Weekend: Morikawa Wins At Pebble Beach
He birdies 18 of his final 36 holes to hold off Lee and Straka. Plus, Anthony Kim pulls off a LIV stunner, Yang wins the WAAP, and a look at the ShotLink numbers from Pebble's revamped holes.
Legitimacy will be a recurring theme over the coming months while the PGA Tour looks to blow up its old model, kills off some time-honored traditions, and push the integrity limits in the name of delivering 11% returns for a bunch of rich geezers investors who barely knew the difference between the two PGAs. To date, the new for-profit Tour has been fighting equipment rule changes, getting rid of cuts, reducing field sizes, talking up scarcity, and playing “preferred lies” whenever liquid might fall from the sky within 350 miles of a tournament venue.
There may be parallels found in the deteriorating NBA “product” and offering golf a reminder of how fast a sport can lose legitimacy by selling out to commercial forces. Thankfully, the PGA Tour has not yet reached the sorry state of pro basketball. But Ponte Vedra is showing signs of falling into the same greed and long-ball-loving traps that have transformed NBA Commissioner Adam Silver from being seen as the best to now looking like the worst leader of a major sports league.
The NBA’s once-vaunted and celebratory All-Star weekend landed in LA as the league deals with a gambling integrity crisis (while still hawking sports betting relentlessly). They have a gobsmackingly shady breaking-the-free-agency-rules-fiasco involving Steve Ballmer, owner of the All-Star Game’s venue. A tanking crisis involving crap teams looking to secure better draft picks. All while putting out a dreadful analytics-driven version of basketball that’s been reliant on the long ball for too many years (sound familiar?). Couple all of this with ticket prices that went absurdly corporate at the All Star Game, a clunky new TV deal making it hard to find games, a peculiar obsession with Mozart’s long lost cousin John Tesh, a forthcoming AI-driven push no one asked for, a gimmicky in-season tournament that almost makes the FedExCup look like some crazy mashup of March Madness and the Masters, and, well, I’ll stop there cut it off there since this is a golf newsletter.
This weekend, the NBA took its latest stab at an All-Star Game format, and it wasn’t totally awful. But the same league closely associated with pushing influencer slop also allowed the “creators” to ruin press sessions and wheeled these nothings out for a Saturday game where a vast majority of ticket buyers came dressed as empty Intuit Dome seats. This was once the NBA’s greatest non-Game 7 day, but culminated in the crowd-light dunk contest where, as one X cynic noted, he’s dunked clothes into his hamper with more creativity than this year’s pitiful efforts.
Anthony Kim’s unlikely LIV win this weekend in Adelaide was a victory for legitimate golf because, (A) he had to qualify for the LIV circuit this year (albeit thanks to a janky format that reset scores after 36), and (B) thanks to LIV’s move to 72-hole events that have earned the league OWGR status.
Had Kim won last year playing a 54-hole event, while still Greg Norman’s idea of a circus freak marketing ploy, I’m not sure his win would have registered in the same way.
But legitimacy also comes from not saying absurd things in a nice moment, as LIV’s Jerry Foltz and David Feherty did in suggesting Kim’s comeback (from self-inflicted issues) superceded Ben Hogan’s 1950 comeback following a head-on bus crash where the legend went on to win four majors while never finishing outside the top 10 in any major he teed up in from 1950 to 1959. Yet both toadies suggested Kim’s win, in a 57-player field after causing all of his issues, was a greater feat.
Which brings us to Pebble Beach, which again delivered gripping television augmented by a multitude of amazing ways CBS and the Tour’s technology team keep pushing fresh ways to illuminate venues and the hazards players must overcome. Throw in the traditional wind, cold, and several players with a winning shot, and the annual AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am should have left everyone feeling like they witnessed a supremely legit competition. But the Tour’s decision to play preferred lies Sunday—before any significant rain fell on a magnificently conditioned course—took a little something away and looked even more absurd given how overmatched the course appears to be in the juiced equipment era. Even in some really tough conditions, players carved the place up. Many holes no longer seem like they can put up a fair fight. When that happens, legitimacy is threatened. Does the Tour’s new CEO care? So far, he’s shown little interest in this vital part of the job.
The state of affairs should not diminish Collin Morikawa’s incredible weekend performance, nor should it take away from the many other great moments this latest edition of the tournament formerly known as the Crosby offered up. But if the PGA Tour wants to avoid developing an NBA-style reputation as they ask everyone to pay more for the privilege, it’d be comforting if they played the ball down until the conditions warrant preferred lies. And it’d be even nicer if they took equipment rules seriously enough to allow a place like Pebble Beach to joust with the players. You know, as it has for almost a century.
Morikawa Wins The AT&T
Some numbers from Collin Morikawa’s seventh career win at age 29:
129 strokes taken over the weekend (144 total par)
15-under-par over Saturday and Sunday thanks to 18 birdies (three bogeys)
847 days since his last win
Third win in his native California
Hit 22 of 28 fairways on the windy weekend (43 of 56 overall)
Hit 60 of 72 greens in regulation over four rounds, including 18 during his third round, 62.
Took 115 putts with “only” 251’7” off putts made (44 SG), thanks to a 28’9” average (9.681 strokes gained approach)
Win came in just his third start at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (T14/2024, T17/2025, Won/2026).
Morikawa has posted under-par scores in all 11 rounds at the event.
So many players made runs that it’s hard to focus on one. But among those making a valiant run was Scottie Scheffler, who continued a recent trend of starting off a tad slow before making another dramatic Sunday run that culminated in a 63 (T4/-20).
Scheffler played Pebble Beach’s par-5s 14 under-par for the week, including seven-under-par Sunday.
Scheffler’s approach distances on the four par-5s where he eagled all but the 14th: 234, 256, 264, and 186.
Scheffler has now recorded eight-straight top-5 finishes, just three shy of Tiger Woods’ 11-straight in 2007-08.
Also…
Defending champion Rory McIlroy posted a final round 64 to finish T14. McIlroy made two eagles, 20 birdies, and four double bogeys or higher.
Min Woo Lee (T2/-21) earned a third runner-up finish in his 71st start, tying with Sepp Straka.
In his season debut, Tommy Fleetwood (T4/-20) continued a streak that has reached 19-straight rounds in the 60s dating to last year.
The field was -608 under par with 44 eagles, including 13 at the 18th hole. A total of 10 holes averaged under par.
The par 5 scoring averages: 4.271, 4.563, 4.604, and 4.612
Don’t try this at home, kids: Viktor Hovland tried to lodge a ball loose from the 18th hole Monterey cypress tree using one of his clubs, and it stuck.
Pebble Beach Mayor In Perpetuity Jim Nantz said during the Sunday telecast that the 18th hole may get another landing area cypress before next year’s U.S. Open (H/T Jeremy Schilling for catching this news).
Mary Meeker became the first female winner of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in its 80-year history. Partnering with Keegan Bradley, the duo posted a 20-under 124 total to win one over Akshay Bhatia and Reuben Richards. The team of Ryo Hitsasune and Ed Herlihy finished third at 18-under-par. A member of the PGA Tour’s non-profit board since 2017, Meeker and Bradley opened with a 59 on Thursday when Bradley shot 63 at Spyglass Hill. Meeker plays to a 13 out of San Francisco Golf Club. Adam Schupak filed a nice read on Meeker and her work with the Tour at Golfweek.com. Full amateur field scores can be viewed here.
Later on in this edition, I break down some numbers showing how the changes impacted play at the sixth and 10th holes. But first, the greatest comeback in golf sports history if we relied the paid hacks of an authoritarian sportwashing regime a Sovereign Wealth Fund.
Anthony Kim Wins!
Anthony Kim dominated LIV’s Adelaide stop with a bogey-free final round 63 at The Grange to fly by playing partners Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau to record his first win since 2010’s Houston Open.
After Patrick Reed’s departure, Kim was added to the 4GAces Golf and Mensa Society roster last week after playing as an individual the last two years on LIV and following a 12-year hiatus from the game due to injuries and other issues.
Adding to the improbability of the win, Kim barely made the field due to visa issues after failing to apply in advance. Then he led the field in greens in regulation, hitting 60 of 72 en route to the stunning performance.
“I’m very overwhelmed with this feeling right now,” said Kim. “But my plan is to keep getting better and start winning some more trophies.”
Maybe most impressive of all: Kim stared down LIV’s two best and most intimidating presences in today’s game with his Rahm and DeChambeau pairing, posting a 63 to Rahm’s 71 and DeChambeau’s 74.
“That was one of the craziest, best rounds of golf,” Rahm said. “Maybe two and three he had to make pars, but after that it was absolutely flawless on a difficult golf course.”
Coming home playing in front of what LIV announced as record crowds of 115,000 for the week, Kim birdied the 13th, 14th, 15th, and 17th to leave his playing partners in the dust. Then he celebrated like a younger, nimbler version of Anthony Kim.
“I’m too old to be reacting like that,” he said. “Because I think I pulled something in my hip.”
Starting the week ranked 847th in the world, Kim moved to 203rd in the Official World Golf Ranking.
Yunseo Yang Takes The Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific
Yunseo Yang dominated by eight strokes over compatriot Soomin Oh to become the first Korean winner of the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific (WAAP). Yang’s final round 69 was one of only three sub-par rounds on a windy Sunday at New Zealand’s Royal Wellington.
Yang’s victory continues an impressive ascent for the 18-year-old Korea National Team member who last year captured the National Sports Festival in South Korea, the Malaysian Women's Amateur Open, and the UAE Cup.
Leading wire-to-wire, Yang’s 16-under 272 tied the tournament record for largest winning margin set by Japan’s Yuka Yasuda in 2019. The victory earns the WAGR No. 44 exemptions into three 2026 majors: the AIG Women’s Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes, The Amundi Evian Championship in France, and the Chevron Championship.
“I’m very proud to be the first Korean winner. Having the opportunity to play in three major championships is an honour,” Yang said. “I grew up watching the other golfers do well, especially the AIG Women’s Open.”
Defending champion Jeneath Wong of Malaysia (and Pepperdine) tied for 16th at one-over-par 289.
Revealing ShotLink Data On Pebble Beach’s 6th And 10th
Thanks to the wonder that is ShotLink we can see how the latest pre-U.S. Open course updates played during the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. (Noted in Thursday’s notes and a Friday edition about the No. 10.)
Pebble Beach's Improved 10th
There are still tiny green lovers in our age of architectural enlightenment. This has not been a good week for them now that the Pebble Beach Company gets to show off the expanded and restored tenth green during this week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Some, apparently unaware of the beautiful 10th’s backstory,
The par-5 sixth played 20 yards longer this year with a new tee. So did it get tougher? Of course not.
The sixth saw a drop in scoring average from 2025’s 4.720 to 4.507 this year.
With added yardage, the sixth gave up seven eagles to 2025’s four.
The sixth played -105 in 2026 to last year’s -66.