2026 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am PGA Power Rankings: Top 10 Golfers To Watch This Week

February 9, 2026

Ian McNeill ranks his top-10 PGA Tour players to watch for at the 2026 AT&T Pro-Am at Pebble Beach. He gives data-backed insights into who is primed for success.

With the omittance of Kapalua from this year's schedule, golf fans have had to wait a few weeks longer than usual to see the world's best gather on one stage.

A star-studded field deserves a backdrop to match. And what better venue can be found for that purpose than the greatest meeting of land and sea in professional golf? Pebble Beach Golf Links hosts Signature Event No. 1 of 2026, and with it comes the season debuts of Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, and Shane Lowry -- along with 21 of the world's top 25 players.

But how does this elite field stack up at the top? And who, if anyone, should you be targeting on pre-week betting boards? Without further ado, here are my top-10 players to watch at this week's 2026 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am!

No. 10 - Ludvig Åberg

Ludvig Åberg is two off the lead @ATTProAm. pic.twitter.com/V6hUpJsJ8q

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 3, 2024

It's been a curious start for Ludvig Åberg in 2026, as the letters "WD" and "MC" aren't typically ones found in his results log. But despite losing over eight strokes to the field in his four competitive rounds thus far, I remain optimistic in his future outlook.

Let's not forget that this time last year, many had written Åberg off after a lackluster finish at the Farmers and a WD here at Pebble Beach. Two weeks later, he was lifting his most prestigious title to date on the 18th green at Torrey Pines.

Talents like Ludvig are capable of popping up without warning, and we don't have to travel back too far in time to see proof of concept on his fit for Pebble Beach. Åberg held the 36-hole lead here two years ago, and despite Wyndham Clark carding a course-record 60 on that Saturday, Ludvig sat just one shot back ahead of a final round that was ultimately called off due to weather.

Two of the best weeks of his PGA Tour career have come on the poa annua greens of California (2025 Genesis; 2024 AT&T), and prior to his rocky start in the New Year, Åberg ended his 2025 season with a third-place finish at the DP World Tour's year-end Championship -- gaining 5.72 strokes from tee-to-green and 3.28 strokes putting in the process.

Simply put, beware of the small sample when assessing the viability of a talent like Åberg on a given week. He's nearly three weeks removed from the first reports of his illness in Palm Springs, still profiles as one of the highest-upside entities in the golfing world, and has already proven his merit on this very layout two years ago. If his early-season box score continues to suppress expectations, Ludvig is exactly the kind of talent capable of making those reservations look foolish in short order.

No. 9 - Jason Day

I may have ignored course history to a large extent when assessing Jason Day’s prospects at Torrey Pines two weeks ago, but Pebble Beach is a very different animal when evaluating his winning ambitions.

Unlike the vaunted 7,700-yard test he faced in La Jolla, Pebble Beach measures under 7,000 yards and, more importantly, emphasizes the traits that still make Day an elite player. Over 40% of historical approach shots here come from inside 150 yards -- a range in which Day continues to rank inside the top 20% on Tour in both Proximity to the Hole and Good Shot Percentage.

Pebble Beach is also one of the rare venues on the PGA Tour that values around-the-green play nearly as much as total driving. Top-10 finishers here have gained an average of 1.26 strokes with their short games compared to 1.28 off the tee, and three of the last six champions have gained more strokes chipping than driving.

Elite touch around the greens has long been one of Day’s calling cards, and Pebble Beach remains one of his most reliable putting venues. Across 16 career starts on the Monterey Peninsula, Day has gained strokes putting in 13 of them, recording nine top-seven finishes and only two results outside the top 25.

Unlike Torrey Pines, age has not been a limiting factor for Day along 17-Mile Drive. He has logged sixth-place finishes here 16 years apart (2008 and 2024), and his recent runner-up performance at the American Express reinforced that he can still contend against the world’s best on shorter, wedge-heavy layouts. While the version of Jason Day that dominated the mid-2010s may be behind us, Pebble Beach stands as clear of an opportunity as exists on the current schedule for the 38-year-old to turn back the clock.

No. 8 - Si Woo Kim

Si Woo Kim is in complete control of his Quantum driver. 🚀 Number 1 in driving accuracy and T2 heading into the final round of the Waste Management Phoenix. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/dgsBPs9ah9

— Callaway Golf Europe (@CallawayGolfEU) February 8, 2026

Si Woo Kim will undoubtedly rue a handful of key misses on the greens that ultimately left him one shot short of Sunday’s playoff, but for those of us in the prediction business, the WM Phoenix Open delivered another crystal-clear data point: Kim remains one of the best players on the planet.

His 9.12 strokes gained ball-striking paced the field across four days in Scottsdale, while the 13.29 strokes he gained from tee to green represented the third-highest mark of his 13-year professional career. Notably, the only two tournaments in which Kim has posted a superior tee-to-green performance (15.4 and 14.5) resulted in runaway victories -- a five-shot win at the 2016 Wyndham Championship and a three-shot triumph at the 2017 PLAYERS Championship.

The form behind this peak performance has been building for months. Through four starts in 2026, Kim has finished no worse than fourth in a given field when combining driving and approach play, leading the tournament in that metric twice. And dating back to last season’s FedEx Cup Playoffs, the Korean No. 1 has compiled six top-six finishes and a remarkable run of 11 consecutive starts finishing 21st or better.

Perhaps most encouraging is how course-agnostic his recent surge has been. Kim finished runner-up at 7,700-yard Torrey Pines just one week after holding the 54-hole lead on the 7,200-yard setup at PGA West, underscoring a ball-striking profile that travels anywhere. Pebble Beach has been no exception: since 2019, he’s posted finishes of 4th, 12th, and 14th on the Monterey Peninsula.

At some point, this run will cool -- particularly with Kim set to play eight of the first nine weeks of the 2026 season now that he’s a fixture in Signature Events. But belief matters in this game, and no one in the game looks more certain of where their ball is headed right now than Si Woo Kim. Even without a win in this stretch, Kim has clearly entered a new stratosphere among the game’s elite -- and owns the kind of all-around profile capable of contending on any venue placed in front of him.

No. 7 - Patrick Cantlay

Patrick Cantlay arrives at Pebble Beach fresh off his first missed cut of the season at Torrey Pines, but if there’s a stop well-suited to a bounce-back, this is the one. In nine career starts here, the Long Beach native has recorded five finishes of 11th or better.

This track record isn't surprising given Cantlay's status as one of the game's premier short-course specialists and his natural comfort on the poa annua greens of the Golden State. His elite wedge game (97th percentile in Fairway Proximity from 100-150 yards; 92nd percentile Strokes Gained per Shot), should bolster his ball-striking profile around a venue that surrenders such a high volume of opportunities inside 150 yards. And across his last 20 rounds at Pebble Beach, only six players in this field have gained more strokes per round on the greens.

From a floor perspective, there are few players I trust more this week. Cantlay’s balanced statistical profile, elite short-game baseline, and nearly 15 years of positive results at Pebble make him one of the safest bets to contend. The question, as it so often is with Cantlay, isn’t whether he’ll be present on the leaderboard -- it’s whether he’ll be the one holding the trophy late Sunday afternoon.

Despite consistent success here year after year, Cantlay is still seeking his first victory on the Monterey Coast -- a pattern mirrored at several of his other favorite venues (Harbour Town, TPC River Highlands, Riviera). I’m still inclined to believe an eight-time PGA Tour winner has the resolve to close when the margins tighten, but with the full weight of the PGA Tour’s elite assembled this week, the bar to finally convert feels higher than ever.

No. 6 - Viktor Hovland

For many golf fans, Viktor Hovland and Pebble Beach will forever be intertwined. In back-to-back summers in 2018 and 2019, Viktor Hovland romped through the bracket to claim a U.S. Amateur title, then followed it up with a 12th-place finish at the 2019 U.S. Open on these very same links. Notably, Hovland led that U.S. Open field in Ball-Striking as a 21-year-old college junior -- a clear signal of the future star he was destined to become.

In the seven years since, Viktor has lived up to much of what was expected of him coming out of school, but he hasn't yet matched the magical week that was at Pebble Beach. In four starts since that U.S. Open, the best he's finished as a professional has been 13th -- 1 spot lower than his 12th place result on debut.

I suspect that changes sooner rather than later, and with Viktor's start to the New Year, the numbers suggest a big week could be on the horizon. He started his season in Dubai -- gaining over ten strokes from tee through green in a 14th place finish, before finding himself squarely in the mix in last week's WM Phoenix Open: an opening nine of four-under 31 putting him within two of the lead, before a lackluster finish settled him into a tie for 10th.

Still, the underlying stats still look good for the Norwegian: he gained over ten strokes between his approach play, putting, and chipping over four days in Phoenix -- only recording a negative off the tee rating due to two wayward Friday drives into the Arizona desert.

I don't envision the driver being a problem going forward, as Hovland's gained strokes to the field with his driver in each of his five appearances here at Pebble Beach. He also ranks as a top 10 wedge player in this field over the last 12 months, and a top 30 putter on these West Coast poa annua surfaces. He's long-since had the game to contend on these iconic links, and with his form trending sharply in the right direction, this could be the week Hovland turns that amateur promise into professional triumph.

For much of his career, Russell Henley wasn't a name associated with success on West Coast layouts. The Georgia-native had one of the largest reverse splits in the game between putting surfaces: morphing from one of the Tour's best putters on his beloved bermudagrass into an objectively bad one on poa annua.

2025 may have turned that narrative on its head, however, as Russell recorded the best putting week of his entire season on the greens of Pebble Beach: leading the field with a whopping 7.5 strokes gained. If poa annua is truly nothing to fear anymore for the World No. 5, his positional acumen and world-class wedge play make him a legitimate threat around these links.

Over the last 12 months, Henley ranks seventh in this field in Approach Proximity from inside 150 yards. He ranks fifth in Strokes Gained: Around the Greens, and on a course that historically favors precision over power, it's hard to find a better profile than his 68.7% Driving Accuracy from last season.

Through the opening two weeks of 2026, Henley has continued to look like one of the most reliable iron players on the PGA Tour, gaining 5.2 strokes on approach at Waialae and another 4.2 at PGA West. What we haven’t seen yet is the kind of spike performance on the greens that can turn these top 10s and top 20s into legitimate shots at titles. If last season’s breakthrough putting week at Pebble Beach was more than an outlier -- and a sign of growing comfort on poa annua -- his profile fits far closer to the top of this board than his historical reputation might suggest.

The last time we saw Tommy Fleetwood on the PGA Tour, he was sitting atop the mountain: besting the 30 best players of 2025 to claim the season-long title of FedEx Cup Champion. Now, while six months have passed since that triumphant moment, Fleetwood's stature in the game has only continued to rise.

Two months from his coronation in Atlanta, Tommy hoisted another trophy at the DP World India Championship, besting a field that included the likes of Rory McIlroy, Viktor Hovland, Shane Lowry, Ben Griffin, and a host of DP World Tour regulars. Two weeks later, he finished runner-up at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and finished his calendar year with a third at the DP World Tour Final -- one shot shy of a sudden-death playoff.

Now, after ending 2025 at a career-best 3rd in the World Golf Rankings, Fleetwood makes his maiden PGA Tour start at the iconic Pebble Beach. Historically, Pebble hasn't been the kindest stop on the schedule for Fleetwood, but he should draw inspiration from the fact that last year's rendition was largely contested by three others from the British Isles.

On paper, there's little reason for Fleetwood to fear this layout. At 6,900 yards, his lack of elite distance won't play a factor, and beyond pure length, Tommy has proven himself to be an elite commodity in every other facet of the game. Over his last 50 PGA Tour rounds, Fleetwood ranks inside the top 12 in Approach play, Scrambling, and Putting -- a feat only matched by World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler. He's also posted strong splits on poa annua: gaining over 2.5 strokes putting in four of his last six California starts, while sitting in the 93rd percentile in Approach Proximity from inside 150 yards.

While his 22nd place finish last season marks the best in four starts here, Tommy's game is simply too well rounded to project him for continued struggles. Until further notice, he's still the third-best player on the PGA Tour, and if odds boards are inclined to disagree, he'll certainly be a name of interest for me this week.

It may be a bit antithetical to list Tommy at four this week while simultaneously calling him the third best player on the PGA Tour, but when a player parlays a seven-shot victory into a start at the most successful venue of his PGA Tour career, a bit of nuance is required.

After all, Justin Rose didn't just best the field over four days at La Jolla, he thoroughly outclassed them. After logging rounds of 62-65 to set a tournament-record pace of 17-under through two days at Torrey Pines, Rose extended his lead from four on Saturday morning to eight by the ninth hole -- eventually cruising to his 12th PGA Tour victory, and second on the iconic coastline of San Diego.

Now seven hours up the road in Monterey, the 45-year-old Englishman will aim to capture a second title at another California landmark -- and the numbers suggest he's even more capable this week. In eight career starts at Pebble Beach, Rose has logged three top-six finishes in addition to his 2023 triumph -- including a third place finish at 2019's U.S. Open.

It makes sense stylistically as well. Rose has long been regarded as one of the game's premier iron players, and in recent years he's carved out a specific niche from this week's key scoring range. Rose ranks 8th in this field over his last 75 rounds in approach proximity from 100-150 yards, and has gained strokes putting in eight of his last nine starts on California poa annua -- including a +6.05 rating across his last seven Pebble Beach rounds.

While I may not consider him an objectively better player than many of his contemporaries on the odds board this week, Rose's combination of incoming form and comfort around Pebble Beach cannot be understated. He's a legitimate threat to capture his second Pebble Beach title, and despite his age, officially stake a claim as a contender for 2026's Player of the Year.

12 months ago, Rory McIlroy began a life-changing 2025 campaign with a win at Pebble Beach. The next three months saw him capture his second PLAYERS title and of course, a triumph at Augusta National that earned him a coveted Green Jacket and the status of the sixth ever golfer to win all four Major Championships.

In the time since that coronation at Augusta National, Rory has been candid with the press about his struggles with motivation, and his results told a similar tale. As in nine PGA starts since the start of last May, McIlroy has recorded just four finishes inside the top ten, with no titles and one runner-up.

By normal standards, a run of form like that would hardly be cause for concern. But for a player very much in all-time great conversations, this downturn, combined with Scottie Scheffler's haul of two Major Titles and seven titles in total since Rory's last win, has shifted the post-Masters narrative: Rory is now clearly the chaser in the race for top dog.

By the numbers, Pebble Beach wouldn't exactly be the dream fit for McIlroy either. Aside from his win last year, he's only made two starts at the AT&T Pro-Am -- recording a MC and a 66th. He ranks 44th out of 59 qualified players in this field in poa annua putting, and while the wedge game has made strides in recent years, Rory is still far more prolific on golf courses that require an abundance of mid/long-irons (see: Augusta National/TPC Sawgrass last year).

If he is to mount another charge at Scottie's throne, this week will give us a great barometer as to the merit of his case. As we saw last year, McIlroy has the tools to pick apart Pebble Beach in a way few thought possible. He gained over six strokes with his driver alone (1.7 more than anyone else in the field), and did just enough with his short game to overcome the chase pack of Shane Lowry, Justin Rose, and Russell Henley. If he can once again prove his mettle on this track, McIlroy suddenly becomes a much more compelling figure as Riviera, Bay Hill, Sawgrass, and Augusta National loom.

If there were any questions about Scottie Scheffler's 2026 prospects after a pedestrian opening round in Scottsdale, the World No. 1 erased them in short order over the next three days. Rounds of 65-67-64 vaulted Scheffler from 86th to 3rd on the leaderboard by week's end, and for those who watched final round coverage yesterday, it's not difficult to find the one shot needed to get him into the eventual sudden-death playoff.

Even without a victory, Scheffler gained strokes in every major category for the week -- highlighting the overall health of his game heading into one of the few PGA Tour stops that still lacks his name on the trophy. He has finished ninth and sixth here over the last two years, however, and led the field here 12 months ago on approach (+6.8 strokes gained).

On paper, Pebble Beach checks nearly every box. Its wedge-intensive layout mirrors the conditions that fueled Scheffler's win at the American Express, and its positional layout off-the-tee and greater-than-average reliance on short game touch also seems to land right up Scheffler's alley. Entering the first Signature Event of 2026, Scheffler is once again the standard by which the rest of the field is judged. I wouldn't expect anything less than him as the man to beat on Sunday afternoon.

 

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