Consecutive weeks of Pro-Am format at Pebble Beach

BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2003 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am | Preview | 03 Feb 2003

In rather an unusual move the USPGA Tour will hold pro am events in consecutive weeks when the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro Am gets underway on Thursday Feb 6th.

The event follows on from last week’s Bob Hope Chrysler Classic and this will be the first time in several years that back to back scheduling of this type of event has happened.

Defending his title will be Matt Gogel whose win last year was probably justice after Tiger Woods had stolen victory from him with a come from the clouds rush in 2000. Who will ever forget the last nine of the event that year when Gogel, looking for his first win in just his fourth PGA Tour event, fell victim to an amazing run by Woods who made up seven shots in the last seven holes to win.

The loss was difficult for Gogel to swallow. After having finished seventh just two weeks prior, he never made the top ten again that year, and in fact missed sixteen of his next twenty six cuts. Most rookies would have been happy to have finished second in their fourth event on tour but such was the manner of his loss, and his part in it, that it took him until the middle of the following year to regain the confidence that would eventually see him win this event in 2002.

Other recent winners have included Davis Love (2001), Tiger Woods, Payne Stewart, Phil Mickelson and Mark O’Meara, who won five times in the eight events between 1989 and 1997 (the tournament was abandoned in 1996).

Other good performers here have included Vijay Singh, runner up in 2000 and 2001 and 8th last year and David Duval runner up in 1995 and 1997.

The tournament has often been weather plagued and in Mickelson’s win in 1998 he played his final round in August some six months after leading into what was to be the final round.

As was the case last week at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, the tournament will be played over multiple courses, all in the Monterey area of California. Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill and Poppy Hills are the venues. Pebble Beach Golf Links was designed and laid out during the First World War and opened 1919. It ‘s designers, Douglas Grant and Jack Neville, were California State champions but not qualified designers. The original construction cost was a touch over $US100,000 and it wasn’t until 1991 that further reconstruction work was carried out by Jack Nicklaus and Ed Conner. The original developer was Samuel Morse, who was a descendant of the great inventor.

Spyglass Hills was opened in 1967 and designed by Robert Trent Jones Snr, while Poppy Hills was opened in 1986 and was the work of Robert Trent Jones Jr.

The field will play each course once before the cut on Saturday evening then return to Pebble Beach for the final round.

Leading players entered this year are Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh, Davis Love, David Duval, Jim Furyk, Jerry Kelly and Rocco Mediate.

Being a slightly larger field of 176 and that not all the leading players enjoy this format, the event offers opportunity for many of those players either fully exempt but lowly ranked and those not fully exempt, the chance to play. As a consequence, there is a large contingent of Australasians.

Steve Allan, Steve Alker, Aaron Baddeley, Gavin Coles, Steve Elkington, Mathew Goggin, Paul Gow, Scott Laycock, James McLean, Anthony Painter, Rod Pampling, John Senden, Phil Tataurangi, Grant Waite will represent the Down Under brigade.

The event carries prize money of $US5,000,000 and a winning purse of $US900,000.