If you could only play one golf course for the rest of your golfing days, this would probably be the one.
Pebble Beach.
Scotland has St. Andrews, Carnoustie and a bunch of ancient course treasures.
We’ve got Pebble Beach.
Greatest course in the U.S. of A that anyone can play.
Open to the public, yes, but the price is steep. But consider it’s a bucket-list type of deal.
Which brings us to this week’s stop on the PGA Tour. This one used to be the Crosby Pro-Am in the days of Bing, Bob, and A-list stars out the ying-yang. Clint Dirty Harry Eastwood, was perhaps the coolest, once upon a time Mayor of Carmel. Eastwood didn’t like the way things were run in the sleepy little town that he adopted as his home in the late 80s.
The breaking point for Eastwood came was when the preservationist-dominated town council automatically rejected Clint’s plans to build a small building in downtown Carmel that would have improved the surrounding area. Clint promptly sued the city winning an out-of-court settlement that permitted him to proceed with his building.
Eastwood decided a change in attitude was needed and in 1987, ran for mayor. He got 72% of the vote and won the $200 a month job.
“We got rid of quite a lot of punitive attitudes on the council and helped people get things done,” he said later. “We got things built — beach walkways, a library annex which had been waiting 25 years, and so on. I approached it from a business point of view, not a political one.”
Eastwood held just one two-year term, decided that was enough politics for him and went back to his career as an actor and later, superb director.
Eastwood was a long-time face in this event.
The faces change but the true face of the event is Pebble.
Toss in a quick trip to Monterrey Peninsula (the easiest of the three) and Spyglass and you’ve got a great rotation.
Good news is that all the big names played well Thursday on the “easy” of the three.
Phil Mickelson and Jason Day took advantage of the great weather on Thursday and shot 65s at Monterrey. Dustin Johnson, who crossed a bunch of time zones from Saudi Arabia, showed no effects from jet lag and shot 66 — so did Jordan I’m Still Searching For My Game Spieth. Tommy The Brit Fleetwood was a duck out of water so to speak — his two-over par 73 at Monterrey didn’t help his chances of making the cut after Saturday.
Tony Finau looked prepared after his 69 at Pebble. “I like where my game is at this early in the year,” Finau observed. “I spent a lot of time preparing myself mentally for this season.
Things could get a little more testy for the boys on Friday. They could get some good old fashioned “Crosby Weather” — as in wind and rain. Welcome to Scotland, or as they found out last Sunday, Scottsdale, Part Two.
Doesn’t matter.
This one’s fun to watch. Weather doesn’t matter. Players don’t matter.
It’s all about the vistas, the ocean and those gazillion-dollar homes dotting Pebble are pretty spectacular as well.
Great place, great energy, great scenery.
Doesn’t matter who’s playing.
5 Comments
baxter cepeda
I too am enjoying the atnt ceo amateur (takes up back to the old days).
Pebble always stars thanks to the scenery but the real star in golf this week is the Vic Open Down Under Mate.
We get two high level pro events in one. A couple spectacular tournament courses playing firm and fast with perfect greens.
Equal purses.
Yes, monterrey is amazing. I would probably play Augusta everyday but would much rather live on monterrey. So you got a point tom.
But while we all get the purpose for these pro-ams, as weekday golf channel viewers wanting to simply watch some good golf, once again the pga tour is getting their tails kicked by the competition. The Vic is providing a better product…this despite monahan having Pebble on his side.
Im not saying eliminate amateurs from pebble…just please stop showing their terrible games on tv so much.
I literally felt my game regress yeayerday watching shot after shot from Tom.
Not this tom, the show guy. I guess i would rather watch this Toms play, but not by much.
Tom Edrington
Baxter: I’ll have to differ on the Vic Open, a pure gathering of no-names in both fields, they say equal purses but from the lineups I can tell that they are VERY SMALL purses….PGA Tour will never dilute its product in this manner, the team event went its way, not enough quality depth on women’s tour to even make a team event interesting because once you get out of the top 10 the talent pool drops heavily in women’s golf…plus there would be a big language barrier to boot. I’ll take Spieth, Finau, Day and Mickelson over Wade Ormsby any day of the week.
baxter cepeda
This vic is just getting warmed up. Its fun to watch golf jumping back and firth between men and women.
I disagree about the drop-off in the womens game. The wimen ate deep and getting deeper faster than men. Imo.
Tom Edrington
Baxter: No how, no way, no depth of talent on women’s tour….once you’re outside the top 20 they can’t break an egg…..
baxter cepeda
Charly Hull is at 23.
Yang 29
Nordqvist 32.
Wie 33
Kerr 34
Lincicome 37
Yin 39
Lindbergh 42
Massin 43
Olson 46
Otoole 50
Phatlun 51
I could go on w various names all the way to 100. Like stacy at 60.
But Ashok stands out at 99.
Think about that : in a 100 woman event, ashok would be the lowest rated.