With Super Bowl 50 in the books, the sporting world can now turn its attention towards other events like this weekend’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
12 players in the top 25 of the World Golf Rankings will participate in this year’s event, which makes this an unpredictable field filled with plenty of potential to wow the crowd in California. And for bettors such as you, we’ve scouted a handful of favorites and dark horses worth considering below so you can place some stakes on all of Sunday’s action.
Afterwards, you might as well check out more of our sleeper picks for this West Coast tourney to get a glimpse of a few more unheralded golfers that can bank you some sweet winnings just as well.
There’s no doubt that Nashville’s very own Brandt Snedeker heads into this year’s Pebble Beach Pro-Am as the runaway favorite to repeat as the champion of the event.
Not only did the 35-year-old win here just the previous season, he won this event in 2013 as well. And that isn’t enough to convince of Snedeker’s dominance here in Pebble Beach, let’s not forget that he was the one who set the course record of 265 just a year ago.
Snedeker may be a country boy at heart, but he certainly has a fondness of playing at West Coast tournaments. With that being said, he’s definitely primed for his ninth-career PGA Tour win at the course that he’s owned in two of the past three years.
Jordan Spieth
As the world’s best golfer, expectations are always through the roof. In the case of Jordan Spieth, those lofty expectations seem to empower his game even more.
Not content with his two-consecutive Majors victories from last season, Spieth has been on a tear early into this new season by finishing in the top 10 in all three of his past tournaments, and no worse than seventh place at that.
Furthermore, the 2015 PGA Player of the Year is even coming fresh off his first win of the season at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions in mid-January, and looks to be revved up to become this season’s first golfer to win multiple events this early on.
Sleepers
Phil Mickelson
Ol’ Phil Mickelson may be at the twilight of his prime already, but there’s nothing he enjoys more than having to play in sunny California at this point of the PGA season.
The 45-year-old San Diego native has had plenty of success in Pebble Beach in the past – four wins at the illustrious golf course, to be exact. And before you even speculate that those four wins may all have come when he was still at his peak from a decade or two ago, let’s make it clear that he won at this tournament in 2012 with a 17-under par finish with a two-stroke margin of victory.
It feels like we’ve been crowning lefty as a sleeper pick for every tournament so far this year, but Pebble Beach is arguably the one tournament that you’d really want to back Mickelson on.
Jason Day
World No. 3 Jason Day is off to a slow start this season. He finished tied for 10th at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions and was cut at the second round of the Farmers Insurance Open this January.
However, the Aussie shouldn’t be written-off at all, especially with his first-hand knowledge of the pressure that comes with facing the likes of Spieth. Day is no slouch in Pebble Beach either, as he has two top 10 finishes on this course over his past three outings.
Lastly, Day is one of the best clutch golfers on the greens in the Tour with his solid .911 average in putting strokes gained. His prowess in that aspect of the game will prove to be crucial this weekend should he be engaged in a close battle in the final round.
Long Shot
Vijay Singh
As a former winner and three-time runner-up here at Pebble Beach, one could rightfully consider 52-year-old Vijay Singh as a true contender this weekend.
Then again, Singh last won at this event over a decade ago back in 2004, and even his most recent second-place finish here happened back in 2008. The Big Fijian’s renewed campaign hasn’t been going quite as planned either, as he has finished no higher than 44th place in the three tournaments that he was a part of this season.
To make matters worse, Singh’s 2015 season doesn’t really inspire a lot of confidence in him at all. He was cut from seven of the 23 tournaments he participated in last season to go with just one top 10 finish.
Writer’s Prediction
Spieth by at least two strokes for his second win of the season.
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