1 Due test weave over a loaded stone beach Sunday

Pebble Beach, California – The Vision PGA Tour has been searching for three years finally arrived at the 7th tee box on Pebble Beach shortly before noon on Saturday.

And it looked terrible.

The leaders arrived at the tee box as an endless sheet of white rainfall and deafening winds pelted the coast, their bodies angled against the wind throwing like Pilings against the tide. After a week in the low-50s, the temperature at the point was dipped down in the 30s, causing CBS reporter Dottie Pepper to wonder if last week’s international ski competition was warmer. The few fans who bother to stay around the 7th until Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa and Rasmus Hojgaard arrived were no longer Diehards, they were fooling. And if they stayed out in the cold longer, they would be lucky if stupidity was their only suffering.

Why has the PGA tour spent the last three years of chasing this? In warm living rooms and on comfortable sofas across the United States, the rest of the golf world knew the answer.

For the first time in three years is PGA Tour’s signature (NEE Designated, elevated) events had delivered a bonafide blockbuster. Eight of PGA Tour’s best players filled a field on one of the world’s largest golf courses, and through 45ish holes the cream of the crop had sieved to the top of the leaderboard.

Now, the 7th tee box, three of the challenges were hitting their tee shots on one of the most famous golf holes in the world. Pipsqueak par-3 seventh played extra cards on Saturday, less than 100 yards, but conditions made a flipped wedge a buzz saw. McIlroy went first and blasted his tee shot long and to the left of the green and almost carrying his ball all the way to the 8th tee box. Then came Morikawa, who dumped his approach briefly and straight into a bunker. Finally, Hojgaard Goldilocks played, found the put surface, leaving a testy to-putt to save pairs. Back near the 18th Green, the CBS broadcast in the stage took pleasure, and for what felt like the first time in 2025, the fans answered at home in nature.

Last year Augusta National President Peaceed Fred Ridley Mona Lisa While describing his club’s most famous par-3, the 12th. This brutal, rainy moment on Saturday 7th? It was a masterpiece for itself. Jay Monahan must have dreamed Jackson Pollock.

So far, the signature events have largely failed to capture this spirit, hampered by a combination of defective leaderboard, subpar site or unsustainable weather. But on Saturday, at least, McIlroy was among golfers and felt the well -known dot for a weekend in violation of a tournament that matters.

“Yes, see, I think really good venues are a big part of the story,” he said. “When we go to bigger championships, especially an American open and an open championship, I always want the golf course to be a big part of the story that goes on Thursday. Sometimes on the PGA Tour, which is not the case, whether you play a race of the mill TPC or whatever it is, it just is not that interesting. “

“If everything is on the table, no matter what this new look due to Tour,” McIlroy said. “I think venues will be a big part of it.”

McIlroy was far from the only player who arrived at Pebble this week of change in mind. He, Jordan Spieth and Scottie Scheffler were just some of the stars talking openly about the need for the tour to continue modernizing to deliver a more compelling entertainment “product”. This edict swung with a PGA Tour message on several changes in broadcasts and pace in play initiatives to increase fan interest. Interestingly, all three players suggested that the trip was closer to salvation than the latest flurry of changes that were hinted at. The biggest key they all agreed on was convincing competition.

“The reason I always saw sports is to see the competition,” Scheffler said on Tuesday. “When I think of something that would be good for the golf game, I think the more we can get back into the competition for things, I think that’s the best.”

Saturday at Pebble Beach at least the golf world got exactly that. Scheffler is one of half a dozen Bonafide stars that enters Sunday’s final round of striking distance from 54-hole leader, Sepp Straka. McIlroy is the closest of the flock that goes into Sunday a shot from the lead and paired in the final grouping with the Ryder Cup Buddy Shane Lowry.

The scene is set to the most memorable Sunday afternoon in the signature event story, broadcast live to the world in primetime, without football competition. This is the moment the golf world has been waiting for – the heavenly adaptation that has proven to be so evasive for the PGA Tour.

The golf world got the story it wanted. Now there is only one critical question left.

Will they see the ending?