Power rankings: AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am
After a week in Arizona, the PGA Tour returns to California and the Monterey Peninsula for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. The old Crosby Clambake mixes 156 professionals and 156 amateurs into a single field, playing out on three courses — Pebble Beach Golf Links, Spyglass Hill and the Shore Course at Monterey Peninsula Country Club — over four days.
Vaughn Taylor won in a shocker here last year, but Jordan Spieth, Jason Day, Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson, among other stars, will make defending difficult.
Here are our top five players for this week:
1. Dustin Johnson — DJ is a stud at Pebble. One-fourth of his pro wins are here. Playing in the pro-am with the Great One is actually a good influence, in our opinion.
2. Jordan Spieth — Spieth has been on a top-10 tear. Now, he hasn’t been in the thick of it at the very end of a lot of those high finishes, but he’s lurking and hanging around. Struggled putting in Phoenix.
3. Jason Day — Day also has a sterling record here, and his, um, deliberate pace of play actually jibes really well with the brutal pace of this pro-am.
4. Phil Mickelson — Mickelson has hung around in the mix heading into Sunday each of the last two weeks. Needs a little push to fight for a win. Maybe remembering what happened with Vaughn Taylor will do it.
5. Patrick Reed — This just seems like an event Reed should win. He’s a great ballstriker. But maybe the schmoozing part is weird. Decent form of late.
Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.