PEBBLE BEACH >> As the quality of the fields in recent years of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am fluctuated, organizers sought ways to improve the show.

Were there entertainers or athletes from other sports new to golf or who hadn’t previously participated who would attract larger galleries? What would it take for more top players to visit the Monterey Peninsula in February?

Controversy dismissed and timing ideal, the AT&T was anointed as one of the PGA Tour’s eight Signature Events last year. It was a reaction to the influence of the massive funds offered to players to leave the PGA Tour to play on the Saudi-funded LIV Golf circuit.

The new PGA Tour concept: to attract the game’s top payers with a $20 million purse, a limited field and no cut after 54 holes.

The goal: golf’s best vying in the final pairings for a $3.6 million winner’s share on Sunday afternoon at Pebble Beach.

Amateurs and celebrities, for decades part of the event’s name, were dispatched from weekend play in favor of a condensed field playing a condensed final round.

Last year’s gnarly weather limited the event to 54 holes. But this season, the tournament started with promoters’ warranted renewed optimism.

The tournament began with 17 of the Official World Golf Ranking’s top 20 players, including No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and No. 3 Rory McIlroy.

By the beginning of Sunday’s final round only three of the top 20, McIlroy and Russell Henley (No. 18) who lead the tournament after an opening-round 64, were within five shots of 54-hole leader Sepp Straka, No. 20, in the 78-player field.

But the lure to play in the event, which only a few years ago attracted only three of golf’s top 20, was back. Besides the top players, the sport’s “personality” players, including Viktor Hovland (No. 9), Tommy Fleetwood (No. 10), Justin Thomas (No. 14) and Tony Finau (No. 29) also competed.

Jordan Spieth, the 2017 tournament winner and 13-time PGA Tour titlist who hadn’t qualified and hadn’t competed via injury since last August, was given a sponsor’s exemption. Rickie Fowler, the upbeat veteran whose 2023 title at Phoenix Open was his first in four years, also received a sponsor’s exemption.

Sunday spectators once were accustomed to pros negotiating their final with celebrities in the mix. Instead, they watched threesomes of pros, the top 10 of whom earned a minimum of $530,000 and top 35 of whom earned at least $100,000. Steve John, the CEO of the Pebble Beach Foundation and the tournament director, has often addressed the absence of the event’s traditions by emphasizing the quality of the golf.

“The change is tough; some people have accepted it,” John said before the tournament. “But change is never easy. Over a period of time, more people have understood. The tournament is now for real golf fans.”

The quality of the field was showcased early and didn’t end.

McIlory and Lowry had holes in one during a first round in which 53 of 80 players shot under 70 and only eight players shot over par.

Hovland, the 2018 U.S. Amateur winner at Pebble Beach who said his game currently “sucks” in a pre-event media conference, shot 65 in the first round.

In the second round, Scheffler saved his par 5 on the 18th after hitting his tee shot into the rocks fronting the Pacific Ocean. In the third round, Justin Thomas had an eagle from 78 yards from on the par 4 seventh hole.

And in the final round, Christian Bezuidenhout added the third ace of the tournament on the 17th hole

There was also the unique.

Cam Davis’ approach shot on par 4 fourth hit another player’s ball on the green and caromed off the green. But he chipped in for a birdie.

To extend and what would eventually solidify his victory, McIlroy moved into a four-stroke lead after 14 holes with an eagle from 27 feet on 14th hole.