Column: Pebble Beach trades heritage for $20 million elite status
PEBBLE BEACH, CA — A sure sign of a good day at Pebble Beach is players stopping to take photos. Justin Thomas could not resist what Robert Louis Stevenson called “the happiest meeting of land and sea” on the 18th.
surprise. Paint your town red. Home runs, hat tricks, game day magic. Don’t miss a beat with The Sports Moment, the biggest sports newsletter. A strong connection to Pebble is Bing Crosby, owner of the original club, which was part of the tour from 1937 until it was purchased by the PGA Tour in 1986.
His name is “Crosby Weather” so he’s only coming out this week.
The weather forecast calls for rain and a general recession. This can happen sometimes. So Thomas chose Monday as a great day to be photographed playing with Rickie Fowler. Unfortunately, Crosby’s comment about the weather is the only reference to the past.
Even when AT&T became the title sponsor in 1986, the tournament never lost its legacy. Pebble was another version of the “Successful Meeting,” combining key elements of the business and celebrity worlds combined with the best in golf.
Playing your best game has become important in golf these days. Now, the PGA Tour believes it has the best of both worlds. The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am is an event that boasts $20 million in prize money and the best field in a long time. Instead of 156 players (previously 180) spread over Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill and Del Monte Forest on the Monterey Peninsula, there will be only 80 players spread over two courses (Pebble and Spyglass).
About 80 fans, including Tom Brady and Josh Allen, go home after games on Thursday and Friday alone. It is difficult to enjoy the distant rotation, peeling and public, but it is difficult to support the bay.
Justin Timberlake took the guitar for a year and delivered an independent version on the Spyglass Hill TV. Bill Murray’s troubles are endless, sometimes boring, but rarely boring. Jeff Ogilvy understood the value. Players who pay attention realize that they are connected to the fans that shape their economy.
It’s an 80-plus year tradition that makes Pebble Beach look like any other major event, minus the landscape of small stadiums, elite players and big money. It was a PGA Tour dream. Imagine playing a tournament at Pebble Beach without the cheering fans, golf’s best crowd. Due to the lack of weather this year, the tour cannot control the weather. Tyrrell Hutton pulled out late when he took his talents to the Mexican resort to play the Saudi-funded LIV Golf, which led to the course being described as the best in Pebble history.
It depends on how you measure it. Nine of the best funds include Nicklaus, Raymond Floyd, Hale Irwin and Curtis Strange, Freed Irwin and Pavin, Pavin Korea, Lanny Vadkins and Mark O’Mira.
This is another world with another player with a different reason. And this is other money.
Thomas is playing for AT&T Pebble Beach for the first time in 10 years, and his salary before his rookie season was just $6.6 million. The good news is that he plays Pebble for the first time on Sunday (he missed the U.S. Open in 2014 and 2019).
For many others, like Thomas and Fowler, planning for a strong West Coast swing was problematic, as were six-hour rounds and weather possibilities for Crosby. Wet snow recently covered the green. Rain affected the 1996 tournament, which delayed the second round in January and the third round in August 1998 by seven months. The most famous incident occurred in 1962 when snow delayed a round and Jimmy Demaret asked, “I know you drank a lot last night, but how did you get to Squaw Valley?”
Thomas played 18 holes in four hours with Fowler on Monday, betting on birdies (Thomas made 10) and chipping and putting on every green. Thomas recalls a long nine-hole practice session in 2014.
It’s a much nicer pace. The downside is the small field, which excludes players who have enjoyed coming to Pebble Beach for years, including amateurs and star shows.
Trading is about getting the best players in the best places in golf. Three of the PGA Tour players – Adam Scott, Webb Simpson and Peter Malnati (the latter was given to local player Maverick McNeely, whose father founded Sun Microsystems) – signed numerous sponsorship deals. (I played in the pro-am.)
Despite his pain, Malnati retired from FedEx Corp. Longtime partner of CEO Don Colleran. And a very important PGA Tour customer.
It’s going to be a good week. The stars are visible even without the sun.
Hope is not going in the same direction as Doral, which has been an integral part of Florida for more than 40 years. It had its own culture: loud, festive and pure Miami with a local flavor. Then it became the World Golf Championship and it looked like any other WGC. For a decade, Doral fell off the charts. Mainly because Donald Trump owns the resort and had trouble finding sponsors.
Pebble isn’t going anywhere. It might look better. But it won’t be the same.
