Goodbye, Shinnecock; Hello, Pebble Beach

The last putt dropped in the 2026 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills about 30 minutes before I started typing this story, and it had been a day. Wyndham Clark, the 2024 U.S. Open champion at Los Angeles Country Club, notched up a wire-to-wire win last Sunday that nevertheless provided plenty of drama in the final round.

I’ll admit, I was nodding off on my sofa mid-round on Saturday, but Sunday’s final round kept me interested. And while Clark is not my favorite player on the circuit, he opened the tournament with a blistering six-under 64 and gutted out a win despite carding a three-over 73 in the final. Chasing down a six-shot lead going into the final round is a tall order, and neither World #1 Scottie Scheffler nor (eventual) repeat U.S. Open runner-up Sam Burns – who turned in a challenging 3-under 67 (after heartbreaking missed birdie putts on 17 and 18) – were ultimately able to take Clark down.

But enough about history; I’m here to talk about the future, and the future of the U.S. Open (at least in 2027) is Pebble Beach.

The ninth hole at Pebble Beach affords the golfer a sweeping view along Carmel Beach. (Image by author)

I am an unrepentant aficionado of Pebble Beach Golf Links. As a kid in nearby Salinas, I grew up watching the Crosby Clambake on TV despite the fact that I didn’t play golf, and didn’t even know anyone who did until I was 13 or 14 years old. I was privileged to cover the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in person eleven years in a row, as well as the Champions Tour event that has been held at Pebble under different names, with different title sponsors; and I had a seat in the media center there for the 2019 U.S. Open.

My first thought on the Open returning to Pebble Beach after its turn at Shinnecock is relief; relief that we will once again be seeing the best in the world playing for the prize at a course that doesn’t look like a desolate moonscape, especially after four days of tournament galleries flattening dead-straw pathways between the fairways; that we will be seeing the U.S. Open played at a course with trees; a course with scenery.

The California coast from the Monterey Peninsula southward to Morro Bay is a majestic sweep of crashing waves washing rocky beaches that lie at the feet of the rugged slopes of the Coast Range mountains, and Carmel Bay – where the Pebble Beach property hugs the coastline – is arguably the jewel of the region.

Of course scenery isn’t the only story – despite the jibes of naysayers who say the inland holes are pedestrian and uninteresting, and that only the ocean holes have anything to offer (1), Pebble Beach is so revered by the USGA that in 2022 it was selected as the third “anchor site” for the U.S. Open, joining Pine Valley and Oakmont in that honor.

Pebble Beach has the distinction of being the first public course to host the U.S. Open (in 1972), when it further cemented its place in U.S. Open history with Jack Nicklaus’ famous off-the-flagstick 1-iron at the par-3 17th hole. Ten years later Tom Watson produced another memorable moment at the 17th hole when, lying 4-under after a bogey at 16, and with Jack Nicklaus already in the clubhouse at 4-under, he chipped in from deep rough left of the green at 17 and followed it up with another birdie at 18 to nip the Golden Bear for the win.

Perhaps most notable of all U.S Opens at Pebble Beach was the 2000 tournament, the fourth of Pebble’s eventual six (to date), when 24-year-old Tiger Woods, at the height of his powers, dominated the field, winning by an unheard-of fifteen strokes.

With its pedigree of six U.S. Opens (with four more to come in the next twenty years), five U.S. Amateurs, and other championships (PGA Championship – 1977; U.S. Women’s Amateur – 1948; and U.S. Women’s Open – 2023, with three more to come), Pebble Beach Golf Links is deserving of its place as a star in the firmament of championship golf, and golf fans the world over should be excited for every opportunity to see the best and brightest contend across this storied landscape.

1 (Most of then have never played the course, or in some cases, I’ll wager, even set foot on the property.)

Sunshine, fog, and another Walker Cup victory for the United States

Weather. Golf being an outdoor game, the weather is always a part of the story to some extent, and nowhere more so, I think, than on the Monterey Peninsula. The AT&T Pro-Am is famous (or infamous) for “Crosby weather”; it’s January/February spot on the calendar has, over the years, produced everything from calm, idyllic sunshiny days to fog, high winds, pelting rain, hail, and even – in 1962 – snow.

This weekend at the Cypress Point Walker Cup, however, the weather gods and the golf gods have made peace. Saturday morning’s rounds began under overcast skies, but they gave way to brilliant Steinbeck Country sunshine by lunch, and Sunday morning started out under brilliant azure skies which bid fair to stay that way all day. Though fog closed in as the event wound down, it was not a day in which one could complain about the weather.

Stewart Hagestad (USA) reacts to winning his match on the 15th hole during singles matches of the 2025 Walker Cup at Cypress Point Club in Pebble Beach, Calif. on Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025. His win over the GB&I’s Eliot Baker clinched the Cup for the American Team. (Logan Whitton/USGA)

Morning Foursomes

Teeing off in crisp but sunny conditions, the American teams were up early in all but Match 4, in which Sussy and La Sasso tied the first hole with opponents Adam and Shiels-Donegan but never led, seeing themselves sink as far as 5-down by the 12th hole. A late surge in which they won three of the next five holes was too little, too late as the GB&I pair won, 2-up.

Going from the most lopsided match to the most closely contested, in Match #1 San Jose native Jackson Koivun and partner Tommy Morrison took a 1-up lead, briefly 2-up, for the first seven holes before falling back at holes 8 and 9, a two-hole stretch where more than one lead has fallen this week. Morrison was short and right on 8, leaving Koivun an horrific second shot off of a steep slope in sandy waste.

At Hole # 9, the temptingly drivable 279-yard par 4, Koivun repeated a mistake that cost more than one player dearly this weekend – trying the drive-the-green hero shot off the tee to make up for a dismal performance at the previous hole. This time he was the one who left his partner a chancy second shot, out of the powdery sand right of the hole. The resulting bogey to their opponents’ birdie flipped the score in the match, which remained blue until clutch putts by first Koivun, at 17, and then Morrison, at 18, closed out the match and added a point to the score for the home side.

The match with the highest hopes and most dismal finish for the home side was Match #2, which pitted the USA’s Ethan Fang & Preston Stout, who are teammates at Oklahoma State, against Brits Charlie Forster and Luke Poulter (son of perennial Euro Ryder Cup hero and relentless self-promoter Ian Poulter). The Cowboy duo dominated from the first hole, running their lead up to three by the fifth hole, and after a mild reversal when the British pair won two holes in a row, ran it up to 4-up by hole #10. The GB&I players then went on a run of their own, winning five of the next six holes to tie the match with three to play. A GB&I par at the infamous 16th hole to the American pair’s double-bogey put the visitors one up in the match, which is how the issue was resolved after the two teams matched pars on 17 and 18.

The prizes for most dominating performance and most dramatic finish of the morning session go to Match #3. Americans Mason Howell and Jacob Modleski took the lead right out of the gate, one-up, then two-up, and after briefly dropping back to a tie with opponents Eliot Baker and Stuart Grehan after the third hole, held on to no less than a two-up lead for the rest of the match. Howell, the 18-year-old who secured his spot on the team with his win in the U.S. Amateur at the Olympic Club a few weeks back, closed out this match in dramatic fashion with a highlight-reel worthy one-hop hole-out at #17 from 147 yards with a pitching wedge.

Afternoon Singles

The Americans went up early and dominated across the board in the afternoon singles matches, and as the sun faded into a thickening fog bank in the late afternoon and early evening, the GB&I squad showed their mettle, but in a losing effort.

For example: When the match between Connor Grahm of GB&I and Mason Howell of the USA got to 17 all tied up, Graham made a bold move. With the honor off the tee due to having won the 15th hole to tie the match, he pulled driver at 17 to go for the green. He overshot, but compelled to do the same, Howell drove hole-high but well into the left rough. For all the drama off the tee, the two ended up splitting the hole with pars, and did the same at 18 to each put up a half point for their team.

As the fog thickened it got more difficult to see the results of shots off the tee. Preston Stout of the USA, playing Luke Poulter, lost his tee shot at 16 in the fog; it was later determined to have dropped short and ended up in the water. He lost the hole but remained ahead by one going to 17. He then closed out his opponent 2 and 1 with a birdie to Poulter’s par

The last nail in the GB&I team’s coffin came courtesy of Stewart Hagestad, the experienced 34-year-old mid-am who flew under the radar for most of the afternoon while the TV coverage concentrated on the glamorous seaside holes that were being played ahead of him. After losing holes 13 and 14 to Baker, Hagestad sank a lengthy birdie putt at the par-3 15th, closing out his match against Eliot Baker 4 and 3 to put the USA up 13 to 8 for the tournament – enough, as the defending team, to retain the Cup.

The remaining matches were played out, as is traditional, with a final score of USA–17, GB&I–9 being posted for the record book.

It was a memorable weekend, and it was a privilege for all involved to play, spectate, and report on this classic event at Cypress Point. Who knows when the gates of this sacrosanct citadel of American golf will open its gates to the public again?

Friday at the 2025 Walker Cup

I’m too old, and dare I say it, experienced, to be too over-awed by just any golf tournament or a golf course – but the Walker Cup is a different animal. Even with a pair each of U.S. Opens and U.S. Women’s Opens, ten AT&T pro-Ams, and a double-handful of lower-tier USGA events and the miscellaneous permutations of what used to be the Fry’s Open under my belt, I feel a different vibe at this tournament.

Even the practice green at Cypress Point Golf Club looked inviting today.

The Walker Cup is a special event, a throwback, of sorts, to the roots of golf, pitting amateur teams from opposite sides of the Atlantic in head-to-head match play – what many people feel is the purest form of competitive golf – and just to take it up a notch, it’s being played on a course of almost mythical mien: Cypress Point.

Cypress Point. The name is whispered in reverential tones among golf fans. The course is an Alister Mackenzie masterpiece tucked into a corner of arguably the most scenic 7-1/2 square miles of coastal land in the United States, the Monterey Peninsula’s Del Monte Forest. Its neighbors are Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill, Poppy Hills, The Links at Spanish Bay, and Monterey Peninsula Country Club – all save MPCC accessible to the public (though, with the exception of Poppy Hills, the home course of the Northern California Golf Association, at premium prices), but Cypress is private, and exclusive to a legendary degree.

The membership list at Cypress Point Golf Club is reputed to hover at around 150 names, and the cost, well, don’t ask, because they won’t tell you (and as the saying goes: If you have to ask, you can’t afford it.) Cypress has hosted this very tournament once before, in 1981, and the general public used to get a glimpse of this hallowed ground each year during the telecast of the Bing Crosby Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

From 1947 to 1990 Cypress was in the rota of three courses over which the Crosby was played, but the club pulled out in 1991 over a disagreement with the PGA Tour concerning its membership policies. Since then it has been a seldom-seen wonderland of rocky shores, rolling dunescapes, and windswept forests of cypress (naturally) and Monterey pines. A few holes on the course are well-known to the general golfing public, most notably the 16th, a 230-yard par-3 with a daunting carry across rocks and the crashing Pacific surf – but beyond the odd photo in a golf publication or humble-brag social media post, the course has been a mystery to the general public for 35 years.

Until now.

And not only is the course open to the public for this event, but as is standard operating procedure at all USGA amateur championships, spectators are free to walk the fairways (behind the players); only the putting greens are roped off. This level of access affords spectators an amazing opportunity to experience the course at a level that, say, a PGA Tour event does not, and gain a much greater understanding of the challenges that a course presents.

And despite its lack of length, at a mere 6,620 yards, Cypress definitely presents a challenge. Even with a limited amount of time at my disposal to walk the course today – I only got as far as the par-3 seventh before doubling back past 12 and 13 to the media center adjacent to the first fairway – I got a taste of the elevation changes, and the shapes and cants of the fairways and greens, and the genius of this Mackenzie design is evident in every square foot of every hole.

The mystique of this legendary course overrode ticket prices ($100 for the Friday practice round, $200 each for Saturday and Sunday); for Friday, the prospect of a 1:00 p.m. course closure (to prepare for the 3:00 p.m. opening ceremonies) was hardly a deterrent – the parking lot adjacent to the Pebble Beach practice facility, about a mile and a half away, was a good three-quarters full when I arrived at 10:30 a.m. Though not crowded by any means, plenty of spectators were in evidence around the course (most carrying clear plastic bags loaded with Walker Cup-branded items from the merchandise tent), and the anticipation in the air was palpable.

Practice today was short. No full rounds were played; the players and coaches merely testing and refining their feel for the venue, with its variety of holes strung between coast and forest, staying loose and reserving their strength for the weekend. Typical Monterey Bay summer weather was on display, overcast and cool in the morning with the sun breaking out briefly after lunch before a light overcast started to build back in. The light wind was onshore, from the northwest, and if this pattern holds it will be a perfect weekend for golf, at what is possibly the perfect venue.

I can hardly wait.

“The Playing Lesson”, by Michael Bamberger ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ -1/2

A new book from Michael Bamberger is always an occasion to celebrate. The author of classic golf titles such as The Green Road Home, To The Linksland, This Golfing Life, and Men in Green has a unique outlook on the game of golf that is grounded in a depth of experience that you won’t find, I think, in any other writer in the modern game. There are a handful that approach it, including his fellow former-Sports Illustrated colleague and co-author of The Swinger, Alan Shipnuck, but Bamberger’s work has a certain feel, a laidback mellowness, if you will, that I haven’t found anywhere else in my 200-plus-volume collection of books on golf.

The Playing Lesson, the latest from esteemed golf writer Michael Bamberger, is the chronicle of a year embedded in the professional game, as a caddy, a tournament volunteer, and a pro-am participant.

I will admit that I was expecting something a bit different from this book, but that is more a failure of imagination on my part than a shortcoming in execution on the author’s part. The Playing Lesson was billed as the chronicle of a year’s immersion in the world of professional golf, and I was expecting more content relating to actual golf lessons – but Bamberger doesn’t do obvious. Sure, he got some swing tips, and putting lessons (more about that later) along the way, but the real learning experience involved him immersing himself in the myriad aspects of the world of professional golf for a year, learning about much more than just the actual playing of the game.

Not that Bamberger is a newbie to the world of pro golf, not by a long shot. His first book, The Green Road Home (1986), chronicles his start in golf at age 14 and his adventures caddying for an array of professional golfers while also starting his life as a writer. His second, To The Linksland (1992), about his adventures as a traveling caddy on the European Tour (with his very understanding wife in tow) is such a classic that a few years ago used copies were going for $100 or more; many a golfer’s dreams of striking it rich by selling a cherished first edition were trampled when it was re-issued in a 30th Anniversary edition in 2022.

In The Playing Lesson Bamberger takes to the road again, caddying, playing in pro-ams, volunteering at tournaments – essentially sampling the many sides of professional golf. It is somewhat reminiscent of the 1968 George Plimpton book Bogey Man, which chronicles the (mis)adventures of the author, and editor of The Paris Review, as he spends a mere month embedded with the PGA Tour, but Bamberger’s sojourn lasts longer and delves deeper into the many and varied aspects of professional golf.

Even a quick mile-wide/inch-deep synopsis of the ground covered by this book would turn this review into a much longer read than it has any right to be; all I can say is, read it. Michael Bamberger’s prose is smooth and a delight to read, and he gets into so many corners of the game that every golfer will find something interesting, something they can relate to, or something they never knew, in this book. I particularly enjoyed the section on his late afternoon round on the back nine at Pacific Grove Golf Links, a quirky but not-to-be-missed municipal course just down the road from Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill, and Cypress Point. A golf trip to the Monterey Peninsula isn’t complete without a round at Pacific Grove.

As for myself, I would love to spend some time with Michael on a putting green and talk with him about that particularly infuriating aspect of the game. He carries a two-sided putter so that he can putt leftie because he often yips short putts right-handed, a concept that astounds me (and not in a good way.) My technical-side antennae went up at a couple of mentions he made of hooked or sliced putts, and putted balls rolling “end-over-end”; these are the sort of misconceptions that are unfortunately common among golfers, and even many golf instructors, and they’re aching to be laid to rest.

Questions of his dubious beliefs about putting aside – as can be said of pretty much everything he has published[1], The Playing Lesson belongs in every thinking golfer’s bookcase.

[1] I must confess that I didn’t care for his previous book to this one, The Ball in the Air. No knock on his writing; I just couldn’t bring myself to care about the three golfers who are the subject of the book.

Saturday at the “new look” Pebble Beach Pro-Am is just not the same

Saturday at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (and its previous incarnation, the Crosby) used to be special at the namesake course, Pebble Beach Golf Links. Since it’s the weekend, there are more fans, of course, and in the original format Saturday was the day that the three-course rota brought the biggest names among the celebrity amateur players to the home course.

On Saturdays Pebble Beach Golf Links would be teeming with fans who didn’t know a driver from a wedge; they came to see the beautiful views and to spot famous faces playing golf amongst those views. The golfers among the spectators reveled in the fact that many of those stars, even with their staff bags and top-of-the-line equipment, and their memberships at high-rent private clubs like Riviera, Bel Air, and L.A. Country Club, had golf games that they could relate to. They were thrilled to see the stars, and also happy to see them display their human side on a golf course.

All of that has gone by the wayside with the transformation of this unique classic event into one of the PGA Tour’s “Signature” events. In order to create a schedule of events that concentrate more players from the upper echelons of the Tour’s membership, the eight Signature tournaments on the 2024 schedule will have bigger purses (Pebble’s went from $9 million to $20 million), with a larger percentage to the winner; smaller fields (70 – 80) drawn from the top tier of the Tour’s members; and except for three player-hosted Signature Events – the Genesis Invitational, Arnold Palmer Invitational, and Memorial Tournament – no cut.

The Tour’s leadership seem to be of the opinion that a larger number of “big names” playing for four days straight will draw more fans to the course and the TV coverage, but to my mind these events represent a watered-down product with little of the drama inherent in the make-the-cut or-go-home tournament format that we have known for years.

Not everyone is unhappy about the new format, of course (see below.) There have always been the curmudgeonly grumps (usually folks from outside the area) who complained about slow play, amateur antics (see Bill Murray…), etc., but the original format is a tradition that stretches back to 1947 – and there are plenty of us who are sorry to see it go.

Still lots to talk about…

New format aside, there was still some good-to-great golf on display today. Reigning U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark put on a show, carding two eagles, nine birdies, and a bogey on the way to a course record* 60 and the lead in the clubhouse at 17-under. Friday co-leader Ludvig Åberg, playing five holes behind Clark, was sitting at 15-under when Clark tapped in for his 60, and was in good position to challenge for the lead, as was last week’s winner of the Farmers Insurance Open, Matthieu Pavon, at 14-under through fourteen holes.

A clutch of players at 13-under – Jason Day, Mark Hubbard, Sam Burns, and another Friday co-leader, Thomas Detry; and a couple of big names at 12-under, Justin Thomas and Scottie Scheffler – could all have been said to be in the hunt for the tournament title as Clark’s ball dropped for the historic 60.

As it turned out, the third round finished with a pack on Wyndham Clark’s tail. Ludvig Åberg made only his second birdie of the back nine on #18 to close to within a stroke at 16-under; Matthieu Pavon closed out a string of six pars with a birdie on #18 for a 15-under; former San Jose State golfer Mark Hubbard birdied 18 and joined Thomas Detry at 14-under, and Scottie Scheffler birdied #18 to join Jason Day, 2023 AT&T Pro-Am champ Tom Hoge, and Justin Thomas at 13-under, T6, four strokes back. Sam Burns rounds out the top 10 alone at 12-under – and five strokes back is the most a reasonable assessor would give any chance of being able to come from behind to steal a win.

The weather, though…

High winds and significant rainfall amounts are predicted overnight into Sunday morning, and as play wound down Chief referee Gary Young came into the media center and laid out the possibilities for the tournament’s finish: Weather conditions will be evaluated overnight, and a decision on Sunday play made at 5:00 a.m. Players will be messaged at 5:15 a.m. as to whether play will proceed; wind and rain conditions will determine whether play will take place. Due to the anticipated conditions, no spectators will be allowed on the course on Sunday.

If play starts on Sunday, but the round cannot be finished, a Monday finish is in play, but ONLY if play can be concluded on Monday. Current green speeds can sustain play in winds up to ≈40 mph, but a combination of the wind and the effects of additional rain on an already soggy golf course will determine how, and when, the event is wrapped up. Sunday conditions are expected to be the most severe, so fans will be allowed on the course on Monday.

Stay tuned, folks.

* Preferred lies were in play, so…

2024 AT&T Pro-Am, Day 2: Almost boring…

There is a distinct lack of drama during the Friday round of a no-cut golf tournament. With the exception of the original-format Pebble Beach Pro-Am, which featured a Saturday cut because of the three-course rota, Friday is traditionally go-big-or-go-home day, when players at or near the top of the leaderboard are trying to continue their good play and hang on to their spots, and back-markers are looking to find another gear, up their games and get, or stay, above the cut line in order to make a paycheck.

Five of eight of the PGA Tour’s new limited-field Signature events, of which the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am is now one, have no cut (the exceptions are the three player-hosted invitationals: the Genesis Invitational, Arnold Palmer Invitational, and the Memorial Tournament), so that Friday drama (or desperation, in some cases) that made it my favorite tournament day, after Sunday, is gone.

Of course, even in a guaranteed-payday tournament like this there is an incentive to play well. After all, with a total purse of $20 million, 1st-place money is a life-changing (at least for mere mortals) $3.6 million, and 10th-place still nets the player something north of half a million dollars. Even DFL* money is a mere $32,000, but that will at least cover your expenses for the week with a nice chunk of change left over – and you got to play Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill.

When you add to that picture a near-total lack of wind, and rain-softened greens that held every shot that hit them, the drama factor on the second day of the 2024 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am was, well – low.

That being said, in some ways the new-look Pro-Am stayed true to its roots, because from early in the day Friday, despite the Signature Events’ promise of “more big names” and therefore “more excitement”, two less-than-familiar names – Thomas Detry and Ludvig Åberg, a Belgian and a Swede, respectively, held sway at the top of the leaderboard throughout the day.

Playing at Pebble, Detry laid a 2-under 70 (which included bogeys at holes 4 and 5) on top of the 9-under he carded Thursday at Spyglass Hill to hang on to a share of first place, while Åberg took serious advantage of the benign conditions at the tournament’s namesake course to rack up an impressive 7-under 65, second-lowest score on the day to join Detry at the top of the leaderboard.

Also crowding onto the top step, at this point, was Scottie Scheffler, who has come a long way since his 2013 USGA Jr. Amateur Championship victory at Martis Camp in Truckee. Scheffler took low-round-of-the-day honors, helped to a tidy 8-under 64 by a 35-foot birdie putt on 17. He rose thirteen spots up the leaderboard today to muscle in on a share of first place.

Where were the rest of the big names?

Rory McIlroy, current world #2 who was touted as the event’s biggest draw, couldn’t buy a putt all day (SG-Putting: 2.6), and seems to have lost the ability to hit any kind of a draw; he doubled down on his previous day’s troublesome 1-under round at Spyglass with a weak-sauce 2-over 74 at Pebble, dropping to T65 at 1-over. Of some consolation, perhaps, is the fact that McIlroy and his amateur partner, Jeff Rhodes, a managing partner at TPG Capital, won the pro-am competition with a 17-under total.

Patrick Cantlay, who sat one stroke behind Detry at the end of the first round, clung on with a 2-under 70 today, also at Pebble Beach; he is currently alone in 4th place.

Justin Thomas, who hasn’t stepped foot on this course in a decade, added a 3-under round on Pebble today to yesterday’s 6-under at Spyglass for a comfortable 9-under T5, two strokes back of the leading trio. Thomas shares the T5 spot with Argentinian Emiliano Grillo, and Frenchman Matthieu Pavon, who was last week’s winner on Tour in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.

AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am 2023 champion Justin Rose managed just one more birdie than bogeys today, netting a 1-under 71 that dropped him fifteen spots down the leaderboard to T23, while AT&T spokesperson Jordan Spieth managed a 3-under 69, climbing six spots to T44.

The NorCal-associated golfers in the field finished the day as follows:

• Collin Morikawa and Mark Hubbard – 7-under, T10
• Maverick McNealy – 3-under, T44
• Kurt Kitayama, Chico native and UNV grad – 1-under, T55
• Max Homa, 2013 Cal grad – 2-under, T53
• Patrick Rodgers – 6-over, T78

*  (Dead f--king last)

Thursday at the 2024 AT&T Pro-Am: Detry in the lead, McNealy makes a big recovery

What a difference a day makes. Wednesday at Pebble Beach, the final practice day before competition rounds began, was a day of high winds and little rain – until the evening, when another “Pineapple Express” atmospheric river pounded the Central Coast with over an inch of rain. Thursday morning dawned with a mix of towering cloudscapes, rain showers, and patches of blue sky – a day when a jacket, an umbrella, and sunglasses would all come into play.

It was in this mixed bag of weather conditions that the first day of competition began in the “new look” Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Even with just 80 pairings and two courses in play, the traditional two-tee (#1 and #10) start was still in play; tee times ran from 8:45 to 10:33 at comfortable 12-minute intervals – still a desirable procedure when amateurs are in the mix. With the weather outlook for the weekend looking less than rosy – and positively nasty on Sunday, conversation around the lunch table in the media center touched on the possibility of play delays, one 36-hole day, a shortened event, or even the dreaded Monday finish. For today’s opening round, however, players and spectators alike enjoyed the light breezes and crashing surf, with – for most of the day – just the occasional brief rain shower bringing out jackets and umbrellas.

Big names in the mix

Ulster’s Rory McIlroy, back at Pebble Beach for the first time since the 2019 U.S. Open, rose to the top of the leaderboard briefly as he hit 6-under through 14 holes at Spyglass – before a bogey, double-bogey, bogey finish dropped him well down the leaderboard (the double-bogey on #8 involved a penalty for an improper drop.) Patrick Cantlay, meanwhile, playing three groups behind him, took over the top spot at 6-under after a birdie on #13, a string of four birdies at holes #17 through #2, and another at hole #5.

Cantlay went on to birdie his 16th and 17th holes to take over the top spot at 8-under. A late charge by Korea’s Si Woo Kim came up short, as a bogey at #9 dropped him to 6-under – but wait, there’s more…

Another “who is that guy” early leader at the AT&T Pro-Am

Late in the day, Thomas Detry of Belgium, also playing at Spyglass Hill, was 6-under through 16 holes and challenging for the outright lead. A birdie at #17 put him level with Cantlay – and then he took sole possession of the top of the leaderboard with a dramatic chip-in birdie from the right rough at Spy’s par-four 18th. With the new format dictating only one round at Spyglass Hill for all players, can Detry, an eighth-year pro still looking for his first win on Tour, follow up with three good rounds at Pebble Beach?

Maverick McNealy’s up-and-down round

Former Stanford Men’s Golf great Maverick McNealy coasted through most of the front nine on pars, with a lone birdie at #6, the par-five hole that plays up a five-story cliff on Arrowhead Point, but came to grief at holes 9 and 10. These two daunting par-four’s form part of the three-hole stretch (holes 8, 9, and 10) that sportswriter Dan Jenkins dubbed “Abalone Corner”, echoing the “Amen Corner” moniker given to Augusta National’s 11th through 13th.

After a par on #8, McNealy bogeyed #9 after going down the left side of the hole bunker-rough-green; he then flipped the script on #10, sailing his approach shot wide right, over the cliff but hanging up in the rough, luckily not falling all the way to the beach below. His recovery shot sailed over the green to the left rough, thence to the green and two putts for a double-bogey six and a mid-round score of 2-over.

After his adventure at #10, another string of routine pars got McNealy to Pebble’s picture-postcard closing hole, the par-five 18th, where in 2021 he narrowly missed a shot at forcing a playoff against Daniel Berger. That year, on the 72nd hole of the tournament, he sailed a beautiful high-draw 3-iron shot to 22 feet above the hole, only just missing the eagle putt that would have put the tournament into extra holes (after Berger did make eagle there, a few minutes later.)

In today’s round he followed a 304-yard drive to the right edge of the fairway, threading the needle between the cypress tree and the bunker complex there, with an absolutely stiffed second shot, a hybrid from 236 yards, to a scant eight feet above the hole. This time he made the eagle putt, making up the two-shot deficit from #10 to finish even for the round. A little more in the way of play of that caliber and we may see another high finish here at Pebble Beach from the young man who literally grew up on this golf course though his early teens.

The other NorCal-associated golfers in the field finished the day as follows:

• Collin Morikawa, former Cal golfer and 2020 PGA Championship winner at Harding Park – 5-under, T5
• Kurt Kitayama, Chico native and UNV grad – 3-under, T15
• Max Homa, 2013 Cal grad – 3-under, T15
• Former SJSU Men’s Golf standout Mark Hubbard – 3-under, T15
• Patrick Rodgers, Stanford Men’s Golf star who tied Tiger Woods’s 11-victory record – 4-over, T77

Pebble Beach, 2024: Everything changes, but is it for the better?

The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, which is far and away my favorite PGA Tour event, has been through a lot of changes over the years. Still sometimes referred to by old-timers from the area (like me…) as “the Crosby”, the event can trace its roots to 1934, when crooner Bing Crosby got together with a bunch of his celebrity pals at the Old Brockway Golf Course on Lake Tahoe’s North Shore for golf, food, drinks, and laughs.

In 1937 Bing moved the get-together to the Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club, north of San Diego, where he had a home on the back nine. This is when the pro-am aspect began, with Crosby pairing touring pros with amateur players drawn from the ranks of his show-business friends and the member of the Lakeside Golf Club in Hollywood, where he was a member (and five-time club champion).

“The Clambake” as the event came to be called, named for the closing-night beach party, ran for five years in Rancho Santa Fe before the Second World War called a halt, but in 1947 civic leaders in Monterey convinced Crosby to revive the event and move it to the Monterey Peninsula, where it became the National Pro-Am Golf Championship.

AT&T took over as the presenting sponsor in 1986, dropping the Crosby name (and Crosby family involvement) from the tournament, when Bing’s second wife, Kathryn Crosby, sold off the naming rights to AT&T for a cool half-million dollars.

In its Monterey Peninsula glory days the event drew scores of fans to the beautiful scenery of the rugged coastline – and to the star-studded field of pro golfers matched up with celebrities from the world of entertainment such as Phil Harris, James Garner, Jack Lemmon*, and Clint Eastwood (now a partner in the ownership group of the property). The star power of the celebrity amateurs slipped over the years, with sports heroes, B-list (or lower) Hollywood types, and corporate bigwigs taking over the amateur field, but the scenery and the promise of a glimpse of a famous (or semi-famous) name struggling to make the pro-am cut (cough, cough Ray Romano cough, cough) still drew the crowds, especially on Saturday, when the A-list celebrity/pro pairings were all stacked up on Pebble itself.

For 2024, however, the upheaval in the world of men’s professional golf of the last two years, engendered by the influx of Saudi money and the creation of the LIV Golf league, has resulted in the largest change in the structure and format of this event since the Second World War shut it down.

In order to deal with the threat represented by the deep pockets of the Saudi PIF and their apparent determination to dominate the world of men’s professional golf, the PGA Tour created Signature events, tournaments with limited fields, no cut (except for three player-hosted tournaments), and most importantly, to the players at least, increased purses – $20 million (up from $9 million in the case of this tournament), with $3.6 million to the winner.

For this event, quickly, the changes for 2024 are: 

• 80-player field vice the old 156-player field.
• Course rota cut down to two courses (Pebble Beach itself, and Spyglass Hill) from three, with weekend play only on Pebble.
• Amateurs playing Thursday and Friday only.
• Amateur players restricted as to handicap (looking for better, and hopefully faster, players), and no more show business amateurs; just deep-pocket corporate and pro sports amateurs.

AT&T-featured player Jordan Spieth spoke to the assembled media at Pebble Beach on Wednesday afternoon, and as he struggled to be heard over the gusty winds that rattled the temporary tarps-over-frame media-center structure, he said that the tournament this year has “a lot less Bing Crosby” in the event this year; “on course it feels like a major, off course it feels a lot less like the old Crosby**.” 

Jordan also mentioned the potential thrill of seeing some of the best players in the world (18 of the Top 20 in the World Rankings are in the field this week) coming down the stretch in contention on Sunday afternoon. While this is undoubtedly a Good Thing, how will the new format of this classic, and formerly unique, event compare to the glory days of yore – and how will the fans, both onsite and at home, react to the new look?

No other event in the world of professional golf has ever looked like Pebble Beach – and I’m not just talking about the scenery. Now, however, with the exception of the scenery (which is unmatched in the game  – fight me…), an event that started as a gathering of friends for golf and laughs, and thrived as an entertainment showcase and the premier charity-beneficent event in professional golf, has morphed over 80 years’ time into a bigger-money clone of seven other events on the schedule.

Maybe a Sunday afternoon with four or five of the top 10 players in the world coming down the stretch in contention for the trophy makes for an exciting finish, but honestly, we can see that several times a year, at many other tournaments. What we have lost in this change, however, is an intangible charm that “the Clambake” brought to the world of professional golf for one rainy/sunny/windswept wintertime week every year – a charm that, I’m afraid, we will never see again in the even-bigger-money New Age of men’s professional golf.

* (Youngsters in the audience may want to do a quick online search of some of these names.)

** (It hasn’t been called “the Crosby” since eight years before Jordan was born.)

Justin Rose prevails in Monday finish at AT&T Pro-Am

The two most dreaded words in professional golf are “Monday finish”, and as luck would have it, the windy conditions on Saturday at the 2023 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am brought them into play. While for recreational golfers the prospect of playing Pebble Beach Golf Links on a clear, calm, if somewhat brisk, February morning would be a dream come true, for pros, to be pulled off the course at sunset, mid-round, and then have to come back the next morning, pick up where they left off and play for a paycheck, it’s a much less ideal situation.

As it has been so often in the history of the AT&T (née Crosby) Pro-Am, the weather was the story. On a multi-course tournament like this, where three courses have to be maintained in the same configuration over three days, making corrections to a hole placement or mowing conditions to mitigate a change in the weather is not an option, and when Saturday’s gusty winds caused balls to move on the exposed 9th and 15th greens at the MPCC Shore course, play was suspended, then ultimately called.

At Spyglass Hill, where all but three holes are sheltered amidst towering cypress and Monterey pine trees, the wind was not a factor, nor was it at Pebble—despite nine holes running along the ocean—because the wind direction left Pebble somewhat sheltered by Pescadero Point and the Del Monte Forest northwest of the course.

Unless it’s a situation where dangerous weather is the cause for a play stoppage, players are given the option of finishing the hole they are on when the horn blows. Some took the option, starting from the tee on their next hole this morning, while others marked their ball and headed in. Leader Justin Rose returned to his ball marked in good position on the 10th fairway; Keith Mitchell’s first shot on returning to the course on Monday morning was a delicate chip from the rough just off of the 12th green.

Crashing surf in Carmel Bay provided a dramatic backdrop of foam-crested waves and azure water for the television coverage of the final holes of the tournament, but the flags hung limp in still air, with nary a breeze stirring to affect the flight of a ball. Restarting the interrupted round in these pristine conditions posed no problem for leader Justin Rose, who made a hot restart with birdies at 11 and 13. The two strokes he picked up bumped Rose’s score to 17-under, maintaining his lead over Brendon Todd, who (no slouch himself) birdied 13 and 14 to get to 15-under.

The NorCal players in the field fared middling to well when play resumed this morning. Chico’s Kurt Kitayama righted the ship with a string of pars after closing out Sunday afternoon double-bogey, bogey; Brandon Wu and Joseph Bramlett each put up pairs of birdies in the first few holes after the restart.

In the meantime, Justin Rose was solidifying his lead with another birdie, at the long, sometimes punishing, par-five 14th hole, distancing himself still further from Brendon Todd. Two holes ahead, Todd, though playing well, was running out of time, and eventually just flat ran out of holes in his bid to overtake the surging Rose.

With no serious contenders ahead of him, Rose played conservatively down the stretch, leaving his driver in the bag for the last three holes. Hitting a four-iron off the tee at 18, followed by two more irons to the green, he finished up with a no-stress two-putt par to complete a three-shot victory. The win makes Rose the first European winner of this event, and only the second non-American champion. 

“Pebble is the type of golf course with the conditions and the elements that you think you could argue would suit European players a little bit more.”

  – Justin Rose

(Vijay Singh was the first, and previously only, non-American winner of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, carding a 15-under 272 for the victory in 2004.)

The top NorCal player in the field was Stanford Men’s Golf alumnus Brandon Wu, who carded four birdies on the back nine in Monday play to record a 6-under 66, tying Brendon Todd for second at 15-under.

Wu has great memories of Pebble’s 18th green—after missing his Stanford University graduation ceremony to play in the 2019 U.S Open here at Pebble, and after a T-35/2nd-place amateur finish, Wu was presented with his diploma by then USGA president-elect Stu Francis, who got his MBA at Stanford.

Asked how he would characterize the week overall, Wu said:

 “I think it was awesome. I’m glad the weather kind of held off and we finished with a perfect morning this morning. I’m really happy to be out here and happy with how I played.”

The next NorCal finisher down the order was another Stanford alumnus, Joseph Bramlett of San José. Bramlett played well after the restart, closing out his round in 3-under 33 for the back nine, but on top of the even-par front nine he put up yesterday afternoon, it wasn’t enough to move him up on the leaderboard. Bramlett’s T-7 performance is his best finish to date on the PGA tour.

Chico’s Kurt Kitayama, playing in the final group, had a front-row seat to Justin Rose’s march to victory, but the specter of yesterday’s 5-over front-nine 41 that opened with three bogeys and finished double-bogey, bogey was too much for him to overcome. Kitayama made a single birdie this morning, at the par-four 15th hole, rolling in a 15' 9" putt from the front fringe.

With the Pebble Beach Pro-Am increasingly coming under fire from some commenters for slow play due to the amateur participants, for the logistical complexities, and for the impact that weather has historically had on the event, it was gratifying to hear Rose, in the post-round interview, characterize the tournament as an event “that really matter(s)”:

“Access to the major championships is a large part of my decision to be playing where I’m playing, for sure, (and) obviously playing in events like this that have a great history, that give access to iconic golf courses, all of those things—winning events that really matter.”

Sunday afternoon start of final round leads to a Monday finish at AT&T Pro-Am

Despite a smörgåsbord of “Crosby weather” conditions Sunday morning, third-round play in the 2023 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am wrapped up just before noon, setting the stage for the start of final-round play.

Conditions in the afternoon were breezy and slightly brisk, but mostly dry. Towering cloudscapes drifting downwind on northwesterly zephyrs enhanced the already picturesque views from the course across Carmel Bay and Stillwater Cove toward Point Lobos, but the afternoon was generally uninterrupted by the rain squalls that had plagued the morning’s wrap-up of third-round play.

Despite the breezy conditions, there were players from back in the pack making big moves as the day progressed. Denny McCarthy, a pro since 2015 out of Rockville, Maryland, and the University of Virginia, went out in 7-under 29 on Pebble’s front nine, climbing 16 spots on the leaderboard to an eventual three-way tie for second with only one blemish on his scorecard, a bogey five at the par-four 13th hole. Also in the tie for the runner-up spot are Peter Malnati, who remained static through today’s play, and UG grad Brendon Todd, who moved up eight places carding 5-under through twelve holes, including an eagle three at the par-five second hole.

Canada’s Taylor Pendrith made the biggest move on the day, moving up 27 spots on the leaderboard to solo 5th to sit at 8-under through 16 holes.

Smaller gains, and reversals, held the NorCal players in the field back from keeping up with the big gains that were being made ahead of them, and when play was called at 5:33 p.m., Kurt Kitayama had dropped four shots, and 27 spots on the leaderboard. His precipitous drop came as the result of opening with a trio of bogeys and making a double-bogey six at #8, the cliff-hanging par-four that opens the difficult three-hole run of par-four’s—8, 9, and 10—that famed sportswriter Dan Jenkins dubbed “Abalone Corner”.

Former Stanford golfer Brandon Wu made the strongest showing of the NorCal trio, sitting at 3-under for the round through ten holes to hold at T-5. San José’s Joseph Bramlett played even par through ten holes, birdies at 2, 4, and 6 being offset by a bogey at the par-three 5th hole and a double-bogey at #8 after flying the green to the topside bunker and taking a chip and three putts to get down. He had dropped eight spots to T-13 when play was called.

Justin Rose goes into the final holes of the round the solo leader at 15-under after posting 3-under through 9 holes. Rose had teed off at 10 when the horn blew calling play, so he marked his ball—in good position on the right side of the tenth fairway—and headed for the clubhouse.

Twenty players had completed their rounds by the time play was called, and players within the top twelve when the horn blew have anywhere from one to nine holes left to complete when play resumes Monday morning at 8 a.m.

“Crosby weather” strikes on Day Three of the 2023 AT&T Pro-Am

Despite the best efforts of the PGA Tour in bumping tee times up by an hour in the face of forecast high winds, Mother Nature took the wheel today at the 2023 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, as increasing winds led to a weather delay being called just after 12 o’clock. Conditions didn’t improve (not that any of the old Crosby hands expected them to…) and play was called at 2:30 p.m.

The current plans announced by the PGA Tour are to return Sunday morning at 8:00 to finish the third round, with final-round play expected to start at 12:30. Amateurs are not required to return for the completion of Round 3 (but are welcome to, if they choose), and only the pros will be playing in the final round. A pro-am champ will be announced after the completion of 54 holes. With the amateurs being excised from the field for the final round the cut will move to the Tour’s normal 65 and ties, from this event’s usual 60 and ties when the pro-am teams are competing.

Chief Referee Gary Young explained that the delay was predicated upon conditions experienced at holes 9 and 15 at MPCC Shore, where the exposed conditions led to instances of unacceptable ball movement on the greens. In multi-course events of this type, every effort is made to maintain identical playing conditions at each course for each round. A minor relocation of a hole, of no more than a yard or so, can be made if necessary, but conditions at MPCC were such that the amount of change in the hole locations that would have been required to mitigate the situation was deemed to be unacceptable.

Before the weather moved in with a vengeance, Saturday morning had gotten off to a good start for NorCal golf fans, as overnight leader Kurt Kitayama of Chico was quickly joined at the top of the leaderboard by two fellow Northern Californians, and Stanford Men’s Golf alums, Joseph Bramlett, of San José, and Brandon Wu, of Danville. Bramlett and Wu played at Pebble Beach Golf Links today, while Kitayama was at Spyglass Hill.

Wu quickly stepped up to the solo lead with a birdie at his fifth hole of the morning, Pebble’s long par-four 14th, and was joined there minutes later by Bramlett, who rolled in a 32-foot birdie putt at the Jack Nicklaus-designed par-three 5th hole.

Bogeys in tough, windy conditions at holes 9 and 10 (#9 is playing hardest today, at nearly half a shot over par) dropped Bramlett back to 9-under, but he got one of those shots back at #11, a strategic uphill par 4 that takes the course routing away from the ocean. He had this to say about the weather conditions after play was suspended:

Chico’s Kurt Kitayama leads after two rounds at AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am

Pebble Beach Golf Links, and indeed all of the Monterey Peninsula, on and off the three golf courses where the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am is taking place this week, is utterly spectacular in bright, sunny weather. In gloomy, overcast weather like today, with a little bit of light rain and drizzle thrown in, it takes on an entirely different aspect—calm, quiet, and conducive to introspection and deep thoughts.

OK, enough of that—let’s talk about golf.

Today’s light rain and drizzle—though it led PGA Tour officials to launch a preemptive strike and call for “lift, clean, and place” for the first three rounds, despite Thursday being mostly clear and dry—did not impede play at any of the tournament’s three courses: Pebble Beach Golf Links, Spyglass Hill, and MPCC Shore. The 8:30 opening tee times went off without a hitch at all three, and play was never stopped or delayed over the course of the day.

The stiff onshore breeze that was bending the flagstick on Pebble’s shore-hugging 18th hole late Thursday afternoon died down overnight; only a moderate surf breaking against the rocks at the water’s edge broke the calm.

First-round leader Hank Lebioda, who opened with an 8-under 63 at MPCC Shore on Thursday, started his morning with a birdie at the daunting par-four 10th hole at Pebble Beach, solidifying his lead, while a posse of other players, including Chico, California’s Kurt Kitayama, Harry Higgs, and England’s Justin Rose, moved up to 8-under.

Rose, playing at Spyglass Hill, went out in 32 on the back nine, on the strength of two birdies and an ace—at the par-three 15th hole—with another birdie, at the 3rd hole, pulling him to within a shot of the leader, but two late bogeys dropped him to 6-under and T-11. Harry Higgs carded two birdies and an eagle, at Pebble’s par-four 4th hole, with a bogey at the par-five 6th—after excursions to the left rough, the right rough, and a right greenside bunker—marring his card, also dropping to 6-under and T-11.

The wind came up after lunch, most noticeably at Pebble Beach, but it appeared not to faze Kitayama, who closed his second round at the 9th hole, a tough cliffside par-four, after rolling in a birdie at #8 to tie Lebioda at 9-under.

After moving to 10-under and the solo lead earlier in the day after a birdie at #2, the shortish par-five which has played the easiest today relative to par, Lebioda dropped back to 8-under with a double-bogey 5 at the fifth hole. Designed by Jack Nicklaus and put into play in 1998, number 5 is a deceptively difficult par-three that is playing second-toughest in the tournament to date with an average score of 3.58. Recovering one of his lost strokes with a birdie at the long, intimidating par-five 6th hole, a bogey at #9 dropped Lebioda to 8-under, T2.

With that slip by Lebioda, Kurt Kitayama inherited the lead going into the weekend.

Kitayama’s lead headlines a strong halfway-point showing by NorCal golfers. San José native and Stanford Men’s Golf alum Joseph Bramlett went around the Shore Course at Monterey Peninsula Country Club in 4-under 67 today to close the day at 8-under, T-2; Brandon Wu, another Stanford Men’s Golf alum and a native of Danville, joined Bramlett at T-2 after completing his second round, also at MPCC Shore.

Martin Trainer of Palo Alto sits T-12 at 6-under; Maverick McNealy, who narrowly missed a win in this tournament two years ago, sits at 1-under after two rounds, T-57, as does Nick Watney of Davis. UCLA graduate Kevin Chappell, a native of Fresno, is even par going into the third round, and James Hahn of Alameda is at 3-over. Hahn, who notched his first win at the 2015 Northern Trust Open at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, recovered from a 6-over first round at Spyglass Hill with a 3-under 69 at MPCC Shore today.

Tomorrow’s forecast is showing rain, with high winds in the afternoon prompting a one-hour bump in the starting tee times. First balls will be in the air at 7:30 a.m. at the tournament’s three courses, in hopes of concluding play before the worst weather moves in.

The State of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am

Golf fans of a certain age, myself included, remember when the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am—aka the Crosby Clambake, the Bing Crosby Pro-Am, etc.—was a glamour event. Back in the days when the list of celebrity amateurs included such names as Clint Eastwood, James Garner, Jack Lemmon, and Phil Harris, and the professional ranks could list multiple members of the Top 20 players list. These days, however, as the amateurs list has moved from the original ratio of roughly four parts professional golfers to one part show business and sports celebrities, to a one-to-one ratio in a field that consists mostly of middle- to lower-tier pros, and CEOs and B- and C-list celebrities, the revered tournament has lost much of its luster.

But what would be required to return this tournament to some semblance of its former glory? On the amateur side of the roster that is a two-pronged question: 1) How to get a better class of celebrities, and 2) how to improve the viewing (and playing) experience while still maintaining the unique pro-am format.

The first part of that question is difficult to answer. The mechanics of who gets invited is a closely held secret, I imagine, known only to the inner circle of the responsible people in the presenting sponsor’s organization and their counterparts in the tournament’s organizing committee. The names of such popular celebrities of recent years as George Lopez and Andy Garcia (who was easily the best-dressed and most dapper amateur in the field in recent times) are now absent from the amateur roster, supplanted by DJs with single names and rap singers with rap sheets. The definition of “celebrity” has become so diluted these days that the glamour associated with the no-s**t-for-real movie stars that walked the fairways of Pebble, Cypress, and MPCC Shore in the “olden days” appears to be lost forever.

When it comes to improving the viewing and playing experience while maintaining the pro-am format, I think that that is an easier question to answer—though the people who mind the purse strings aren’t likely to look favorably on my solution: trim the field. The buy-in for amateur players is—well, it’s a big number; but one that a large number of “high-value individuals” (aka “rich people”) are willing to pay. I guess the cost is worth it for bragging rights at the 19th Hole of their home clubs; to be able to say that they played Pebble (and the other two courses) with a pro. Needless to say, the wealthy non-celebrity amateurs bring a lot cash to the coffers of the Monterey Peninsula Foundation, money that allows the Foundation to do a lot of good things in the way of charitable giving in the area.

Maybe the 4:1 ratio of Bing’s original format is too much to ask for, but cutting the pro-am field to no more than half of the full field is a feasible solution—or perhaps even 1:3, allowing the field to be split such that one course in each of the first three rounds is pro-am teams slogging through six-hour rounds while the pro-only groupings play the other two at a more normal pace.

As for improving the professional field, that is another two-part question. While once upon a time the chance to network and schmooze with the movers and shakers of the business world was a draw for the professional players in the field, in these days of agents, social media, and even the tour’s PIP system, that seems to be less of an attraction—and it is well-known that six-hour rounds with a CEO or hedge fund manager, even on the amazing and scenic courses in the tournament’s rota, are offputting to most of the top pros.

The other factor is money (of course.) While no slouch in the prize money department, with a total purse of $9 million and $1,620,000 to the winner, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am lags behind the Tour’s new classification of “designated” events with their $20 million purses. In fact, Davis Thompson, who recently carded a career-best second-place finish at The American Express at La Quinta, in Palm Springs, WD’d from this tournament after receiving a sponsor’s exemption into next week’s Waste Management Phoenix Open, a designated event which carries the aforementioned $20M purse. His advertised reason was to get a week of rest after four weeks of play, but one wonders if, given his recent success at desert golf, the $20M purse isn’t an incentive.

Jordan Spieth had something to say about things that could help the tournament, both possible format changes as well as potential elevated status, in his press conference on Wednesday:

“I’m not sure how it could work. Let’s put it this way: I'm not sure exactly how it could work. I think maintaining, at least, if it’s not every year elevated, if it were to rotate or something like that.

You know, you still have the opportunity to have the pro-am portion and you could still work it into an elevated event, I think. It doesn’t really need to change. Or that year you have the pro-am going on on other two courses or — I think there's some options to play around with.”

If you have been reading my coverage over the years, you know that I am a big fan of this tournament, however it goes – but I think that in order to regain its former prestige, some changes will have to be made. I will be here for it, whatever happens.

Starting my second decade at the Crosby

Once again, my favorite week of the year has rolled around. No, it’s not Spring Break, or even Christmas vacation – it’s Crosby Week.

The poster for the first “Crosby” hints at the
fun-loving nature of the event in the early days.

For those in my audience who are below the age of, say, 50, “the Crosby” (officially the “Bing Crosby Pro-Amateur Golf Championship”, aka “the “Crosby Clambake”) is what the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am was called before AT&T brought a bucket of money to the table and started a decades-long run as presenting sponsor of the tournament. Started in the 1930s by crooner Bing Crosby (you youngsters can Google him) as a weekend get-together  for a bunch of his showbiz friends at Old Brockway Golf Course on Lake Tahoe’s North Shore, the tournament was later moved to Rancho Santa Fe, just north of San Diego, where the event’s pro-am format began. Bing would pair touring pros with amateur players drawn from the ranks of his show-business friends and the member of the Lakeside Golf Club in Hollywood, where he was a member (and five-time club champion).

The event came back from a 1942 wartime postponement with a move to the Monterey Peninsula in 1947, where it was played at Pebble Beach Golf Links and a rotating cast of supporting courses such as Cypress Point, the Monterey Peninsula Country Club’s Shore Course, Poppy Hills (home of the NCGA) and Spyglass Hill, over the years. In 1986 the people at AT&T bought out Bing’s widow, Katherine Crosby, changed the name of the tournament, and have been carrying on the tradition ever since.

My own history with this tournament started with watching it on TV as a kid growing up in nearby Salinas. I didn’t play golf, nor did any of my friends or their fathers, but everyone we knew watched the tournament. When I finally got interested in golf, many years later (thanks to the golf writing of Dan Jenkins…) and started playing and then writing about golf, I was lucky enough to get a foot in the door of the golf media world as a part-time freelancer, and get the privilege of entry to the media center at Pebble Beach for this event.

I actually wrote about this event for the first time in 2011, the year that saw long-time celebrity entrant Bill Murray and his then-new pro partner D.A. Points score the historic double, their team taking the pro-am trophy while Points won the pro event. I wrote that article (Cinderella Story) based on watching the event on TV at home, but two years later I was walking into the media center in the conference rooms above the Pebble Beach Gallery shops, a 50-something semi-rookie (I had started my official golf media career the previous year at the 2012 U.S. Open at the Olympic Club), rubbing elbows with the men and women who do this for a living.

I have covered the event every year since (though physically absent during the lockdown year of 2021), so the 2023 tournament marks my eleventh go-round, and the first year of my second decade as more than just a fan of the event.

In that time I have made friends amongst the ranks of the people who cover sports for a living. I kept my ears open and my mouth shut (for the most part), learning what I could from the pros in what used to be called the “press room”, and have enjoyed enlightening conversations with the likes of Bay Area sports writing legend Art Spander; the San Francisco Chronicle’s Ron Kroichick; and Mark Purdy, the now-retired sports maven for the San José Mercury News. When my first media affiliation, with the Examiner.com website, ended with the site’s demise in 2016, the connection I had made with the NCGA through my fellow Salinas homeboy and now NCGA Communications Director, Jerry Stewart, has kept me “in with the in-crowd” (PGA Tour press credentials are not available to freelancers without an affiliation with an acknowledged media outlet.)

It has been a privilege to walk the cart paths of Pebble Beach and the affiliated courses over the past decade, and to write about the events that transpire over these four days. I have seen a varied cast of characters leading and even winning this event, from big names like Phil Mickelson (twice) to no-names like Ted Potter, Jr. (sorry, Ted), and the storied venue and its companions in the rota haves never failed to provide drama and excitement – not to mention the best scenery on the PGA Tour. I look forward to at least a few more years of bringing my audience the stories from Pebble Beach (I’m no spring chicken, after all…) and hope that people enjoy reading about it as much as I enjoy writing about it.

USGA announces selection of Pebble Beach as third U.S. Open anchor site

At a media event staged in the Terrace Lounge at the famed Lodge at Pebble Beach, with a spectacular view of Pebble’s 18th green and Carmel Bay as a backdrop, representatives of the United States Golf Association (USGA) and the Pebble Beach Company announced that the world-renowned Monterey Peninsula property would join Oakmont and Pine Valley as the third anchor site in the USGA’s U.S. Open tournament schedule. Banners on either side of the stage listed the upcoming USGA championships that are on the slate for Pebble Beach: the U.S. Women’s Open in 2023, 2035, 2040, and 2048; the U.S. Open in 2027, 2032, 2037, and 2044; and a first – back-to-back Senior Open and Senior Women’s Opens in 2030 (at neighboring Spyglass Hill.)

The U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open trophies were on display against the backdrop of Carmel Bay and the 18th hole at Pebble Beach for the announcement of an historic partnership between the USGA and the Pebble Beach Company. (Photo by the author)

On a low stage flanked by photos of Pebble’s past USGA champions—from Woods, Nicklaus, and Watson to Robert H. “Skee” Riegel (1947 U.S. Amateur champion) and Grace Lenczyk (1948 Women’s Amateur champion), USGA President Stu Francis offered opening remarks, and Gary Woodland, who claimed victory at the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, joined the conversation by remote video. USGA Chief Championships Officer John Bodenhamer and Pebble Beach Resorts CEO David Stivers then spoke about the new partnership between the USGA and the Pebble Beach Company and what it means for the USGA championships, Pebble Beach and vicinity, and golf in general.

Bodenhamer, who played college golf and came close to final qualifying for the 1982 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, spoke about the importance of the venue to a USGA champion, referring back to remarks made earlier by moderator Beth Major, of the USGA, and Stu Francis, recalling how USGA Executive Committee member Nick Price, a three-time major championship winner himself (1992 PGA Championship, and 1994 Open Championship and PGA Championship) has said that it’s important where players win their U.S. Open, whether men or women.

Gary Woodland had also touched on this, telling the audience via video link “…when you’re a kid and you’re hitting that (winning) putt you’re dreaming of doing it at Pebble Beach. It’s the most iconic golf course we have in America.”

Both John Bodenhamer and David Stivers touched on the importance of this new relationship between the USGA and the Pebble Beach Company, citing three strategic initiatives that they see as stemming from the partnership:

First – attracting and nurturing the next generation of leaders at the USGA and Pebble Beach through investments in local programs.

Second – environmental stewardship, by partnering with the USGA’s Greens Section to advance research into water conservation and other measures to help make golf a more sustainable activity. (All of the Pebble Beach Company’s courses, plus the NCGA’s home course—Poppy Hills—which is just up the road from Pebble, are irrigated with reclaimed water.)

Third – (and this is perhaps less tangible than the first two) incentivizing young people to take up the game of golf by showcasing the possibility of someday competing in a major championship at a memorable and (not to belabor an already overused word) iconic venue.

Perhaps the most important aspect of this new relationship is the new level of parity between U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open venues, as evidenced by the scheduling of four women’s Opens and four men’s Opens at Pebble Beach over the coming 25 years. This is part of the growing level of support of the women’s game across the board, as sponsors, fans, and the media increasingly recognize the quality and entertainment value of women’s golf.

Touching on the benefits of this new long-term relationship, John Bodenhamer stated that it “…allows us continuously improve, put our stake in the ground, partner with Pebble Beach, think strategically differently than we ever have to make things better for players, fans, viewers, what you see.”

Thinking perhaps of the long-term familiarity with the venue that may arise from the partnership, Bodenhamer expressed surprise that “…some of you in the media haven’t coined a special term to describe Pebble Beach. You think about 8, 9, 10, it’s a pretty amazing place—maybe someone will come up with ‘Pebble's Peril’. ”

While I might suggest that John not quit his day job for a spot in the ranks of the golf media, I would also like to point out that one of the greatest writers to wield an Olivetti in a tournament media center, the late Dan Jenkins, has already laid a clever nickname on that trinity of cliffside golf holes, christening it “Abalone Corner” (with a nod to Augusta National’s “Amen Corner” – the 11th, 12th, and 13th holes.)

Personally, I don’t think that unfamiliarity with the course—which boasts some of the most scenic and notable golf holes ever broadcast to the television and computer screens of tens of millions of viewers across the world—is an issue. I can’t imagine that even a casual golf fan would fail to recognize holes like #7, the 106-yard par-3 perched on the tip of Arrowhead Point; or #17, the 200-odd-yard par-3 that yielded two of the greatest moments in U.S. Open history courtesy of Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson; or #18, undeniably the greatest and most memorable closing hole in major championship golf.

And the good, great, amazing news coming out of this new partnership between the USGA and the Pebble Beach Company is that we will have the opportunity to watch more major championship golf being played, more often, in the years to come, here on the shores of Carmel Bay.