PGA Tour: Pebble Beach. If not the Best, Is it the Most Fun?: Notes from the Ballwasher

First topic message reminder :

1)."If I only had one more round to play, I would choose to play it at Pebble Beach."
So said Jack Nicklaus, and I wonder which course we'd choose to play our designated "last round" at?
A slightly different question from the excellent "If you could only play one course for the rest of your life, which would it be?" thread of a few months ago. Tough for me to argue against Pebble Beach. It's certainly NOT a collection of 18 great holes, but does have at least one very special Par-3, Par-4 and Par-5 to go along with drop dead gorgeous views of the Pacific.

2).This week the Pros play three courses Thursday thru Saturday, Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill and Monterey Peninsula CC; the top 70 and ties make the cut, but only the top 60 and ties get to play the final 18 holes at Pebble Beach on Sunday. Each course is relatively short (under 7,000 yds) by PGA Tour standards, and the weather forecast is good through Sunday. If we can get by the sycophantic drivel from commentators drooling over amateurs, whether captains of industry or just the 49'ers, we should have a most enjoyable tournament to look forward to.

3).As for Pebble Beach's iconic holes, I'd say the Par-4 8th is as good a Par-4 as there is anywhere, certainly the most "heroic" second shot for an amateur.
And how many Par-5 closing holes in golf are better than Pebble's 18th?
Best Par-3? The 7th must be on any short list and pgatour.com's Helen Ross has paid delightful homage:
http://www.pgatour.com/long-form/2016/02/09/pebble-beach-seventh-hole.html

4).Every TV broadcast showing anything to do with Pebble Beach seems to include US Open video of Tom Watson's chip-in on the 17th in 1982.
But equally important (and equally tinged with good fortune?) was Tom Kite's chip-in at #7 during his final round in 1992. The wind was howling, the 7th green was too firm for the conditions (as it seemed to be in 2010) and pars anywhere on the course were at a premium; Kite's chip nailed the pin at about the same speed as Watson's ten years earlier and dropped, and that slice of good fortune propelled the man with pebble glasses to US Open Champion at Pebble Beach.

5).Incidentally, the 17th received a facelift for this year's tournament, essentially the same hole but with redefinition of the bunkering and it looks as if they've enlarged the green. Looking forward to seeing that - it was almost unplayable during Round 4 of McDowell's US Open.

6).Rickie Fowler will be taking a breather this weekend, wondering perhaps how the Phoenix Open title slipped from his grasp. The publicity machine can't wait to anoint Rickie as a member of a Big Four, but they'll have to wait awhile. He's quoted by Paddy Power at 16/1 for The Masters, behind Spieth (9/2), McIlroy (13/2), Day (8's) and Watson (14/1). T.Woods is quoted at 33/1. Oosthuizen looks good e/w value at 66/1 . . . . .

7).Jose Maria Olazabal is among the 250/1 others; Olly turned 50 last Friday, and it occurred that there is now a pretty solid "team" of Europeans qualified for, or aspiring to, the US Champions Tour. Langer, Montgomerie, Olazabal, Jimenez, Woosie, Broadhurst, Lane, Lyle, even Forsbrand. Even Faldo.

8).The "AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am" tournament has plenty of repeat winners: Among those in this week's field Mickelson, Love, Snedeker and Dustin Johnson. Vijay's capable of stitching 2 or 3 good rounds together and he has a win, plus 3 x runner-up finishes, whilst Jimmy Walker, Spieth and Day all have fine records here. It's all the more surprising then that Graeme McDowell, who after all won a biggie here in 2010, and could use a return to his autumn form, has chosen to spend his week elsewhere. (Nick Watney too, runner up last year and several other good finishes, but awol this week.)

9).Talking of McDowell, his dismal form so far in 2016 has already seen him drop 15 places in the World Golf Rankings. Others who are plummeting include Adam Scott (6 places), Kuchar (6), Kaymer (6), Schwartzel (8), Lahiri (9), Henley (13), Mahan and Bradley (15 each).

10).I'll choose Pebble Beach for my last round, lunch (between 18's?) at the Beach & Tennis Club and spend a few nights in Carmel. Sounds perfect. And, if it happens to be set up as it will be for the 2019 US Open, so much the better

True story: I once worked with a Quinnie DeLuca - Quinnie was NOT short for Quiniaska as far as I know.


I see reports that Muirfield plans to jump into the 20th Century, taking a vote on whether or not to admit women members. A couple of centuries late but a step in the right direction; perhaps gaelgowler will be elected?

Dean and DeLuca is a nice place. Usually go there when in NYC. Prefer the Dean and Martin though....

Golf Channel reporting that the Tour will switch the "nines" at East Lake for this year's Tour Championship, so the 72nd hole will be a Par-5 (quite a good one if I remember rightly) instead of the Par-3, which can make for such an anticlimactic ending.
Good move I'd say, and that difficult front nine Par-3, long and over water, (is it the 6th?) will feature more prominently.

Should be a gorgeous week in LA, chance of showers Wednesday but after that it should steadily warm up with plenty of sun and not much wind. One of the tournaments of the year in my book.

Kwini

Was it east lake where one year balls marked on the par 3 18th started to roll closer to the hole when replaced?

mmmm, no recollection of that, Mac. Could be though . . . . .

Was that Monty's ball?

I think the incident involved a yank (Toms or Furyk type) in contention at some event. They tried to replace the ball on the green and it kept rolling to about 6 inches from 20 foot or so away. For some reason the memory came to mind when reading kwini's post about East Lakes par 3 18th.

Can't imagine any circumstances where Monty might have played East Lake . . . . . .

Mac,
You've got me stumped, memory failing here.

Kwini

Please don't waste time thinking about this. It is probably just a half baked memory.

Mac - was it THIS INCIDENT?

INW, No.



Anyone else see the news that Rory and Rickie will be playing an exhibition match underthe floodlights like Tiger used to do back at the peak of his fame.

Although you might be happy to write this off as a crappy exhibition event, is it actually a sign that golfs popularity could be on the up?

Floodlit golf would be good fun.

Is an exhibition indicative of "golf's popularity" being "on the up"?
Or is it indicative of two compelling young personalities? For instance, would Spieth & Day attract the same audience? Possibly not.

Should be good though, enjoyed the ones from Sherwood all those years ago.

Possibly true to say that it is more about those personalities rather than golf as a whole. But for some reason no TV exec has thought to put this sort of thing on TV for the last 10 years.

The one I remember was with Tiger and Anika vs two other players. Was it phil and webb maybe?

Tiger/Sorenstam played Duval/Karrie Webb.

About 3 days before the Women's British Open.

Rickie was most likely chosen because he is sponsored by Quicken Loans.

And I wouldn't be surprised if Rory plays the QL tournament in Washington D.C. either this year or 2017.

Mac, GPB,

Woods vs Duval and Sergio against someone, possibly Duval.

Imagine GPB is spot on with those thoughts.


2 hrs of CBS prime-time is a big network commitment!

Just had a thought, will one of the celebrities be the boy band prick that caddied for Rory at the Masters par 3 contest?

I see Rory has responded to the ever insightful Brandel Chamblee's claim that Rory is over doing it in the gym.

Rory responded with;

https://twitter.com/McIlroyRory/status/699717207190704128



I guess Brandel has got tired of trolling Tiger fans and will now be taking pot shots at Rory. It is unlikely that golden child spieth will be a target of his trolling.

Possible link up between Tiger's foundation and the Riviera stop after Hyundai take over sponsorship duties?

http://www.geoffshackelford.com/homepage/2016/2/16/tiger-woods-foundation-eyes-role-with-riviera-stop.html



The article mentions "Woods' bizarre disdain for the event after his dreadful last start here", which was in 2006.

Some fun on the 10th with Scott Piercy

How to double bogey the Riviera's 10th:

Which, by the way, will be live on the pga tour live app. (can we get that in the UK?)

Mac,
Doug Ferguson is also speculating that the TWF will be involved in the LA Open.
Would think this lends credence to the notion that the Tour is not going to replace the DeutscheBank stop in Boston, leaving the FedEx Play-Offs at 3, instead of 4.
Perhaps that "Boston" stop will go, earlier in the year, to the Faxon/Andrade event in Rhode Island, currently sponsored by CVS? Only a few miles from the TPC Boston.