Pebble Beach

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. -- In 1937 at Rancho Santa Fe Country Club, a first-year tournament called the Bing Crosby Professional-Amateur took off. Well, "took off" might not be exactly the correct phrase. Floated away is probably more accurate. It rained so hard for three days that some of the bored players spent time shooting ducks on a pond near the 18th green. When the players grew weary of that, they shot at the hat belonging to Bing's brother, Larry. Sam Snead won the fledgling, rain-splattered, one-round tournament and its $500 prize.

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. - Leave it to Jack Nicklaus to give the crowd watching behind the 18th hole at the Pebble Beach Golf Links yesterday one last memory from more than four decades in the U.S. Open. Leave it Nicklaus to find a way to say the proper goodbye to a golf course and a tournament that defined his legendary career. It didn't matter that Nicklaus shot an 11-over-par 82, his highest score in 160 Open rounds. It only mattered that Nicklaus had one last great shot left in his 60-year-old body.

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. -- In all its incarnations, the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am has been famous for many things. A wonderful venue with three fabulous golf courses. A glittering array of stars. And rain, lots and lots of rain.For the second time in three years, rain yesterday likely washed out the finish in this high-profile tournament. What could have been a memorable shootout among some of the game's top players turned into another soggy shutdown.Though they will try to play again this morning -- or perhaps tomorrow -- a forecast of continued heavy rains and winds leaves the ending in doubt.

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Three winners emerged from the first round of the U.S. Open, and you won't find any listed among the 156-player field. Winner No. 1: USGA setup man Mike Davis. No one broke 69, but still no one ripped Davis. Hammering the USGA for creating obscene playing conditions used to be a hobby for many pros. "It was very playable," Phil Mickelson said of the 7,040-yard layout. "Mike Davis is the greatest asset the USGA has, in my opinion." And Mickelson felt this way after shooting a 4-over 75 devoid of a single birdie.

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Before Phil Mickelson went on a late afternoon birdie binge Friday, the most interesting name on the U.S. Open leaderboard was the generic "Johnson." Dustin Johnson has the power to obliterate par-5s, the experience to navigate Pebble Beach's slopey, fickle greens and a caddie who sounds as if he should have sunscreen on his nose and a surfboard in his arm. "Dude," caddie Bobby Brown said, "we have a vibe going." Johnson already has won twice here, triumphing at the last two AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Ams.

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. -- Before the 92nd U.S. Open began last week at Pebble Beach, someone asked Jack Nicklaus what score he thought would win."If the wind kicks up, even-par is going to win this tournament," Nicklaus said during a pre-tournament news conference.Nicklaus, the 1972 Open champion here, made that prediction again yesterday. He was sitting in the ABC booth as Colin Montgomerie was about to putt at 18 to stay even-par."If Montgomerie makes the putt, he's going to win the golf tournament," said Nicklaus, who was serving as a commentator after missing the cut.Later, when Nicklaus saw the 28-year-old Scot who now lives in England, he told him the same thing.

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. -- Before there was Kevin Costner, heart throb, there was Bill Murray, human whoopee cushion.Record crowds at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am have turned out for the glitter team of Costner and Tiger Woods, but Murray, who has waltzed senior citizens into bunkers and gotten the crowd to do the wave for the blimp, hasn't lost any of his appeal.The game is perceived as a buttoned-down pursuit, but there was Murray, gonzo golfer, in the middle of the 10th fairway yesterday, undoing his trousers to straighten out his shirt.

LOS ANGELES -- Tom Watson found himself in a greenside bunker yesterday during a practice round at Riviera Country Club, site of the $1 million Nissan Los Angeles Open that gets under way tomorrow.He holed out from 60 feet, prompting his caddy, Bruce Edwards, to say: "Now you do it."It was one hole too late for such a dramatic shot.It would have been nice to have won with this kind of flair last Sunday, but bunkers weren't his main obstacle in the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. It was a different problem.

It will be another month before the Planning Board reaches a verdict on the proposed expansion of Turf Valley, the resort and residential community west of Ellicott City, but one thing is certain: The fight has only begun. "It's going to appeal," said Frank Martin, who has led the effort against the development during a six-month hearing process that taxed the patience of many people, was often combative and produced few, if any, victories for opponents. The one, and perhaps only, issue the critics raised that may have resonated - an attack on the results of a developer-commissioned traffic study - was effectively left in shambles Thursday during the final evening of the quasi-legal hearings.

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. -- Clint Eastwood has seen his share of hard-to-believe movie endings in his life, but what happened yesterday at Pebble Beach defied even Hollywood's standards for reality. To set the scene: The star was seven shots down with seven holes to play. The streak is finished at five. Done, over. But wait: The star slam-dunks a wedge for eagle at 15. And then he just misses another eagle at 16. Meanwhile, the dashing young rookie is falling apart. Now, there goes the star, beautifully framed against the blue waters of the Pacific, making the putt at 18 to take the lead.