AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am

February 11 - 14, 2010
Pebble Beach Golf Links, Monterey Peninsula C.C., & Spyglass Hill GC
Pebble Beach, California
Pebble Beach (Home Course) Par: 72 / Yardage: 7,040
Spyglass Hill - Par: 72 / Yardage: 6,858
Monterey Peninsula C.C. - Par: 70 / Yardage: 6,900
Purse: $6.1 million, with $1,080,000 going to the winner
Defending Champion: Kevin Johnson

List of Champions & Scores

Results and Scores of 2009 AT&T Pebble Beach

Box Scores of 2009 AT&T Pebble Beach

Tournament facts:

54-Hole Record:
196 (Phil Mickelson in 2005)

36-Hole Record:
129 (Phil Mickelson in 2005)

Low round of tournament:
62 (Luke Donald in 2006, Phil Mickelson in 2005, Matt Gogel in 2001, David Duval in 1997, and Tom Kite in 1983)

Individual Course records:

Tournament information:

Course information:

Photo: © Mike Ehrmann/WireImage Phil Mickelson hits his second shot to the ninth green with the ocean running down the right side of the hole.

Course designed by Jack Neville and Douglas Grant in 1919, Revised in 1928 by Henry Chandler Egan. Between then and 1997 there were little minor changes done to the course. But in 1998 the biggest changed happend when the par-three 5th hole was rebuilt. The redesign was done by Jack Nicklaus and the hole was relocated about 100 yards away, along a 50-foot cliff over the pacific. At a cost of $3 million, the new hole could be one of the most expensive holes that hold a PGA Tour event. Its funny to compare the cost. $3 million for one hole in 1999, the total cost to build the course in 1919 and that included the money spent on at the time was the first automatic sprinkling system in golf was a mere $66,000.

The course is situated on the Monterey Peninsula, its 120 miles south of San Francisco, Pebble Beach is considered the most spectacular golf course in all the world.

Despite it official name, the course is not a true links course because it is set on craggy cliffs above Carmel Bay. Eight of the holes skirt the coastline and it's these holes that distinguish Pebble Beach.

The land was owned by Samuel Morse, who was the nephew of the inventor of the telegraph and Morse code. Morse had an eye for the natural beauty of the Monterey Peninsula and bought 7,000 acres of the Penisula, including seven miles of Pacific oceanfront for $1.3 million in 1915. Morse then formed the Del Monte Propertes company and had a vision of a resort with a golf course on prime acreage that ran along the bluffs above Carmel Bay. Instead of selling the ocean front property for homesites, Morse built his golf course. One of his real estate agents was Jack Neville, who won the California Amateur Championship and even though Neville had never built a course before, Morse decided to give him a chance to handle the design. Neville asked another California Amateur Champion, Douglas Grant, to help him on the project and they spent a month routing the 18 holes.

In 1918 the course was opened for play, but in the inaugural competition the course was deemed to be unplayable for the average golfer and was closed for revision. Neville and Grant softened it up and in 1919 it was again open for play.

Over the course of the next ten years the course was modified by Neville and Grant, and in 1928 H. Chandler Egan, Robert Hunter and Roger Lapham strengthened the course for the 1929 U.S. Amateur. Since then the course has remained basically the same, except for the redesign of the fifth hole, which is certainly an endorsement of the sound design of Neville and Grant.

Nine holes at Pebble are set along the rocky shores of Carmel Bay. They are the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 17th and 18th. The 18th hole is considered by many as the best finishing hole in golf. It was originally a par 4 of 379 yards until Egan changed it into a par 5 of 550 yards.

Pebble Beach has held many tournaments, the U.S. Open (1972, '82, '92, 2000 and in 2010), the PGA Championship (1977), four U.S. Amateurs (1929, '47, '61 & '99), the 1989 Nabisco Championship and is the host course for the annual AT&T Pebble Beach pro-am which at one time was the Bing Crosby.

The average green size at Pebble is 3,580 square feet which makes the greens the smallest that are used on the PGA Tour. The course has 92 bunkers and water comes in play on nine holes along the Pacific.

Other courses used in the rota:
Spyglass Hill Golf Course
Pebble Beach, Calif.
6,855 yards Par 36-36--72
Course has a 75.3 rating and slope rating of 148 fron the championship tees Course is resort and open to the public.

Course was designed by Robert Trent Jones and opened in 1966. The course was the built thanks to Samuel Morse who had orginally thought of building it as part of the Lodge at Pebble Beach. The course was to be called Pebble Beach Pines Golf Club but Morse changed it to Spyglass Hill. That was in part due to his friend Robert Louis Stevenson who got his inspiration for his book Treasure Island while visiting the area in which Spyglass was built.

Spyglass is a mix of several different courses. The first five holes go down through sand dunes and offer magnificent views of the Pacific. The next couple of holes play back into the pines, still offering ocean views. The last nine you wouldn't even know that the ocean is a mile away, the holes play through Monterey pines. Spyglass is a totally different course than Pebble. While the greens at Pebble are small, those at Spyglass are large and undulating. Weather is a big part of Pebble, while it can be blowing up a storm there, Spyglass which is just a couple miles away could be calm. When Spyglass first opened up it annually would drive the pros that played in the Crosby crazy and would be among the hardest courses on Tour. It's still one of the toughest courses on tour but the course has soften with time and now there is nothing but praise about the course.

Monterey Peninsula C.C.
Pebble Beach, Calif.
6,900 yards Par 36-36--72
Course has a 73.3 rating and slope rating of 133 fron the championship tees Course is private

Monterey Peninsula Country Club was founded on January 19, 1925. Samuel Finley Brown Morse, president and general manager of the Del Monte Properties Company. The club has two clubs, the Dunes Course was originally designed by Charles B. MacDonald and Seth Raynor in 1925. The Dunes Course was redesigned and rebuilt in 1998 by Rees Jones and was the site of the Bing Crosby Pro-am for 18 consecutive years beginning in 1947, and then shifted to the Shore Course in 1965 and 1966. In 1967, the tournament was moved to Spyglass Hill Golf Course. The Crosby later returned to MPCC in 1977.

The Shore Course, site of this year's AT&T was originally designed by Robert Baldock and Jack Neville. Construction began in 1960, and the course was opened for play in 1961. Reconstruction of the Shore Course began in February 2003, and the new course was opened in June 2004. Golf course architect Mike Strantz created a links-type golf course on the Club’s ocean-side property. For the AT&T the course will play at a par 70 and at 6,900.

Two things will come into play this week at the Shore course, one is how it won't be protected from the elements of wind off the ocean. The course it replaced, Poppy Hills was very well protected with big pines but that won't be the case here, so if you get unlucky and are paired on this course on a poor day it could put you out of the tournament. The second tough element will be the greens, they average 7,000 and Mike Strantz made them tough and it will take a lot of local knowledge to be able to read them. Most of the pros in the field are making sure to play the Shore Course and they all are saying the same thing, the greens will be tough this week.

Race to get into the Accenture World Match Play Championshp

Now Phil Mickelson gave notice two weeks ago so Chris Woods got the 65th spot. He finished T20th at Dubai and again his rating was at the right place to move from 70th to 65th thanks to Dubai. The reallying big move was by Kevin Na, who started the week 67th and with his final round 66 at Riviera moved into a T10th, that helped get him into the 63rd spot. Getting the 64th spot is Scott Verplank, who finished T20th at Riviera and it was enough to hold the spot.

Now what is really funny is if you look at the rankings at the end of the year, only four players, Rory Sabbatini - 67th, Ben Crane - 102nd, Kevin Na - 69th and Chris Wood - 74th were at of the top-65 at the end of the year. For those who wondered who the players they replaced, it was Gonzalo Federenze-Castano - 63rd, Ben Curtis - 50th, Shingo Katayama - 56th and Hiroyuki Fujita - 64th.

Race to the Masters

The Buzz:

As for the folks that run the AT&T Pebble Beach pro-am, hopefully the folks at the Bob Hope can see what they are doing and why they run a great tournament. Last spring the AT&T folks looked at their strong points and weaknesses and realized that they really needed Tiger Woods to play. With Pebble holding the U.S. Open later in the year the odds were in there favor, despite the fact that Woods hasn't played the AT&T since 2002. They also realized that they wanted to have more marquee players in the field and took to steps to secure that. The first was the pace of play, with 180 pros and 180 amateurs, the courses got bogged down and caused rounds that were between 5 and a half to sometimes six hours. They took a very expensive step in eliminating 24 amateur slots, bringing the total of pros and amateurs to 156. This will help speed up play and make things more tolerable for more pros.

Another important step was to get rid of Poppy Hills, which wasn't a very popular course. They replaced it with Monterey Peninsula C.C., a course that already is very popular among players. Now they aren't going to admit it but both of these changes were made to persuade Woods to play and many say that Woods would of played, until he drove into a fire hydrate. What's really weird, nobody knows Woods plans for the future, who knows he may not even be here for the U.S. Open in June, very sad since he is so dominating on the course.

Those that won the most "Pro-Am" events, the Hope, the AT&T, Fry's.Com & Disney:
Player	Starts
Mark O'Meara	6
Jack Nicklaus	6
Phil Mickelson	5
Johnny Miller	5
Arnold Palmer	5
Tiger Woods	4
John Cook	4

Talking about Pebble Beach, this week the pro's will have a sneak preview of what the course is going to look like for the U.S. Open. Under the direction of Arnold Palmer, Pebble Beach has strengthened the links and lengthened the course to 7,040 yards. With fairways now pushed closer to the coastline, the Pacific Ocean is no longer just a beautiful backdrop, but will be a prominent feature on all coastal holes. Enhancements have been made to four greens, 11 tees and 16 bunkers. In addition, six holes have had trees added or repositioned to add strategic value to the layout. Palmer’s goal was simple: maintain the integrity and historic shot values of this American jewel while challenging today’s standard of players and equipment.

So this week is the preview of all the changes, of course since it's the winter the course will play totally different come June, but everyone will get an idea of what to expect. One piece of trivia for those to ponder, all four champions from the U.S. Opens held at Pebble Beach first were winners at the AT&T Pro-Am and for Jack Nicklaus in 1972 and Tiger Woods in 2000, they won the AT&T the same year.

One good thing, after the poor weather in L.A. last week it looks like the AT&T may catch a break. The area has had a lot of rain in the last month, but it looks like every day will be good, with the possible exception of Friday that has a 30% chance of rain. So the possibly of having "Crosby Weather" is slim.

One last item, crowd favortie Bill Murray is back for this year. He has been the heart and sole of the tournament for years now and is an important element of the event.

Here are some things to look for this week:

Photo: © Harry How/Getty Images Scene at the 18 hole at Pebble Beach Golf Links.

For some the AT&T Pebble Beach pro-am is the greatest. Played at one of the most speculator places in all the world, the Monterey Peninsula, on two of the greatest courses in the world Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill. On top of that the Monterey Peninsula offers a lot to do with great places to go like the Monterey aquarium, some great restaurants and bars plus you can't meet a walk around the village of Carmel after the tournament is over. Another item that makes the AT&T stand out is the format, the first three days are played over three courses, Pebble, Spyglass and Monterey Peninsula. Each pro is paired up with an amateur partner and play along with another "team". Now for some pros this sounds great, getting a chance to play these great courses and with an amateur that is a leader in business or a celebrity in the entertainment field.

For others this isn't their cup of tea, playing with amateurs plus being in foursomes that create six hour rounds. Still it's a staple on the PGA Tour, of the 46 events being played this year only three, this one, the Bob Hope and Disney let amateurs play alongside professionals. The AT&T is even more special because a cut is made on Saturday and the low 25 amateurs will play on the final day.

Here are some of the secrets of what it takes to play well at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am:

• Key stat for the winner: The AT&T Pebble Beach brings on some special problems, it takes a lot of patience to endure this week with amateur partners. Another problem is the luck of the draw, someone could be playing at Spyglass which is tree lined on the back nine and may not get the brute of a heavy wind that some players encounter at Pebble Beach and Monterey Peninsula. For some that play in the late afternoon the conditions of the greens get dicey, especially since Poa Annua greens get bumpy and hard to predict. So it takes a special breed of player to endure this.
• Unimportant stat: Interesting to point out that since 1990 most of the AT&T champions are veterans in this event and playing in pro-ams. Even guys like Steve Lowery who won in 2008 is a 20 year PGA Tour veteran. The only exception was Dustin Johnson last year and Brett Ogle in 1993, even Matt Gogel, winner in 2002 was also a young pro but he had the experience of leading the AT&T in 2000 to help him. The point here, don't look for any inexperienced players winning here, in it's history going back to 1950 only one pro has won on his first visit to Pebble and that was Ogle.
• Now this doesn't rule out the fact that a rookie or a person with very little experince could win. Look at last year's winner Dustin Johnson, who won at age 24. Already this year the tour has seen inexperience win like Bill Haas. Now for Johnson, winning last year was a bit of a surprise because he won due to weather reducing the event to 54 holes, it's always easy to win a tournament that you lead after 54 holes. One big problem in this event, don't expect the first round leader to win, yes it happened last year. In 72 hole events Phil Mickelson is the only one to break this jinx's when in 2005 he became the first winner to lead after the first round and win since John Cook did it in 1981. Mickelson also became the first wire-to-wire winner of this event since Tom Shaw did it in 1971 so anything could happen in golf. To show that this wasn't a fluke, Mickelson was a co-leader in 2007 after the first three rounds before his victory.
• Talking about Bill Haas, if you think that he is good bet this week you would be wrong In the previous 50 years of the Hope, nobody has ever won both the AT&T and the Hope in the same year.
• Greens at Pebble are very small, so look for the winner to hit lots of greens.
• Putting is always a key at the AT&T especially since the tricky poa annua greens tend to get very bumpy in the afternoon. Those that are able to deal with it will be ahead of the game mentally.
• Look for someone that either hits lots of greens or putts very well to win. He also has to play very well over the weekend, that seems to be the key with the rest of the winners. One last item, scrambling is very important and that is almost as important of a stat as hitting lots of greens. With small greens at Pebble look for short game wizardly to do the job.
• Weather is always a factor in the AT&T. Even thought good weather is predicted this year, it's hard to predict what the weather is going to be like on the Monterey Peninsula.
• Lastly and very important, to win you have to make sure that you play well at Spyglass Hill. In a way that is the hardest of the courses and a good round there gives you a big advantage. Perfect example was in 2005 with Phil Mickelson, he opened up with a 62 at Spyglass, shattering it's scoring record and was able to build upon that great round.

  Just look at the last eight winners, you can see a trend that in the last six years the winner has done great at Spyglass:
  Year	Champion	Score at Spyglass
  2009	Dustin Johnson	69 in 2nd round
  2008	Steve Lowery	69 in 1st round
  2007	Phil Mickelson	70 in 3rd round
  2006	Arron Oberholser	68 in 2nd round
  2005	Phil Mickelson	62 in 1st round
  2004	Vijay Singh	68 in 2nd round
  2003	Davis Love III	67 in 3rd round
  2002	Matt Gogel	67 in 3rd round
  2001	Davis Love III	71 in 1st round
  2000	Tiger Woods	73 in 2nd round
  1999	Payne Stewart	73 in 3rd round

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