Looking back at the heritage of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – It goes beyond the winner’s prize, which has changed over the years and been used in different manners. Tom Ryan set up most of the house at the Black Pearl in Newport, Rhode Island, with his set of crystal for winning in 2003 alongside Brad Faxon. Air Force Chaplain Father John Durkin in 1971 used his prize, a Chalice, for more sacred reasons with communicants at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois. It goes beyond thinking that there is a blueprint for success, because there isn’t. D.A. Points, for instance, chose a laugh-a-minute route to victory with Bill Murray in 2011. Art Wall Jr., on the other hand, did quite well on two occasions by teaming with classic chalk – Gene Littler in 1954, Charlie Coe in 1959. And it goes way beyond lining up tools for amateurs to use on stage. Tom Brady tossed footballs. Justin Timberlake strummed a guitar. Years earlier, Francis Ouimet strolled along with an aura. Then there was Tommy Smothers and his yo-yo. It goes beyond all of that and lands at this: there is nothing like the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, of which it emphatically can be said, “Often imitated, never duplicated.” “Growing up, I understood it to be a great event, but when I found myself in that position (2014), I thought it was the coolest thing,” said Jim Renner, whose 18th-hole experience in the final round that year personifies what this tournament is all about. Then 30, Renner had a chance to win the tournament – if he made this 6-foot birdie at the final hole. The crazy thing is, he wasn’t thinking in those terms. “I knew we (Renner and amateur partner John Harkey) were in contention and his birdie putt (of 10 feet) might do it for us,” said Renner. “(John) had made an incredible (third) shot, under the circumstances, and I was so pumped he made it.” Harkey’s birdie-net eagle did spell victory for the team, but Renner recalls that watching Harkey’s smile sort of woke him up. “All of a sudden I remembered I had to make my birdie putt,” said Renner. As fate would have it, Renner did make his putt to get to 10-under, but Jimmy Walker made par at 18 to preserve his one-stroke win. To Renner, the tie for second was good for $580,800, but the pro-am title was worth “the wall,” a plaque at Pebble Beach’s first hole where team winners of this annual tournament are inscribed. “Whoever thought I would be on the wall at Pebble?” said Renner. “But that’s what that tournament is all about.” What “it’s all about” remains in line with what Bing Crosby envisioned in 1937 when he put up the $10,000 purse and invited a group of his friends from entertainment, golf, and business – worlds, by the way, in which “Der Bingle” was equally comfortable and masterful – to play in a little pro-am at Rancho Santa Fe in Southern California. Writing for Sports Illustrated in 1961 in advance of the 20th edition of Crosby’s iconic pro-am, Alfred Wright said “it has grown in stature and importance, but it has never lost the spirit that motivated (it).” In advance of the 75th playing of the tournament at Pebble Beach (with Monterey Peninsula’s Shore Course and Spyglass Hill in supporting roles), one could say that sentiment holds true. The voices of the game’s best speak fervently about melding the “pro” with the “am” when it comes to this tournament. For example, while Tom Watson is connected eternally to Pebble Beach for the unforgettable chip-in at the par-3 17th to win the 1982 U.S. Open, he feels equally passionate about his 28 trips to the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Those visits included two individual wins and nine other top-10s, but first he’ll point to “the wall” and 1941. That was the year Leonard Dodson won with Raymond Watson – a “very good 12 (handicap) who plays to several strokes less,” writers reported. Raymond Watson was Tom’s father. And Michael Watson, who played the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am 15 years ago and helped by 28 shots to get his team a top-10, is Tom’s son. A sweet circle of life, in golf terms. “These are the kind of events that define the PGA TOUR,” said Tom Watson, explaining why he requested an exemption to play with Michael in 2007. “I want to be part of that any time I possibly can.” There is a long list of the game’s greatest players who shared Watson’s love of the event, and those who won savor it. Sometimes, the winning team had major sex appeal – like Fred Couples and George Brett in 1987. Or that most popular pairing of Byron Nelson and Eddie Lowery in 1955. And don’t sleep on 1948, when Ben Hogan won with Johnny Dawson. Sometimes, the winning team involved a legend who didn’t mind having fun with golf writers and teasing partners. “He’s my thief,” Lee Trevino quipped to reporters about Don Schwab after they prevailed in 1972. Said Johnny Miller after winning in 1974 with Locke de Bretteville in a competition halted at 54 holes, “That’s another reason why I’m glad they stopped it (at 54 holes). My partner was starting to choke.” Johnny being Johnny, of course, because de Bretteville’s play in miserable conditions was quite good. But if ever a sense of pressure could have entered the pro-am picture, it was in 2001 when Phil Mickelson and his teammate Kenny G collapsed at the 72nd hole. Lefty needed an eagle to win or a birdie to tie Davis Love III, and a par would seal the team deal. He made double bogey. Kenny G needed net par to clinch the team title. He made double bogey. The team title ended in a tie between Tiger Woods (with Jerry Chang) and the Mickelson-Kenny G duo. Imagine leaving folks hanging and not pursuing a Tiger-Phil playoff? Then again, the payoff at the AT&T – four days of misfits, mis-hits, and mischievous – renders a playoff meaningless. The fun has been had. Want a poster to highlight what the tournament’s all about? Drift to 1987 and the edge of that priceless real estate that is No. 16 at Cypress Point. Jack Lemmon’s tee shot had come to rest in an ice plant on the edge of the cliff, well short of the green. He chose to play it, but first, a safety net. As Lemmon got in position, Clint Eastwood got a grip on Lemmon. Peter Jacobsen, Lemmon’s playing partner, took hold of Eastwood, and Greg Norman, Eastwood’s partner, held to Jacobsen. It’s a timeless photo of a veritable human chain that reinforces the notion that this tournament is less about golf as an individual sport and more about golf as a unifying affair. Consider Lemmon’s 25-year quest that went unfulfilled – he never made the cut that he so desired. Consider that Johnny Weissmuller once gave the crowd of thousands what they wanted – his ball stuck in a tree, he climbed up, got the ball out, and let out a “Tarzan” cry while hanging from a branch. Consider how Crosby once stood so nervously over a 6-foot birdie putt on 17 – to give his team the lead – that in his herky-jerky pre-shot routine, he accidentally tapped the ball backward, so he now had a 9-footer for par. He missed it, and Crosby never did win his own pro-am. Nor did Lemmon. Nor did Weissmuller. Nor did Eastwood or a parade of other notables. But that isn’t the point. The point is all of them found boundless joy in this AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, where golf is the common ground that can even unite a Catholic priest with a colorful gent such as “Champagne” Tony Lema. When he won at Pebble Beach in 1964, Lema played through heavy rain and wind on the final day where the best score was 73. A closing 76 was enough to win, but Lema – who would win four more times that year, including the Open Championship at the Old Course at St. Andrews – said it was his partner, Father John Durkin, who kept him together. “The influence of Father John Durkin on me certainly helped,” said Lema. “Among other things, I couldn’t swear. Oh, I did once, but he pretended not to hear.” (Yes, that’s the same Father John Durkin who would win the pro-am with Lou Graham, but that partnership only developed out of tragedy – the airplane crash in July of 1966 that killed Lema, his wife, the pilot and co-pilot.) Lema and Father Durkin played together three times – in 1964, 1965 and 1966 – and while never did they take the team title, their partnership went beyond the golf course. Father Durkin often said Mass at the Old Mission Church in Carmel, and Lema helped as an altar server. Communion wine and Champagne. An odd combo. Only at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am could they be mixed so tastefully and beautifully.

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