After Philip Knowles pulled before the first round at the 2023 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am was over, Jonas Blixt took his place.
The 38-year old Swede has missed the cut at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship this season. So any chance to get into a PGA Tour event is a good thing.
Blixt wasn’t in the field for the WM Phoenix Open next week, so he made sure he was there for Monday’s qualifier. This qualifier has been dubbed an “opposite-field” event due to the high number of outstanding golfers.
Mother Nature has other plans for Blixt, and the 14 other golfers, who made Sunday’s cut at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. High winds have caused play to be suspended and forced a Monday finish at the Monterey Peninsula.
Monday is also the qualifying round for the $20 million TPC Scottsdale WMPO. Blixt shot 72-72-604 over the first three rounds. He will be starting the final round tied for 13th and will receive a check on the PGA Tour. However, he will miss out on a potentially huge payday at the Phoenix Open where the winner will take home $3.6 million.
They call them the breaks.
Bill Ibrahim, the Southwest Section PGA’s COO, stated that it was unfortunate that some participants will miss the WM Phoenix Open Monday Qualifier because of weather problems at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. A Monday finish is now scheduled for that event. This means that many of the 31 registered participants in both events are within the cut line, and will therefore not be able be there. The WM Phoenix Open is the first event designated for the year. I imagine it hurts a bit more not being able to compete with these events in the future.
It’s bad luck for these gentlemen, but you can’t control Mother Nature. It’s not as painful as it sounds, since the people who make it are at least trying to keep their heads above water this week.
Here’s a closer look of the Pro-Am players who also qualified for the Phoenix Open Monday qualifier.
Pebble Beach: Made from a cut
7 under, T-13
Jonas Blixt
Nick Hardy
Kevin Yu
6 under, T-18
Eric Cole
5 under, T-24
Aaron Baddeley
Sam Stevens
Martin Trainer
Kyle Westmoreland
4 under, T-22
Harry Hall
Dylan Wu
3 under, T-42
Sung Kang
2 under, T-50
Byeong Hun An
1 under, T-59
Tano Goya
Sean O’Hair
Trevor Werbylo
Missed cut
Zac Blair
Kevin Chappell
Trevor Cone
Austin Eckroat
Harrison Endycott
Robert Garrigus
Michael Gligic
Will Gordon
Ben Griffin
Scott Harrington
Grayson Murray
Vincent Norrman
Kevin Roy
Ben Taylor
Bo Van Pelt
Carl Yuan
WD
Carson Young
