Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Max Schreiber

How Taylor Swift Caused a Rush of Ticket Sales for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am

“Taylor Swift might be there.”

That was likely what many Swifties thought when Travis Kelce, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end who’s engaged to Swift, entered the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, which pairs celebrities with PGA Tour pros over the first two rounds. 

As a result, the galleries Friday on Pebble’s Spyglass Hill course were large, following Kelce, who played with Tour pros Keith Mitchell, Mackenzie Hughes and retired NFL quarterback Alex Smith. 

Much to those fans’ disappointment, though, Swift didn’t show up. 

“It was busy without [Swift],” Hughes told the Associated Press. “With her, I think it would have literally been pandemonium.”

Regardless, the event benefited from just the hope that Swift might attend. Steve John, the tournament director, told the AP that when it was revealed Kelce would participate in the pro-am, nearly $60,000 in tickets were sold in the following 12 hours.

And between Kelce’s first-and-second-round tee times, roughly $21,000 in tickets were purchased, yielding over 1,000 fans lining up the side of the fairway Friday morning. 

Knowing that it was a possibility Swift might arrive on-site, John said the tournament planned for enhanced security measures, along with transportation around the course for Swift and a private, secure suite that overlooked the 18th green.

Had Swift been sitting in there when her fiancé played last, she would have seen a turbulent end to his round. According to Golfweek, Kelce hit a fan in the gallery with his second shot. Afterward, he went to check on them, signed something, picked up his ball and walked off the course. 

Kelce and Mitchell finished T35 on the pro-am leaderboard at 11 under par, while Keegan Bradley and Mary Meeker, a venture capitalist, won that division at 20 under par.

Akshay Bhatia and Ryo Hisatsune lead the professional leaderboard by one stroke at 15 under.


More on Sports Illustrated


This article was originally published on www.si.com as How Taylor Swift Caused a Rush of Ticket Sales for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.