Amateur Hour
Most stops on the PGA Tour are relatively buttoned-down. Other than a few notable exceptions — say, the co-ed keg party that is No. 16 at TPC Scottsdale — there is a routine etiquette expected, if not required, at each stop on the PGA Tour.
But when Bill Murray is high-fiving fans and galloping down the fairway riding on his driver like it’s a horse, the golf clap loses out to roars of laughter from the gallery. The Caddyshack star is just one of big names who will lighten the mood at this week’s AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.
Although Murray’s good buddy the Dalai Lama — big hitter, the Lama — won’t be teeing it up at Pebble Beach Golf Links, Monterey Peninsula CC or Spyglass Hill GC, there will be plenty of other athletes, actors and musicians on the course — which is nice.
Here’s a list of some of the celebrities scheduled to play at Pebble Beach this week:
Tom Brady – Quarterback
Michael Bolton – Singer
Don Cheadle – Actor
Josh Duhamel – Actor
Kenny G – Musician
Andy Garcia – Actor
Vince Gill – Musician
Huey Lewis – Musician
George Lopez – Comedian
Bill Murray – Actor
Chris O’Donnell – Actor
John O’Hurley – Actor
Ray Romano – Comedian
Tony Romo – Quarterback
Kelly Slater – Surfer
The idea for the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am was Bing Crosby’s brainchild back in 1937, when Sam Snead won at Racho Santa Fe, near Del Mar in the San Diego area. When “Slammin’ Sammy” was presented with a $500 winner’s check in front of a small gathering of Crosby’s friends, the legendary golfer famously told the host — “If you don’t mind, Mr. Crosby, I’d rather have cash.”
This year, the winner’s share is nearly $1.1 million of a swinging $6.2 million total purse. Dustin Johnson, who won a rain-shortened 54-hole event last year, will be attempting to defend his title against Pebble Beach ringers like three-time champ (2007, ’05, 1998), California kid and fan favorite Phil Mickelson as well as 2004 winner and three-time runner-up Vijay Singh and two-timer (2003, ’01) Davis Love III. But Johnson is looking forward to returning to the site of his only victory in 2009 — even if it might rain again.
“I like everything about (Pebble Beach). I like the town. I like the golf courses. I like the tourney. It’s just a joy to play,” said Johnson, who banked $1,098,000 of his 2009 earnings ($2,977,901) — or 36.9 percent — with a win at Pebble Beach.
This week’s field also includes major champions like Padraig Harrington, Jim Furyk, Retief Goosen, Mike Weir, John Daly and David Duval, along with young guns such as Japan’s Ryo Ishikawa — who may have more pictures taken of him this week than Brady and Gisele or Duhamel and Fergie.
Sergio Garcia will make his 2010 PGA Tour debut paired with Duhamel, husband of the Black Eyed Peas’ glamorous songstress Fergie. The 30-year-old “El Nino” is recovering from a right wrist injury that kept him away from the game for seven weeks. The fiery Spaniard who carries the dubious distinction as the “best player never to win a major” will take his first few competitive swings of the season at the perfect locale.
Not only is the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am a loose, fun-filled tournament — at least until the diva duffers and scratch-golfing quarterbacks and actors head home prior to Sunday’s serious round — but the coastal course is also the site of the 2010 U.S. Open.
Garcia has not played at Pebble Beach since 2001, when he tied for 59th, and if he is going to break his 0-for-45 major streak — which, in all fairness, includes a playoff runner-up at the 2007 British Open, a pair of seconds at the 1999 and 2008 PGA, a T-3 at the 2005 U.S. Open and a T-4 at the 2004 Masters — he will need to improve his local knowledge of the course, even if it will likely play much different in June, when there will be fewer supermodel and pop star wives in the gallery and comedians chopping dirt and yucking it up on the course.
The AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am will be televised on GOLF Channel on Thursday and Friday before CBS takes over weekend coverage.
