The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am format really consists of two golf tournaments going on at the same time for the 156 professionals in the field.
The 156 pros are each paired with an amateur player, forming 156 two-player teams. Those teams are grouped into 39 foursomes over the first three days, with 13 groups playing each day on one of three courses -- Pebble Beach Golf Links, Spyglass Hill Golf Course and the Shore Course at Monterey Peninsula Country Club.
AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am format
For the professionals, the tournament format is simple: the usual 72-hole, stroke-play tournament you see most weeks on the PGA Tour. Lowest score wins.
For the pro-am competition, the format is net best ball of partners. That means the professional and the amateur each play each hole. The score counts for the player that has the better score once the amateur's handicap is factored. Each amateur's handicap is different, ranging from 0 (meaning they get no strokes to help them) to 16 (they get one stroke on every hole but the two easiest holes).
AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am pro and pro-am cut rules
After the first three rounds are completed, the cut rule kicks in, dropping the field to the top 60 pros and ties and the top 25 pro-am teams and ties which advance to Sunday's final round at Pebble Beach Golf Links. Any ties that spill over beyond the 25-team limit leads to a tiebreaker decided by the professional's 54-hole score on each team. The lowest-scoring pros get their duos into the final round.
Professionals who finish anywhere from 61st-65th place earn a check and FedEx Cup points but do not get to play in the final round. It's kind of like getting MDF'd back when a third-round cut was triggered in the event 78 or more players make the 36-hole cut at other PGA Tour events.
