Aaron Rodgers won an event in early February. It just wasn't the one he wanted.
Rodgers and PGA Tour pro Ben Silverman won the net portion of the 2023 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am with a score of 26 under over the course of three days. The final round was canceled after inclement weather bumped the professional part of the event into Monday. The duo shot 62-60-67 for three rounds and defeated Peter Malnati and Don Colleran, an executive at FedEx.
"It's really significant," Rodgers said of the victory. "It's always been on my bucket list. I played in Tahoe for 18 years and never really sniffed higher than, like, eighth. But I felt good about the partnership this week. Ben's such a great guy. I knew we were going to have fun. Playing with Darius Rucker, I've known him for over a decade. He's a fantastic guy. You know it's going to be a great week.
"Then we put together a couple good rounds. The first two. Today, especially the last 10 holes, I was in my pocket and my partner picked me up."
Rodgers' handicap of 10 got called into question more than a few times throughout the week -- he's a really good player who has been featured in multiple editions of The Match -- but he said after the event that he hasn't played since before the NFL season started, which may have contributed to a bloated handicap.
"I had no confidence coming in," he said. "I shot 86 at Sherwood on Monday and that was with a couple balls in my pocket on some holes. And I played at Cypress on Tuesday with a good friend of mine ... My caddie was out there with me too. If you would have seen that you wouldn't have expected anything this week. But something clicked in when I went to Spy. Had a good round at Monterey Peninsula on Friday. Then we battled the wind the last couple days.
"But this is a pretty big deal for me. I'm not going to sugar coat it. It's a great week just as a, you know, by itself, spending time with Ben. But winning is the sweetest."
How good was Rodgers this week? His partner, Silverman, missed the professional cut by two and they still won the net championship.
Previous winners of the amateur side of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am include Larry Fitzgerald and Bill Murray, although they both did it over the course of 72 holes. Rodgers said the shortened event won't affect how much he jaws about it to fellow competitors.
"You're damn right [I'll have bragging rights]," he said. "Yeah. For sure. Josh Allen was telling me there's going to be an asterisk by this win because there was only three rounds. But I think that name our names are going to be up there for a long time."
