Last week, it was CBS on-course analyst Dottie Pepper who called out the final group at Torrey Pines for its snail-like pace. On Sunday, during Golf Channel’s early-round coverage of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, a number of folks on the broadcast took issue with Tom Kim’s pace at the par-5 sixth.

RELATED: Rory McIlroy wins when golf needed a Rory win

Kim’s drive found the left side of the fairway, travelling 301 yards and setting up a prime look at reaching the par 5 in two. After one of his playing partners, Justin Rose, had played his approach, the camera cut to Kim, who had seemingly just begun his pre-shot routine long after Rose’s ball came to rest.

Here is the full clip of the routine and the subsequent shot in its entirety:

https://twitter.com/TimmyTebrows/status/1886139300016017508

In another clip, you can hear analysts Jim Gallagher Jr. and Frank Nobilo both subtly rip Kim for taking that long to hit that shot. “One less waggle would have helped,” says Gallagher Jr. “It wasn’t worth the wait,” Nobilo chimes in. “For us, or him,” added Gallager Jr. Spicy!

https://twitter.com/Top100Rick/status/1886139125713051823

Whoever told these TV people to start letting it rip for real deserves a raise. Keep calling these guys out! It would be one thing if Kim actually found the green and set up and eagle putt (it still would be ridiculous). But to take four practice swings and 23 extra seconds standing at address only to flare it in the Pacific Ocean is just a horrific look.

RELATED: The clubs Rory McIlroy used to win the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am

Of course, Golf Twitter made Nobilo and Gallagher Jr.’s comments seem tame in comparison:

https://twitter.com/StephieSmallls/status/1886153481297199548

https://twitter.com/MarkALamprecht/status/1886216698396905695

https://twitter.com/SleeperGolf/status/1886154106294657529

https://twitter.com/TronCarterNLU/status/1886139925201813927

https://twitter.com/amolyajnik/status/1886140766755438605

Later in the round, Kim, Rose and the third member of their group, Cam Davis, were put on the clock for slow play:

https://twitter.com/NUCLRGOLF/status/1886171820111380539

That oughta fix the issue.

READ MORE: QUICKSHOT: Royal Golf Dar Es Salam (Blue Course)

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Professional golf is a kinetic chain; McIlroy’s 339-yard drive over a towering tree and rough and sand and more rough into the middle of the fairway some 221 yards from the hole only mattered if he took advantage of it which the next shot, and the next. For those scoring at home, he did just that. McIlroy found the green with his second shot, then dropped a 27-footer for eagle, turning the final four holes at this golf mecca into a victory march.

The final numbers: a closing 65, a 21-under 267, career PGA Tour title No. 27.

If McIlroy’s win can be distilled to a single moment, it was that tee ball, a shot that showed that everyone’s best, against his best, is not good enough.

571-yard par 5.

Rory just went driver, 7-iron. pic.twitter.com/0kwG8vap4i

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 2, 2025

McIlroy conquered both Mother Nature’s fury and a field of elite challengers, playing his best on the back nine to transform what had been a tightly packed leaderboard into a commanding procession on the Monterey Peninsula. His triumph came at an opportune moment for the PGA Tour, which craved a signature victory in a signature event from one of its standard-bearers more than McIlroy needed to add to his already illustrious résumé.

The temptation is to frame this week purely through the lens of the PGA Tour’s struggles. The reality isn’t great: Viewership has continued to free fall in 2025, pace of play has devolved into a farce—so egregious that broadcast partners are publicly rebuking their own product—and the shadow of golf’s civil war continues to loom, with radio silence on any reconciliation. Yet for all the (warranted) concerns about the tour’s present and future, the past three days have reinforced the remarkably simple formula for success: Good fields at good venues create compelling golf and transcend any administrative chaos.

Of course, it wouldn’t be professional golf without an unnecessary self-own: A coverage blackout during the Sunday’s final-round transition from Golf Channel to CBS—exacerbated by an NCAA basketball game that ran past its TV window—robbed viewers of watching the leaders navigate parts of Pebble’s iconic seaside stretch. Having McIlroy, the game’s most magnetic presence this side of Tiger, covers a lot of holes. One good week doesn’t make those problems disappear. But it does, if only for a few days, give hope that all the drama can fade into the background rather than continue to command center stage.

There’s the temptation to frame this week through what it means for McIlroy, too, and the usual cacophony of hot takes and armchair psychology that have followed him for years. Yet while the chattering class oscillates between coronation and crucifixion, the numbers tell a more compelling story: four victories in his last 20 starts, a staggering dozen top-five finishes, and just one missed cut. Even as Scottie Scheffler reigns supreme—a fact McIlroy himself acknowledged when citing the World No. 1’s consistency as his blueprint for 2025—these results demand attention.

McIlroy’s mastery of Pebble’s savage conditions crystallized in Saturday’s tempest. While others flailed against winds that threatened to sweep them into the Pacific, McIlroy orchestrated a clinic in strategic restraint, “chipping it around” with a wisdom that often eludes his more aggressive instincts. His bogey-free 65 was arguably his best round in years, and set up the opportunity McIlroy capitalized on toe claim his 42nd worldwide triumph—a staggering tally that places him in the company of titans.

 

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Since 1990, only Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Colin Montgomerie and Vijay Singh have accumulated more global hardware. Yes, the major drought persists like an unwanted houseguest since that 2014 PGA Championship, and the throne of world’s best player has changed hands multiple times in that period—Scheffler, Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Jon Rahm each taking their turn. But McIlroy’s sustained excellence stands alone among his peers, elevating him to that rarefied air where one’s achievements are measured not against contemporaries but against those whose shadows still lengthen across the sport.

Or you can frame this week and McIlroy by what happened at the 14th. Incredibly, that drive may not even with Shot of the Tournament for McIlroy. That honor arguably belongs to the hole-in-one he recorded on Thursday at Spyglass Hill, only the second ace of his PGA Tour career. But the drive at the 14th? That’s the pure, uncut McIlroy experience. Two shots clear, conventional wisdom screamed for the percentage play: a controlled fade around the trees, like everyone else plays nowadays. The fade, golf’s security blanket, offering predictability, versatility, and thanks to modern equipment, minimal sacrifice in distance. But a straight ball? That’s flirting with disaster, a high-wire act where the margin between brilliance and ruin shrinks to nothing.

Yet this is why McIlroy captivates us. In his hands, this game transforms into performance art, making the impossible appear routine. It’s his blessing and his curse, that otherworldly talent sets a standard so stratospheric that anything less feels like failure. Scheffler, the current king of golf, would never attempt such audacity. He would dissect the hole with clinical precision, in and out before we even bothered to look. McIlroy? He chose violence.

That towering rope through the California sky wasn’t just unnecessary—it was a declaration. A reminder that while others play golf, he’s one of the few that dares to bend it to his will. It’s the shot we all dream of hitting while knowing deep down we’d never dare try. That’s the intoxicating paradox of watching McIlroy: even in moments of supreme control, chaos lurks just one swing away.

This week, though, chaos never stood a chance. Both McIlroy and golf itself needed this victory—a reminder of what makes this game, and this player, so spellbinding.

Main Image: Ezra Shaw

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Nothing new really.

Let’s not forget that two years ago in Rome, when McIlroy lost all composure following the second day of the Ryder Cup over the antics of U.S. caddie Joe LaCava, it was Lowry who physically restrained his teammate and shoved him into a courtesy car.

We’ll see if they tag team against another European Ryder Cup player, Austrian Sepp Straka, in Sunday’s final round of the $20 million A&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am after they emerged as the top contenders on a wet, windy and worrisome day on the Monterrey Peninsula.

“It is cool to see both of us up there near the top of the leaderboard,” said McIlroy, the World No. 3 making his season debut this week on the PGA Tour.

Thanks to birdies on four of his last five holes to close the third round, Straka somehow walked off Pebble with a two-under 70 and a one-stroke lead at 16-under 200. Meanwhile, McIlroy and Lowry posted sparkling 65s under dreary skies, with the former escaping with one of the two clean cards on the day. They trail by a shot.

Europe holds down four of the top six spots, in fact, after England’s Justin Rose, who won here just two years ago before it was converted to a signature event, shot 68 to come in at 202. He’s tied for fourth with Tom Kim of South Korea, who also had a 68.

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, also making his season debut, birdied two of his last three holes for a 69 and trails Straka by six shots. That’s not out of it, though he will need something special. A year ago, Wyndham Clark leapfrogged Ludvig Aberg on Saturday with a record 60 after starting six behind, and he was declared the champ when the final round was washed out.

Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry celebrate their win in the 2024 Zurich Classic of New Orleans – Chris Graythen

Straka, winner of The American Express two weeks ago, might have retained his 36-hole lead, but a lot of focus on Sunday will be on Lowry and his friend from Northern Ireland.

Lowry, 28th in the world, couldn’t remember if he and McIlroy had ever played together in the final group on a Sunday, and he struggled to think of many showdowns between them. “He beat me, I remember, at Wentworth in 2014; I finished second to him. We went down the back nine there, and I got him back in 2022 around Wentworth as well. We haven’t really went head-to-head that much. He’s obviously there a lot more than I am. I’m happy to be there tomorrow.”

He’s also happy to spend the day with his longtime friend. But don’t read too much into that. “I think it’s important that we go out there and do our jobs tomorrow and try and enjoy it as best we can,” said Lowry, 37. “We’re not going out there to have a great time and just, you know, play a round. We’re going out there, we both have a job to do tomorrow. I’m sure at times we’ll have good fun, but when it gets down to the business end of things, I’m sure we’ll all be all business.”

With $3.6 million on the line, they’ll try to give each other (and Straka) the business.

“Tomorrow is going to be a big day for a lot of reasons, and Shane is up there as well, so it’s going to be a fun day with him out there,” McIlroy said. “But it’s exciting to go out and get my first win of the season.”

What’s rather ironic about the stellar performances of McIlroy and Lowry on Saturday is that they grew up playing in weather conditions similar to Saturday—an “authentic experience,” McIlroy said—but neither is particularly fond of such an inhospitable climatic afternoon.

“We don’t play in this weather that often anymore, but we did grow up in it,” said McIlroy, 35. “I would say Shane’s historically been a better bad weather player than I have been.”

Not anymore, said Lowry. “We play in this weather a few times a year, and everyone plays in the same conditions now,” he said. “If the weather’s like this … it was like this in Ireland when I was home at Christmas, and my golf clubs sat in my hall.”

The weather forecast Sunday looks more promising—drier and a bit warmer. Mcilroy and Lowry will likely enjoy a collegial day on the course. But the goal is the same for each—rain on the other’s parade.

“Yeah, let’s hope one of us does the business tomorrow,” Lowry said.

Main Image: Andrew Redington

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Rory McIlroy had just opened his PGA Tour season Thursday with a bogey-free 6-under 66 at Spyglass Hill that included his second career hole-in-one, and it didn’t take long before he was asked about the burning questions of the day—the state of the tour, television ratings and the importance of “putting on a good show.”

Is he concerned about the future of the tour? “I’m concerned about myself,” he said flatly.

McIlroy long ago grew tired of talking about the future of the tour after stepping up as a lead voice for it when the rival LIV Golf League emerged and began picking off a few big-name players. He also advocated for changes to the tour, including the creation of what were first called designated events and then elevated events, and which now have evolved into signature events—one of which is this week’s $20 million AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

The world No. 3 did his part in putting on a show with his first-round efforts, livening things up at Spyglass with his slam-dunk ace with a three-quarter sand wedge at the par-3 15th hole, his sixth hole of the day. A clean card included four par saves from off the green, but the Northern Irishman undoubtedly left a few shots out there with a putting effort that cost him minus-0.379 strokes.

But he couldn’t complain.

The four-time major winner appeared in mid-season form in his third start of the year (third with an asterisk) after playing in Dubai on the DP World Tour and TGL on Monday night. He had put in a lot of swing work in the fall and played more golf than usual in December. If he figures out the putting—the same theory observers posited about Scottie Scheffler before he went on a tear in 2024—he’ll be rather dangerous.

“Yeah, I’m maybe not searching as much,” he said of his current form. “I stayed pretty busy in that October period where I did a lot of swing work. Then I also played quite a lot of golf in December, which I don’t usually play, so I felt like that kept me a little more sharp.

“It’s mostly social golf, but I had a trip to Ohoopee, I had The Grove member-member, I had my trip to New Zealand, I played the Showdown in Vegas, so I was playing a lot of golf through December. I probably only took like six or seven days off in December where I would usually take the whole month off, so I think that kept me a little sharper. Sort of I could hit the ground running when I got back into it.”

The tour is in the midst of rethinking various aspects of its presentation to fans, and signature events were meant to be a key to boosting its profile with smaller fields populated by the top players—those who have remained loyal, that is. McIlroy played in the previous iteration of this event, when 144 players competed and the amateur contingent included a significant number of pro athletes and celebrities, the model of the old Crosby Clambake. This week, the field is 80 players and only a handful of celebrities are participating, making way for well-heeled elites and business leaders.

It’s a different vibe, one that McIlroy, 35, finds agreeable.

“It’s definitely more golfy, more golfy. Yeah, maybe more … the ams here playing maybe have a higher golf IQ,” he observed. “Look, there’s pros and cons of both, right? What was the Crosby back in the day was a very cool event, but when AT&T step up and pay the money that they pay for a signature event, and the guys out here are playing for that sort of money, you sort of want it to feel more golf than entertainment.”

Well, in simple terms, good golf is entertainment. McIlroy did his part, doing the old talking-with-his-clubs thing. It was a good show.

Main Image: Andrew Redington

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The four-time major champ played at Spyglass Hills for Thursday’s first round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. And he delivered a hole-in-one on just his sixth hole of the season.

It wasn’t just any ace, however. Check it out as McIlroy finds the bottom of the cup on Spyglass’ short par-3 15th in slam-dunk fashion:

https://twitter.com/GolfDigest/status/1885037114024181939

Looks like someone learned something from playing with Michael Block at the 2023 PGA Championship.

Of course, we kid. But actually, golf fans will probably be surprised to hear that this is only McIlroy’s second career ace on the PGA Tour.

https://twitter.com/PGATOURComms/status/1885036225909973154

As you can see, the other came in the first round of the 2023 Travelers Championship. Thursday’s ace moved McIlroy to three under par through only six holes of the second signature event of the PGA Tour season.

It’s a good thing there’s a $20 million purse up for grabs at the no-cut event, because Rory’s bar tab tonight at Pebble Beach’s Tap Room could get pretty steep.

Main Image: PGA TOUR

The post Come for Rory McIlroy’s slam-dunk hole-in-one at Spyglass Hill, stay for this surprising stat appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The 2025 edition of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am boasted a stacked field, with 17 of the top 20 players in the Official World Golf Rankings vying for a share of the $20 million prize pool. Last year, Wyndham Clark claimed the top spot, despite the tournament shortened to 54 holes due to weather conditions.

The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am begian on January 30 and concluded on February 2 with the winner, Rory McIlroy, earning $3.6 million while the runner-up, Shane Lowry, took home $2.1 million. Players who finished in the top four top 10 all secure a cheque over $500,000!

Here’s the prize money breakdown for each golfer at the 2025 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

Win: Rory McIlroy, -21, $3,600,000

2: Shane Lowry, -19, $2,160,000

T-3: Lucas Glover, -18, $1,160,000

T-3: Justin Rose, -18, $1,160,000

T-5: Russell Henley, -17, $755,000

T-5: Cam Davis, -17, $755,000

T-7: Tom Kim, -16, $640,000

T-7: Sepp Straka, -16, $640,000

T-9: Scottie Scheffler, -15, $535,000

T-9: Billy Horschel, -15, $535,000

T-9: Taylor Pendrith, -15, $535,000

12: Si Woo Kim, -13, $455,000

T-13: Andrew Novak, -12, $368,500

T-13: Tony Finau, -12, $368,500

T-13: Jason Day, -12, $368,500

T-13: Austin Eckroat, -12, $368,500

T-17: Tom Hoge, -11, $272,000

T-17: Seamus Power, -11, $272,000

T-17: Min Woo Lee, -11, $272,000

T-17: Colin Morikawa, -11, $272,000

T-17: Sam Stevens, -11, $272,000

T-22: Gary Woodland, -10, $158,272

T-22: Akshay Bhatia, -10, $158,272

T-22: Taylor Moore, -10, $158,272

T-22: Patrick Rodgers, -10, $158,272

T-22: Byeong Hun An, -10, $158,272

T-22: Eric Cole, -10, $158,272

T-22: Tommy Fleetwood, -10, $158,272

T-22: Viktor Hovland, -10, $158,272

T-22: Adam Scott, -10, $158,272

T-22: Sam Burns, -10, $158,272

T-22: Rasmus Hojgaard, -10, $158,272

T-33: Sungjae Im, -9, $99,000

T-33: Keith Mitchell, -9, $99,000

T-33: Nick Taylor, -9, $99,000

T-33: Patrick Cantlay, -9, $99,000

T-33: J.J. Spaun, -9, $99,000

T-33: Jake Knapp, -9, $99,000

T-33: Lee Hodges, -9, $99,000

T-40: Robert MacIntyre, -8, $66,375

T-40: Jhonattan Vegas, -8, $66,375

T-40: Aaron Rai, -8, $66,375

T-40: Maverick McNealy, -8, $66,375

T-40: Christiaan Bezuidenhout, -8, $66,375

T-40: Erik van Rooyen, -8, $66,375

T-40: Stephan Jaeger, -8, $66,375

T-40: Mackenzie Hughes, -8, $66,375

T-48: Justin Thomas, -7, $48,600

T-48: Hideki Matsuyama, -7, $48,600

T-48: Thomas Detry, -7, $48,600

T-48: Matt Fitzpatrick, -7, $48,600

T-48: Will Zalatoris, -7, $48,600

T-53: Sahith Theegala, -6, $43,000

T-53: Rickie Fowler, -6, $43,000

T-53: Brian Harman, -6, $43,000

T-53: Max Homa, -6, $43,000

T-53: J.T. Poston, -6, $43,000

T-58: Denny McCarthy, -5, $39,250

T-58: Nick Dunlap, -5, $39,250

T-58: Harry Hall, -5, $39,250

T-58: Davis Thompson, -5, $39,250

T-62: Chris Kirk, -4, $37,750

T-62: Justin Lower, -4, $37,750

64: Kevin Yu, -3, $37,000

T-65: Corey Conners, -2, $36,000

T-65: Adam Hadwin, -2, $36,000

T-65: Keegan Bradley, -2, $36,000

68: Doug Ghim, -1, $35,000

T-69: Ben Griffin, E, $34,500

T-69: Beau Hossler, E, $34,500

T-69: Jordan Spieth, E, $34,500

72: Cameron Young, +1, $34,000

T-73: Harris English, +2, $33,375

T-73: Mark Hubbard, +2, $33,375

T-73: Wyndham Clark, +2, $33,375

T-73: Matthieu Pavon, +2, $33,375

77: Nico Echavarria, +5, $32.750

78: Brendon Todd, +10, $32,500

Main Image: Supplied

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Regretfully, Scheffler did not disclose the contents of the ravioli. Spinach? Cheese? Sausage? That mystery remains.

On Tuesday at Pebble Beach Golf Links, the World No. 1 golfer finally described the events that led to the freak injury, which required surgery and forced him to miss two intended starts in the first month of the PGA Tour season. But he is back now for the year’s second signature event, the $20 million AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, and considering that five of his seven wins last year came in signature events—the other were the Masters and the Tour Championship—the reigning Player of the Year and FedEx Cup champion is raring to go.

Having to sit around at home has something to do with his eagerness for competition, too.

But such was his lot after improvising with an instrument ill-suited for the intended purpose. Woodrow Wilson, forgive us.

“So when you make raviolis, we wanted to make them from scratch, so you’ve got to roll the dough and you’ve got to cut the dough, but we were at a rental house so we didn’t have like the right tools and the only thing there was a wine glass that we found,” Scheffler said, beginning to spin out the yarn of his travails. “I had my hand on top of it and it broke, which side note, I’ve heard nothing but horror stories since this happened about wine glasses, so be careful. Even if you’re like me and you don’t drink wine, you’ve got to be real careful with wine glasses.

We’ll keep that in mind. Anyway, he continued:

“Yeah, it broke and the stem kind of got me in the hand. … You know, it could have been a lot worse. I actually talked to somebody who did the exact same thing and the stem went straight through their hand. It’s one of those deals where immediately after it happened, I was mad at myself because I was like ‘Gosh, that’s so stupid,’ but you just don’t think about it when you’re in the moment. Yeah, definitely been like a little more careful doing stuff at home.”

Can you show us the scar?

“No.”

Chicks dig scars, they say.

“No. I’ve got a little piece of tape on it so you can’t see it anyways,” he said, holding up his hand to display a barely visible bandage. “Sorry. Right there, it’s right there. It’s, what do you call it, it’s nude.”

He was rolling. And not dough. Though after last year’s successes, he’s been rolling in it—about $63 million and change in prize money and bonuses.

At least Scheffler, 26, tried to use his recuperating period wisely. He couldn’t hit balls or work out, so the Texan watched plenty of tournament replays of himself. You would, too, if you won eight times, including the Olympic gold medal. He had 10 wins overall if you throw in the Hero World Challenge and (stretching things a bit) the exhibition match in which he and Rory McIlroy beat LIV Golf League members Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka.

“Eleven with the Presidents Cup,” he chimed in.

Fine. But who’s counting?

Scheffler makes a habit of studying his play, whether he wins or not. But especially when he wins. He owns 13 tour titles, including two Masters titles and consecutive wins in The Players, the first man ever to win the tour’s flagship event back-to-back.

“I usually like to just check and see how things look. I kind of have a good understanding of where the swing is and where I want it and how it looks when I’m swinging really well,” he said. “Sometimes it’s good to go back and look at certain things on the TV, because you get good angles on TV, you get to see different stuff. That’s something that’s pretty common that I do.”

Tellingly, however, the educational exercise is more than assessing his golf swing. And more than about how he finished off victories, like comeback wins at The Travelers Championship and the Players. He’s searching deeper into himself, certainly a lot deeper than a broken wine glass can penetrate.

“I try to focus as much as I can on the internal stuff, so that’s why I went back and I watched a lot of the tournaments. I wasn’t watching late on Sunday, I was watching more the beginning of the week and seeing how I got into the flow of the tournament.

“I looked at a tournament like Travelers last year was a good example of a tournament where I didn’t necessarily play great the whole tournament, and late in the round on Saturday I was almost out of the tournament,” Scheffler added. “I had birdied the last four holes on Saturday to get myself into the golf tournament, then had a good day Sunday and had to win in a playoff. I think if it was my rookie year and I had a day on Saturday in which I struggled, I may have gotten more upset than I did, but I did a really great job of staying patient. I didn’t force things.

“Then you look at a tournament like THE PLAYERS, a similar thing. Late on Saturday I birdied the last three holes when I was almost out of the tournament and I birdied 16, 17, 18 to give myself a fighting chance going into Sunday. It’s more … what I looked at, it’s more about my attitude and not giving up and staying patient and doing my best to grind it out because golf tournaments are played over 72 holes and I think a lot of times we get trapped in just what happens on Sunday. Golf tournaments are long, they’re a grind.”

Scheffler was profoundly unhappy having to sit at home these last few weeks, missing the season opener, The Sentry, and one of his favourite tournaments, The American Express. He pushed himself hard in practice last week at home in chilly Dallas to ensure that his hand had healed sufficiently. He might be rusty, but he said he has come to the Monterey Peninsula ready to compete—and to win.

The bonus this week, we’re relieved to point out: It’s a no-cut tournament.

Main Image: Christian Petersen

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McIlroy makes his season debut on the U.S.-based circuit this week at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, one of the tour’s $20 million signature events. It’s a big week—or at least it’s supposed to be, with a limited field of 80 players that includes 45 of the top 50 in the world playing one of the most iconic courses on the planet.

But questions seem to be dogging the game at the professional level, primarily its strength as an entertainment vehicle. Justin Thomas wrote a memo recently to his peers suggesting they loosen a button or two on their logo-decorated polo shirts and give paying customers and the home television audience more of a show. The golf “ecosystem” has grown with the addition of the rival LIV Golf League, YouTube entertainers and, most recently, the made-for-TV TGL simulator league that McIlroy and Tiger Woods launched earlier this month.

Are all of these options, plus the metastasizing cancer of slow play, having a deleterious effect on the tour’s reach? McIlory was asked on Tuesday if the PGA Tour was in some way diminished by these optional ways to consume golf, and he didn’t hesitate to agree that they had, and he went further saying that the 46 official events on the tour schedule “is definitely too many.”

Ranked third in the world, McIlroy, 35, said definitively, “I think it [the tour] already has been diminished.

“I think there’s space for all of this,” he continued, pointing out that his TGL project, in which the PGA Tour is a partner, runs only for three months. “Yeah, I can see when the golf consumer might get a little fatigued of everything that’s sort of available to them. So to scale it back a little bit and maybe have a little more scarcity in some of the stuff that we do, like the NFL, I think mightn’t be a bad thing.

“But look, I would much rather sit down and watch real golfers play real tournaments and that’s just my opinion. That to me is more entertaining. But I understand that other people want something different and that’s totally fine as well.”

The PGA Tour already is implementing changes to enhance its profile, cutting the number of exempt players from 125 to 100 for the 2026 season and trimming field sizes next year to address pace of play and finishing each round in the allotted amount of daylight.

While TGL seems to cater to younger audiences and puts emphasis on player interaction, McIlroy stopped short of advocating for Thomas’ plea to put forward a more entertaining demeanor in tour events. A four-time major winner and one of the game’s more popular stars, McIlroy and other top players might generate greater interest by playing more, but the Northern Irishman figures on cutting perhaps five events from his schedule this year in a bid to improve his chances of winning another major after making 26 combined official starts in ’24 on the PGA Tour and DP World Tour. A Masters victory would give him the career grand slam, and McIlroy’s last major win came in the 2014 PGA Championship.

“I just played way too much last year,” he said. “I want to be home more. I want to be a little more rested and fresh for bigger events.”

As for stepping out of his comfort zone during competition, that’s a tough ask. He gets it, but that’s not how he’s wired.

“Look, it’s a balance. When we’re growing up dreaming of professional golfers and trying to get the best out of ourselves, the last thing on our mind is being an entertainer,” McIlroy said. “We’re competitive people at the end of the day; we want to play against the best players in the world and we want to try to come out on top. I think that in itself should be entertaining to people, but I think in this day and age, it’s become a hobby to bash golf and where golf is and is it entertaining, is it not entertaining.

“I came out on the wrong side of it last year, but I would say the last round of the U.S. Open was pretty entertaining,” he added of his heartbreaking loss to Bryson DeChambeau at Pinehurst, “and that was pure competitive golf. I think the more we can get to scenarios like that, the better.”

Main Image: David Cannon

The post Rory McIlroy is chopping events from his own schedule and would like PGA Tour to do the same appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

A few things to keep in mind – with the Pebble Beach Pro-Am becoming a signature event last year and remaining one for 2025, they’ve removed Monterey Peninsula Country Club from the three-course rotation due to the shrinking of the field. For this debate, we decided to keep MPCC in it to make it a harder question to answer.

So for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, you’d get to play Pebble Beach twice, assuming you make the cut, plus Spyglass Hill and MPCC. Of course, the rounds are quite long, and, if you’ve noticed the past few years, weather at Pebble in February can be dicey.

As for the Alfred Dunhill Links, you’d get to tee it up on the Old Course at St. Andrews, twice if you make the cut, plus Carnoustie and Kingsbarns. It might be a bit chilly in Scotland, but that’s part of the deal playing over there no matter the month. Hanging around St. Andrews all week certainly wouldn’t suck, though the same could be said for hanging out in Carmel during Pebble week.

Main Image: David Cannon

The post Which Pro-Am would you rather play in? The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am or the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship? appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

After a trade that sent him to the New York Jets, Aaron Rodgers will be seeing a lot more of Josh Allen this season in the AFC East. But forget about being division rivals, these two quarterbacks’ biggest beef with each other remains about golf.

Let’s back up a second to February when Rodgers won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Well, he won the Am portion along with PGA Tour pro Ben Silverman (Justin Rose won the main competition). Rodgers was ecstatic to earn his biggest sports title since winning the Super Bowl over a decade before, but not everyone was as pleased with what turned out to be a controversial victory.

As you can see from the photo above, Allen wasn’t thrilled, specifically with Rodgers getting 10 strokes in the competition when his handicap hovers around a 3 (and he’s proven to be that good in multiple editions of Capital One’s The Match). In fact, Allen’s partner at Pebble, PGA Tour winner Keith Mitchell, went as far as to call Rodgers’ handicap “crap.” And we can’t say that we disagree.

Anyway, fast forward about six months and Allen was asked about the situation on Barstool’s Pardon My Take. The Bills QB agreed Rodgers had cheated and sandbagged “the world” during the win. He stopped short, however, of a proposed jail sentence for the offence. Have a look and listen:

Aaron Rodgers: CHEATER?!@rhoback pic.twitter.com/XZ9xufogrZ

— Pardon My Take (@PardonMyTake) August 2, 2023

Looks like we just found the perfect battle for the next Capital One’s The Match!

Again, it’s hard to argue with Josh here. Rodgers’ handicap was extremely sketchy, not that he’s the first to draw attention for that (*cough* Larry Fitzgerald *cough*). And again, these guys are going to face off on the football field (at least) two times this season. Get your popcorn ready

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