Tim Herron walked back to the sixth tee on Wednesday morning at Pebble Beach and took in a spectacular view of the 513-yard hole, which stretches out toward the Pacific Ocean, rising along the rugged cliffs on the right side of the fairway.
Something didn’t look right.
”Wow,” Herron said. ”Look at those cliffs.”
Then it dawned on him. He never could see the cliffs so clearly because of a large cypress tree. But that tree is no longer there, wiped out by holiday storms. It should make the par-five play easier, because any tee shot that strayed too far to the right was blocked by the tree. Players either had to go over or around it.
”You can see the whole cliff now, and it’s pretty cool,” Herron said. ”But it changes everything, especially on the second shot. That tree played with your head.”
The Pebble Beach National Pro-Am will have a slightly different look when it gets under way on Thursday.
Rain that deluged California six weeks ago also washed out a small section of the 18th fairway about 280 yards from the tee, making the landing area a little tighter. Plus, the two cypress trees replaced in the middle of the fairway were planted about 20 yards farther out than they were.
”I hit a drive where I used to, and it was 15 yards from the water — not 25,” Jim Furyk said.
But there are some things about Pebble Beach that rarely change.
One of them is the weather, and that’s the good news. A tournament that developed a reputation for cold, rain, wind, rain, fog and rain looks as if it will be basking in sunshine for the fifth straight year.
And the field is eclectic as ever.
Because the three courses have room for 180 pro-am teams, the pros range from defending champion Vijay Singh and Phil Mickelson to players such as Steve Stricker, Garrett Willis and Tom Scherrer, whose only status on the PGA Tour is having won a tournament once upon a time.
Amateurs range from Hollywood stars (Bill Murray, Kevin Costner) and comedians (George Lopez) to athletes (New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick) and CEOs from Fortune 500 companies.
Another Pebble tradition over the past two decades is the type of name on the crystal trophy. Only three of the last 21 winners of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am have not won a major.
No other regular PGA Tour event has such a major list of winners over the past two decades. The next best is The Players Championship — the fifth major — with 16 of the past 21 champions having also won majors.
”It’s going to be a slow process of putting yourself in position and never really shooting yourself out of the tournament,” said Mark O’Meara, a Masters and British Open champion who has won five times at Pebble.
”Then when the final round is played at Pebble, it’s not like somebody is going out and shooting super, super low. A lot has to do with the fact the golf course can be a little intimidating at times.” — Sapa-AP