Golf

How to watch the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am live online, TV schedule, and more

It’s the most beautiful stop on the PGA Tour. Here’s how to watch the pros, celebrities, and athletes hack away on the Monterey Peninsula.

by Brendan Porath

Updated Feb 13, 2016, 1:00 PM UTC

Harry How/Getty Images

The most unique event of the PGA Tour season tees off this week in what is probably the most scenic stop on the entire circuit. The annual Pebble Beach Pro-Am, nee Bing Crosby Clambake, is here and the field, at least on the professional side, is fairly deep.

World No. 1 Jordan Spieth headlines the professionals. This is his first start on the PGA Tour since the season opener in Maui at the beginning of January. He collected some nice appearance fee checks in two starts abroad in Abu Dhabi and Singapore. He admitted that all the international travel since the end of last year had gotten to him and he was feeling the effects in those last two starts. Now he’s back on the home circuit and the fact that one of his primary sponsors, AT&T, is also the title sponsor of this event probably has something to do with him jumping back into things this week. In addition to Spieth, the other headliners are Phil Mickelson, Jason Day, Dustin Johnson, Justin Rose, and Bubba Watson, among others.

On the amateur side, it’s the usual mix of B, C, and D-list celebrities, actors, musicians, athletes, and outrageously wealthy and connected businessmen. The regulars you can always count on are here -- Bill Murray, Ray Romano, Huey Lewis, Kenny G -- those types. Jim Harbaugh will play in his standard khakis. Mark Wahlberg will have the enjoyable experience of spending three days as Bubba’s partner. The athletes include Aaron Rodgers, Larry Fitzgerald, Josh Donaldson, Alex Smith, Steve Young, and Wayne Gretzky. You’re always going to have an odd assortment of celebrities at this thing, and many washed-up randoms to fill all the spots. It’s fine but it does get old quickly on the broadcast, and is definitely tedious by the weekend.

With two pros and two amateur hackers in each group, the pace of play is grueling this week. A five-hour round, barring no weather issues, is not all that bad. There’s just so many people and you’ve got those amateurs chopping it all over the place. Obviously, it would be impossible to hold this event on just one course. Fortunately, this is the richest spot on the planet for condensed tract of world-class golf courses. The Monterey area has an embarrassment of riches. This Pro-Am has recently settled in to using Pebble, nearby Spyglass Hill, and the Monterey Peninsula Country Club Shore Course. There are many others in the area, and the best of all, Cypress Point, is too fancy and exclusive that they not dare open their grounds to the unwashed public and intruding TV cameras.

The three-course rotation makes televising the tournament difficult. The annual stop in Palm Springs uses three courses, and Torrey Pines uses two before making the cut. It’s often a necessity this time of year given the limited sunlight. This broadcast at this event focuses solely on the namesake course and the third of the field playing Pebble. So you won’t get to see much of Spieth until he rolls through there on Saturday. All those rounds at MPCC and Spyglass are played in relative obscurity and they often save the biggest names and celebrities for Pebble on Saturday, when CBS joins the coverage.

This is not the first CBS tournament of the year but it is their first with Jim Nantz. The lead anchor was otherwise occupied with football matters but now he’s free to get back in his lane and call some golf before March Madness. He’ll make the drive down from the San Francisco Super Bowl to the Peninsula, where he now lives, and undoubtedly be in his element all weekend. He’ll chat up Clint Eastwood in the booth, giggle with Nick Faldo, and drop that Robert Louis Stevenson quote on this being “the most felicitous meeting of land and sea in creation.”

Golf Channel will have the coverage prior to Nantz in all his glory on the weekend. This is the usual split, with GC taking the first two rounds and then early coverage of the last two rounds. Both networks will simulcast stream all their coverage all week, and PGA TOUR LIVE will also have its usual split of featured groups and featured holes coverage.

The pickings are pretty slim for PGA Tour Live’s featured groups stream the first two days -- unless you’ve just been dying to see David Duval swing it again. If you’re not yet a PGA Tour Live subscriber, this might not be the week to start that free 7-day trial they offer. I would wait for Riviera next week, when Spieth and Rory McIlroy are both set to tee it up. Again, that’s the drawback of having the field spread out on three venues with cameras and crew primarily focused on one. Here are all your media options for the week: