AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am slashes field down to 80 players fighting to grab a huge paycheck out of the $20,000,000+ purse

The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am will undergo massive changes in order to make it a more attractive event before its next season. Its main feature will be its huge $20 million purse.

Among the changes that will be implemented for the 2024 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am is that the field will be trimmed to 80 professional players and 80 amateurs (previously 156). In addition, amateurs will only play the first two rounds.

The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am will have no cut and will be played only at two courses, the Pebble Beach Golf Links and the Spyglass Hill Golf Course. Until last season, a round was also played at the Monterey Peninsula Country Club.

As previously mentioned, professionals and amateurs will only be paired for the first 36 holes. The duos will be playing in a better ball format, while the pros will be playing stroke play at the same time. Over the weekend, the pros will be defining their stroke play tournament.

The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am has been declared a Signature Event for FedEx Cup purposes. This implies severe changes in terms of its importance and form of classification.

AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and other changes in 2024

The PGA Tour unveiled its 2024 FedEx Cup schedule on Monday. There are several new features for the upcoming season, in addition to the aforementioned changes to the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

There will be eight Signature Tournaments (formerly Designated Events). In addition to the AT&T, there will be The Sentry, The Genesis Invitational, the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the RBC Heritage, the Wells Fargo Championship, the Memorial Tournament and the Travelers Championship.

These tournaments are expected to have a substantial increase in their money prizes and also in the allocation of points for the FedEx Cup. All will be awarding 700 points to the winner.

The "Next 10" and the "Swing 5"

Another fundamental change will be the qualification for the Signature Events. Only the method of qualifying for The Sentry remains unchanged (All tournament winners from the 2022-23 season + the fifty qualifiers to the 2023 BMW Championship).

The other seven Signature Events feature a new methodology for qualifying. The PGA Tour has dubbed it "The Next 10 and The Swing 5."

The Top 50 of the 2022-23 FedEx Cup rankings automatically qualify for all Signature Events, but about 15 players will be added to them, to complete fields of between 70 and 80 golfers.

The "Next Ten" will be the Top 10 (plus ties) of the current FedEx Cup rankings (i.e. the 2023-24 season). These are, obviously, players not otherwise exempt from playing in the tournament in question. Those 10 players (plus ties) would be added to the field of each Signature Event.

The "Swing 5" will be the five players (plus ties) who have earned the most FedEx Cup points in the full-field and additional events between one Signature Event and the next. Again, these are players not otherwise exempt.

With this new qualifying methodology, the PGA Tour hopes to increase the options for participation in major events. The goal is that more and more players will have a chance to win major tournaments.