The Professional Golf of America (PGA) Tour returns to the coast of Pebble Beach, California this week to host the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on three courses.
Celebrating its 77th this year, this tournament, which runs from the 3rd (Korean time) to the 6th, is, as the name suggests, 156 pros and 156 amateurs touring the Pebble Beach Golf Links, Spyglass Hill, and Monterey Pennishuller Shores courses. It is a game that comes together. After running three pro-ams over three days, only the pros decide on the winner on the Pebble Beach Links course on the final day.
Originally started as a charity golf event hosted by singer and entertainer Bing Crosby at Rancho Santefe Golf Course in California, where friends were invited, it has since grown into one of the more unique events on the PGA Tour calendar. Not just amateurs, but celebrities such as movie stars, entertainers, and musicians, as well as legendary stars from various sports events.
Movie stars Clint Eastwood (son Scott Eastwood is coming this year), Bill Murray, and Ray Romano are regular customers, and this year even Gareth Bale, who retired from a representative European soccer player, will appear for the first time. In addition, Larry Fitzgerald, Pau Gasol, Aaron Rodgers, and Alex Smith, who are former players, will play for the first time since retiring from the Major League (MLB).
Pebble Beach, which has hosted the PGA Tour event Bing Crosby National Pro-Am since 1947, has many courses, the most representative of which is the Links course (par 72, 6972 yards) co-designed by Jack Neville and Douglas Grant in 1919. Arnold Palmer and Tad Leighton renovated it in 2016. Every time the top 100 courses in the US are announced, it is this course that ranks first in the public rankings. It is currently ranked #11 in the world by <Golf Magazine>.
The layout of the course along Carmel Bay in the southern part of California’s Monterey Peninsula, facing the Pacific Ocean, makes you exclaim. In particular, climb up the uphill green No. 6 and look out over the sea, and if you stand in the teeing area of the par 3 hole No. 7, the downhill tee shot toward the Pacific Ocean. If the wind blows hard, aim for the sea and hit the shot, the ball is bent by the wind and heads toward the green.
Pebble Beach Links 8.
The par-4 8th hole that follows is the hole that goes over the sea valley twice and heads to the green. Last year, Jordan Spieth showed a dizzying approach shot from the valley cliff.
More than half of the course flows along the side of the sea cliff, and even if you want to go inland, the layout facing the sea gives the true pleasure of golf. After another shot toward the sea on the par 3 17th hole, the round ends with a tee shot across the cliff at the par 5 18th hole.
This course first hosted the US Open in 1972, and after Jack Nicklaus won the championship, it was held every 10 years, including Tom Watson in 1982, and held six times until 2019. The 100th anniversary US Open was held here in 2000. In addition, Tiger Woods won the championship by 15 strokes over 2nd place Ernie Els with overwhelming performance.
Even Jack Nicklaus, a legend of 18 wins in the majors and who designed more than 340 courses around the world, chose this place as the only course to play before he dies. Maybe it’s because it is a course with a lot of emotion, so the tea time is filled half a year ago. The green fee is currently 595 dollars (730,000 won), but it will increase to 625 dollars (770,000 won) from April.
You have to stay at the Pebble Beach Lodge, which is the second most expensive in the world and costs $1,045 (1,290,000 won) per night. Even if you do not stay, there is room for reservations, but it is enough to make up for the tea time, which can only be canceled one day in advance. Still, this course is used by 60,000 people a year.
The greatest difficulty of this course is on the greens. It is small enough to average only 3500 square feet. Because it is adjacent to the sea, grass species that tolerate salinity are planted. The green is a poa-anua, commonly referred to as ‘new grass’, and the tee and fairway rough are a mixture of ryegrass and poa-anua. Although it is a notorious weed for domestic course managers, it is a surprising irony that it is used on the greens of the top 100 courses in the world.
Spyglass Hill.
Even if you mow well in the morning, it becomes extremely difficult to read the green in the afternoon as the putting surface becomes bumpy due to the newly grown grass. It’s an extremely small green, so it’s hard to put it in regular strokes, and it’s hard to read the line because the surface is bumpy in the afternoon.
The neighboring Spyglass Hill (par 72, 7041 yards) was designed by Robert Trent Jones in 1966 and renovated in 1999. Here too, poa anua is laid on the green, and perennial ryegrass and poa anua are mixed in the teeing area, fairway, and rough.
The average green area is a bit wide at 5,000 square feet, and the width of the fairway is 27 yards from the tee to 250 yards, but widens to 32 yards beyond 300 yards, making it an advantageous course for long hitters. 50,000 rounds a year.
“The first five holes, which start deep in the forest and head to the sea, pass through sandy areas reminiscent of Pine Valley, with water and sea breezes,” said designer RTJ. It goes through the Pines and Cypress and reminds me of Augusta National,” he explained the design intention.
Monterey Shore.
The Monterey Peninsula Shore (par 71, 6957 yards) was designed by Robert Balduck in 1960, but was renovated in 2003 by late genius designer Mike Strantz. With 30,000 rounds per year, it is a relatively easy course with the best scores for amateur golfers.
The green area is 6,000 square feet, twice the size of Pebble Beach Links. The width of the fairway is widest at 50 yards at 250 yards from the tee, and narrows to 40 yards at 300 yards. The green grass species is poa anua, but bentgrass and fescue are mixed from the edge to the teeing area, and ryegrass is the main species in the rough.
According to the world’s largest golf course information site, Britain’s Top 100 Golf Courses, this course is ranked 12th in the California Peninsula, higher than Spyglass Hill’s 14th. 안전놀이터
In this tournament with a total prize of 9 million dollars, the defending champion is Tom Hogi. However, this year, Jordan Spieth (USA), who won 10 times and won in 2017 and finished in the top 10 six times including second place last year, is a strong candidate for the championship. As for Korean players, PGA Tour rookie Kim Seong-hyun is on the rise after finishing tied for 20th last week. In addition, four other players including Kang Seong-hun, Ahn Byung-hun and Noh Seung-yeol will participate.
When the tournament is held, the players’ great shots and celebrity golf draw attention. However, viewers will be mesmerized by the magnificent view of Pebble Beach harmonized with the Pacific Ocean. It will be broadcast live at JTBC Golf & Sports from 4:00 am on the 3rd and JTBC Golf from 5:00 am.