2023 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am tournament format, pro and pro-am cut rules
PGA Tour

2023 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am tournament format, pro and pro-am cut rules

A picture of the 5th hole at Pebble Beach Golf Links The par-3 5th at Pebble Beach (Photo by Joann Dost)


The 2023 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am pro-am format consists of two golf tournaments going on at the same time for the 156 professionals in the field.

This year, the 156 pros are once again each paired with an amateur player, forming 156 two-player pairings. The field is split into foursomes for each of the first three days. Each golfer will play one round on the host, Pebble Beach Golf Links, Monterey Peninsula Country Club and Spyglass Hill Golf Course. There will be 52 golfers on each course each day.

Those teams are grouped into 39 foursomes over the first three days.

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 who advance to the final round at Pebble Beach Golf Links.

Prior to 2020, if more than 78 players made the 54-hole cut, then the cut was instead to the number nearest 70 for the final round. It was kind of like getting MDF'd when 78 or more players made the 36-hole cut at other PGA Tour events, except it happened after 54 holes.

Additionally, the top 25 pro-am teams 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.

With amateurs in the field, there's consideration for them in tee times or scheduling on the weekend. Generally speaking, among the pros, players go out in order of their 54-hole total scores compared to the field.

The winning pro will earn 500 FedEx Cup points and will earn approximately 35 Official World Golf Ranking points.

AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am playoff format

A playoff to settle any ties after 72 holes will be played under PGA Tour rules. The Farmers Insurance Open playoff format is a sudden-death format, with playoff holes being 18 played by any qualifying players. The players compete hole-by-hole until a winner is determined by a player scoring the lowest among the remaining players.

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