful rebuttal was that it is the sport’s premiere meritocracy. The sanctity of having to make a cut became a kind of moral code. But the Signature Events are now basically bloated LIV tournaments: no cut; guaranteed money; players given invitations based on popularity, not merit. Spieth, a longtime AT&T endorser, hasn’t had a top-5 finish in 20 starts since the 2024 Pro-Am. McIlroy didn’t seem too interested in debating the propriety of the Tour’s most important tournaments giving away precious spots in the field: “If AT&T writes a big check….”
When I asked McIlroy following the first round if he’s concerned about the future of the Tour he snapped, “I’m concerned about myself.” Following his win he felt a bit more expansive. “If I worry about myself and this [kind of victory] happens, if that’s good for the Tour, it’s good for the Tour. But it’s better for me. I’ve spent so much energy worrying about the Tour and where everything is going, it’s draining. I’m at the point where I want to focus on me. We’ll see where the numbers are at but hopefully this gets good ratings. That would help everything.”
On Sunday evening, Tour veteran Charley Hoffman sent a scolding email to his fellow players and one line in particular seemed directed at McIlroy, who continues to support the European Tour, too: “Many of you keep saying you want to play fewer events, yet you find time for the TGL, the Race to Dubai, and other non-PGA Tour events…” This followed Justin Thomas’s letter to the players last week beseeching them to be more open with the media. Nearly three years into its existential battle with LIV, the Tour has clearly reached an inflection point.
For all the talk, McIlroy is right: the best thing he can do is continue to produce wondrous golf. His performance at Pebble Beach was a needed reminder of why we all love this dumb game, and why we are so invested in McIlroy’s continued evolution as a player.
“It’s fun to watch, innit?” Lowry said. “When he gets going like that, it’s a helluva show.”
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