After three weeks in the Middle East I really enjoyed my week off in Florida, spending time with the family and playing a bit of social golf – including a game with my good friend Johann Rupert at the wonderful Seminole Golf Club.
In fact, Johann and I will be playing plenty more golf together this week when we team up in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. As many of you will know, the two of us have played quite a few times over the years in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland. We’ve not managed to win that one, so maybe we’ll have better luck here in California. That’s certainly the plan.
Spyglass Hill (one of the toughest courses in the US) and Monterey Peninsula’s Shore course (another beautiful layout with a great reputation and ranking) are also used in the first three days of this tournament, but naturally the main focus tends to be on Pebble Beach. It’s one of those courses where even the best photography can’t do it justice. The scenery and the scale of this landscape are simply epic. For any golfer, professional or amateur, it’s one of those ‘Bucket List’ courses. If you can, you should!
I’ve not been a regular in this tournament – in fact I’ve played more US Opens here (2) than I have Pro-Ams (1). But that’s part of the reason it’s always so exciting to come and play here – it feels like a real treat.
It’s one of those golf courses that really pushes my buttons, both as a player and as a golf course architect. Obviously, Pebble Beach is largely defined by its location, overlooking the dramatic cliffs of the Monterey Peninsular and the Pacific Ocean, but the architects, two unsung characters by the names of Douglas Grant and Jack Neville, deserve a lot of credit, too. They could have done the predictable thing and configured the course in such a way that just the finishing stretch went along the Ocean, but they didn’t. Instead, they mixed things up nicely and created quite a lot of intrigue with the hole routings. There is variety and some nice change of pace; long holes and short holes, uphill and downhill shots, doglegs in both directions, surprisingly small greens, and even the Ocean switches sides. On most holes the water is on the right as you play, but then on 18, one of the great finishing holes in world golf, the water is on the left.
All in all, then, I’m really looking forward to the next two weeks of my 2015 PGA TOUR campaign, starting here in Pebble and then moving on to Riviera CC for the Northern Trust Open. We’re also choosing that week to announce the schedule for the 2015 Els for Autism Golf Challenge, the fifth playing of this series. We hope you’ll be able to join us at one of the 20-plus regional events played at some of North America’s finest golf courses, including major venues such as Congressional, Baltusrol and Hazeltine. Keep an eye out for further updates via the website: www.e4agolf.com. In the meantime, thanks for your interest and support.
Finally, tributes have been pouring in after the sad passing last weekend of Billy Casper and Charlie Sifford. I’d like to use this platform to pay my respects to these two World Golf Hall of Fame legends. Tiger has already spoken movingly about Charlie Sifford, describing him as a ‘brave, decent and honorable man’. Of course, Charlie was the first black member of the PGA TOUR – someone who not only won golf tournaments, but more importantly, broke down barriers and genuinely changed the face of golf. People like Charlie Sifford are rare and inspiring.
As was Billy Casper – a quiet man, a dedicated family man and, by many peoples’ estimation, a hugely underrated golfer. His record speaks for itself, though. Billy is the highest points’ scorer in US Ryder Cup history. He won three majors, including arguably the greatest comeback in the history of all majors when he reeled in Arnold Palmer from seven shots behind on the back nine of the 1966 US Open, and his 51 PGA TOUR wins came over a 20-year period when the Big Three (Jack, Gary and Arnold) were all in their prime.
Perhaps most impressive of all is the fact that Billy’s PGA TOUR career winning percentage was 9.2. Think about that; it really is an incredible statistic and in the last 60-odd years only Tiger and Jack can better it. Also, like Charlie Sifford, Billy made a significant impact off the golf course through his foundation, Billy’s Kids. They’re both a big loss to the game of golf and to the wider community.
Okay, that’s it for now. Follow me on Twitter @TheBig_Easy.
