Scheffler, Gotterup and how much has changed in a year at Pebble Beach

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Scottie Scheffler had a fresh scar on his right hand and plenty of rust the last time he was at Pebble Beach, courtesy of a freak accident while making ravioli that set him back at the start of the year.

Chris Gotterup wasn't even at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. He was at No. 206 in the world, ineligible for signature events, his only PGA Tour title coming at Myrtle Beach in 2024 when the best players were somewhere else that week.

So much has changed in a year. Scheffler and Gotterup have played in the same tournament seven times since July and they have combined to win five of them. Scheffler remains No. 1 in the world and carries an astonishing streak of 17 consecutive top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour. Gotterup is up to No. 5 in the world, a winner in two of his last three starts.

“Yeah, it's been awesome,” said Gotterup, a New Jersey native built more like Los Angeles Angels center fielder Mike Trout than a PGA Tour player on the rise.

“We were joking around, Scottie was following me at lunch and he's like, ‘I’m just going to eat whatever you're eating.' Yeah, he's doing pretty good on his own, so I'm not worried about him.”

They are headliners, sure, without having all the headlines to themselves. Rory McIlroy makes his first start on the PGA Tour this year as the defending champion, and this is the best two-week stretch of courses on the tour schedule with Pebble Beach and Riviera, both signature events.

But the star of this particular show always has been Pebble in any weather. And there already has been every kind of weather leading into the first round Thursday, minus the snow.

Sunshine on Monday gave way to high wind on Tuesday and rain on Wednesday. That didn't keep players from being at Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill.

Justin Rose, coming off his win in glorious San Diego weather, walked parts of the course Tuesday with a putter and a wedge. Ahead of him were Scheffler and Si Woo Kim in gusts over 30 mph.

He watched them hit driver on the par-3 17th, starting the shot over the ocean and trying to let the wind bring it back toward the green. They did the same with their tee shots off the famous 18th with the ocean down the entire left side.

“As long as you don’t have a scorecard in your hand, these conditions can be really fun,” Rose said. “But the minute you put a scorecard in your hand, it’s amazing how the brain doesn’t seem to enjoy it quite as much.”

Gotterup was headed out Wednesday after the rain cleared, even if he didn't seem to mind what the conditions were like.

One of the few scorecards he keeps at home is from the time he broke par for the first time at Rumson Country Club in New Jersey. He was 13, and his father had promised him a trip to Pebble Beach the first time he broke par. Gotterup also played Pebble when Oklahoma — where he played as a senior after three years at Rutgers — finished second in the 2021 Carmel Cup.

“This is one of the only places all year where if it’s raining, you’re still pretty happy to be here,” Gotterup said.

The forecast called for rain to clear out for the opening two rounds at Pebble and Spyglass before returning at various levels on the weekend. The 80-man field is the largest for the signature events because of the pro-am Thursday and Friday, with amateurs ranging from Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to retired NBA center Pau Gasol.

Gotterup found consistency with his iron play to go with his power, can confidently move the golf ball both directions and has been on quite the heater — three wins in his last 10 starts on the tour, and a third-place finish in the British Open.

Scheffler, however, remains the standard.

He tied for ninth at Pebble Beach last year in his first competition since surgery on his right hand. He never seriously challenged during the rest of the West Coast and through the Florida swing. And then he was runner-up in Houston and hasn't finished out of the top 10 since.

Scheffler started Phoenix with a 73 — his highest opening round in a non-major since the Memorial in 2023 — and finished the week one shot out of a playoff that Gotterup won.

“He's relentless,” McIlroy said. "And I’ll never stop singing Scottie’s praises because he’s incredible at what he’s doing and the way he does it. I’ve had nice runs like that, but I’ve always been a little more up and down. I think anyone that wants to catch Scottie or get anywhere close is going to have to consistently bring that sort of game week in and week out like he does.

“He’s really the first one since Tiger that’s doing this.”

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

Scottie Scheffler waves to the crowd after getting a birdie on the 10th hole during the first round of the Phoenix Open golf tournament at the TPC Scottsdale Stadium Course Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, in Scottsdale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Chris Gotterup smiles as he holds up the winner's trophy after defeating Hideki Matsuyama in a one hole playoff the Phoenix Open golf tournament Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026, in Scottsdale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

FILE - In this Feb. 6, 2013, file photo, Roberto Castro, right, walks to his ball on the tenth green of the Pebble Beach Golf Links during a practice round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am golf tournament in Pebble Beach, Calif. It's played on one of the world's most picturesque courses on the first weekend after the Super Bowl, offering magnificent views of the Monterey Peninsula to golf fans still digging out from the snow. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)

PHOENIX (AP) — When Jennifer Rizzotti arrived at UConn as a player in 1992, the expectations around the school, as well as the women's basketball landscape, were much different than they are today.

Geno Auriemma was only in his eighth season coaching the Huskies. UConn hadn't yet hoisted a national championship trophy. There wasn't nearly the same pressure to win that the Huskies face now. And women's basketball as a whole hadn't seen the unprecedented growth in sponsorships and popularity it is experiencing now.

By the 1994-95 season, Rizzotti and fellow UConn standout Rebecca Lobo helped the Huskies go undefeated en route to their first national title. Everything about the program changed, and even as women's basketball has evolved and skyrocketed in exposure, the Huskies have remained the gold standard.

“There was no thought that we were going to be undefeated,” Rizzotti said. “We didn't have that internal pressure. We didn't have external pressure. That's the last time a UConn team could play that way. Think about that: 1995 is the last time a UConn team could play without that kind of pressure.”

The Huskies have since won 12 national titles, reached the Final Four 25 times and won 30 conference titles. They've been ranked 653 weeks in The Associated Press women's basketball poll, and Auriemma is the winningest coach in women's college basketball history.

As conversations around the Final Four in Phoenix center around how the women's game has grown, the Huskies, who are competing for the second straight national title, have been at the forefront.

“You could tell that everything was aligned for this program to reach that pinnacle," said Rizzotti, who is currently the president of the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun. “I don't think anything of us would have predicted that it would have gone on as it had.”

Rizzotti joined former UConn players Stefanie Dolson, currently with the WNBA's Washington Mystics, and Shea Ralph, now Vanderbilt's coach, on a panel Friday at “The AP Top 25 Fan Poll Experience,” which is being held at Arizona State’s First Amendment Forum in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Earlier Friday, Big East commissioner Val Ackerman, former Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) commissioner Rich Ensor and AP women’s poll founder Mel Greenberg spoke on a panel moderated by college basketball analyst Debbie Antonelli on the growth of women's basketball at the college and pro levels.

“I think women's basketball has never been more popular,” said Ackerman, who was the first president of the WNBA from 1996-2005. “I think schools that are succeeding are really seeing, feeling and believing in the (return on investment). And UConn's a case in point.”

Ackerman sees the investment that the schools in this year's Final Four — UConn, Texas, South Carolina, and UCLA — have made in their programs to reach back-to-back national semifinals as a reflection of the growing importance of pouring resources into women's hoops.

“And that's done a world of good,” she added. “Programs like South Carolina, UCLA, you see what they're doing for their campuses. The investment is paying off in terms of the brand and engagement with the community and school reputation.”

Even as women's sports are drawing record crowds and WNBA players are set to make more money than ever, Ensor sees much more room to capitalize on this current growth.

“It has been about breaking down barriers, and they still exist,” Ensor said. “We marvel at what's happened, but we still recognize there's a lot more that's to come.”

AP Top 25 Fan Poll Experience: https://apnews.com/https:/apnews.com/projects/arizona-state-fan-poll-experience/

AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

FILE - Connecticut's Breanna Stewart, left, drives to the basket as Cincinnati's Maya Benham, right, defends during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2016, in Storrs, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File)

From left, Debbie Antonelli, Val Ackerman, Rich Ensor and Mel Greenberg sit on a panel during an event Friday, April 3, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Val Ackerman, commissioner of the Big East Conference, listens during an event Friday, April 3, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/John Locher)

UConn head coach Geno Auriemma reacts after his team defeated Notre Dame in the Elite Eight of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Sunday, March 29, 2026, in Fort Worth, Texas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)