No amateurs in Pebble Beach Pro-Am this year due to Covid concerns

The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the PGA Tour’s equivalent of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, will be played without amateurs next month due to Covid-19 concerns.

Actor Bill Murray looks on f the 18th tee at Pebble Beach during the 2019 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.Picture: Harry How/Getty Images.

The professional portion, featuring 156 players, will be played as scheduled on Monterey Peninsula but only on two courses as opposed to the traditional three venues. Monterey Peninsula Country Club is not being used on this occasion.

The event on 11-14 February will be held at Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill. Monterey Peninsula Country Club is not being used on this occasion.

Steve John, tournament director and Monterey Peninsula Foundation CEO, said: “We will truly miss watching the actors, musicians, athletes and other amateur participants that make this event so special.

“But we are pleased to continue on with the professional competition, enabling the Foundation to support nonprofits in Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz Counties.

“Our charitable giving will target basic needs like food insecurity, educational inequities and health inequities brought on by the pandemic.”

The event, which will celebrate its 75th anniversary this year, had previously announced spectators will not be on-site at this year’s event.

Meanwhile, a sore last hole of the day left Russell Knox facing a fight to make the cut in this week’s event on the US circuit, the Sony Open in Hawaii.

The Scot finished his opening circuit in Honolulu with a double-bogey 7 at the ninth, carding a level-par 70 to sit in a tie for 99th.

Chile’s Joaqiun Niemann, last week’s runner-up in the Tournament of Champions, opened with a 62 to share the lead with American pair Peter Malnati and Jason Kokrak.

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