The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am is the
tournament where a one-liner becomes
as important as a one-putt and no swing,
not even one as enticing as Sam Snead’s,
could ever be as beautiful as the view
across Carmel Bay to Point Lobos.
It’s played right after the Super Bowl,
when most of the country is ankle-deep in
winter misery – and sometimes the AT&T
courses on the Monterey Peninsula are
ankle-deep in mud.
Ever since it was created as the Crosby
by Bing himself back in the 1930s, the
event was built upon celebrity amateurs
willing to play a sport for which most of
them were ill-suited but who rarely refused to poke fun at themselves or sign an
autograph for others.
“I can’t wait to get out of these wet
clothes,” cracked singer-comedian Phil
Harris one particularly rainy Crosby, “and
into a dry martini.”
The pro field might lack marquee
names and, especially when the the
weather was nasty, a round of golf could
take longer than a flight from New York to
San Francisco. But there’s no business like
show business, and from the days of Bing
and Bob Hope to those of Bill Murray and
George Lopez, the AT&T is very much show
business: 35 percent golf, 65 percent guf-
faws.
If Tiger Woods was missing for 10 years,
it’s not correct to say it didn’t matter, but
truth tell it didn’t matter that much. Not
with Murray tossing a dead fish he grabbed
from a cooler near the 17th tee or Tom
Brady marching up the sixth fairway.
thing,” said Nutt, about the AT&T. “We
have the security and shuttles. One good
thing about his early commitment is that
we can prepare to make adjustments if
needed.”
The first three rounds of the AT&T are
spread among three courses, Pebble,
Spyglass Hill and Monterey Peninsula CC.
They are not far apart, two or three miles
at most, but the narrow roads running in
the Del Monte Forest are closed to traf-
fic and spectators are forced to travel on
buses. The place can sometimes look like
Grand Central Station with pine cones.
It won’t be any worse with the addition
of Woods. He knows the drill. So do the
fans. The AT&T isn’t going to change, Tiger
or no Tiger.
But as Ollie Nutt says, glad to have him
back. l
