2021 Pebble Beach Pro-Am: Top 10 power rankings

A lot has happened for Paul Casey since he first arrived to Pebble Beach in 2001. The Englishman and Arizona State University alum missed the cut that year at age 23 playing in his first pro event on American soil.

Casey missed the cut again a year later and never returned to the Monterey Peninsula, aside from the 2010 U.S. Open (T-40th), for 16 years. He went on to win 14 times worldwide in that span while becoming a rock steady top 25 player in the world.

The third time at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am was the charm for Casey in 2018. Rounds of 67-70-70-70 earned him T-8th.

It made sense for Casey to get reacclimated given the famed course was hosting the 2019 U.S. Open. Casey finished solo second (69-64-67-71) and two behind California legend and fellow ASU Sun Devil, Phil Mickelson in the February Pro-Am.

Casey fired 70-72-73-67 in June for the U.S. Open. That 282 total would have earned him solo second at the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble, but in 2019 he settled for T-21st.

It appears this course is growing on him, and he’s making sure to come back for this event despite spending his last two weeks playing on the European Tour’s Middle East swing.

I don’t blame him for wanting to keep his roll going. Casey won in Dubai and T-12th at the Saudi International. This comes on the heels of a T-8th on the PGA Tour at the American Express.

It’s a lot of golf for a 43 year old, but top-end golfers are spoiled with how they travel and recover in between events. I like Casey to dig deep and play well again here.

It’s a suitable event for Casey’s game as he’s one of the best at combining distance and accuracy with the driver (.546 strokes gained off the tee in 2019-20). Distance isn’t as key here, so it’s really his iron play that does the trick. He was also top-10 in strokes gained approach (9th, .631) last season.