Bill Murray wore this two years ago at the event. Seriously.
We saw some entertaining antics that veer from golf’s usual decorum at the Waste Management Phoenix Open last week. Well, the “fun” continues at Pebble Beach, where the rich and the famous play with the pros for the “pro-am” portion of the event.
It’s probably just me, but it seems like there are more bold-faced names than usual on this year’s list, which can be found here — though I have an updated version below, with additional entries, like Jim Harbaugh (the brother who was on the losing side of the Har-Bowl Super Bowl) and Condoleezza Rice. Also, I’ve noted their pro partner in parenthesis.
Bret Baier (Todd Hamilton): Host of Special Report on Fox News.
Rubens Barrichello (Tim Petrovic): IndyCar driver.
Harris Barton (Greg Owen): Former offensive lineman for 49ers.
Bill Belichick (Ricky Barnes): New England Patriots head coach
Chris Berman (J.J. Henry): ESPN anchor
Matt Cain (Matt Bettencourt): Pitcher for San Francisco Giants
Carson Daly (Tim Clark): Television host and personality
Tom Dreesen (Ken Duke): Stand-up comedian
Josh Duhamel (David Lingmerth): Actor
Jackie Flynn (Joe Durant): Actor and comedian
Kenny G (Aaron Baddeley): Musician
Andy Garcia (Webb Simpson): Actor
Wayne Gretzky (Dustin Johnson): Former hockey player (whose daughter, Paulina, is dating DJ)
Jim Harbaugh (Jason Day): Head coach of the San Francisco ’49ers
Oliver Hudson (Brendon Todd): Actor
Charles Kelley (Tommy Gainey): Musician
Brian Kelly (James Driscoll): Notre Dame head football coach
Joe Kernen (Retief Goosen): CNBC News anchor
Huey Lewis (Brad Fritsch): Musician
J.P. McManus (Padraig Harrington): Renowned sandbagger and Irish businessman and racehorse owner
Gary Mule Deer (Andres Gonzales): Comedian and musician
Bill Murray (D.A. Points): Actor
Chris O’Donnell (Camilo Villegas): Actor
Jake Owen (Kelly Kraft): Musician
Condoleezza Rice (Jason Bohn): Former Secretary of State and one of the two first female members of Augusta National Golf Club
Andy Roddick (John Mallinger): Former tennis player
Aaron Rodgers (Jerry Kelly): Quarterback for Green Bay Packers
Ray Romano (Erik Compton): Actor
Tony Romo (Jordan Spieth): Quarterback for Dallas Cowboys
Darius Rucker (Jim Furyk): Musician
Charles Schwab (Rod Pampling): American businessman and investor and the founder of the Charles Schwab Corporation
Kelly Slater (Patrick Cantlay): Surfer
Heidi Ueberroth (Luke List): President of NBA International
Justin Verlander (Robert Garrigus): Pitcher for Detroit Tigers
Clay Walker (Jeff Maggert): Musician
John Westwood: Lee Westwood‘s father (and yes, Lee and John are pro-am partners)
Jerry Yang (Chris Stroud): Taiwanese-born American internet entrepreneur, the co-founder and former CEO of Yahoo! Inc.
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Okay, maybe I take back what I said before about how there are more big names than usual…but it is a pretty good field. Pro notables include: Lee Westwood, Phil Mickelson, Rafael Cabrera-Bello, Brandt Snedeker, Dustin Johnson, Hunter Mahan, Jim Furyk, Webb Simpson, Padraig Harrington, Vijay Singh, Retief Goosen and Nick Watney.
17-year-old Q-school grad Si Woo Kim is getting his first start on a sponsor’s exemption.
A few of the tourney’s regular celebrities are missing, though, like comedian George Lopez, who apparently wasn’t invited this year, and Alice Cooper, who seems like he’s always a staple at a “celeb” — I use that term loosely — golf event.
The event is contested on three courses: Spyglass Hill, Monterey Peninsula Country Club (Shore Course), and Pebble Beach Golf Links. I’ve actually had the privilege of playing them, and in my humble opinion, Spyglass is a better track than Pebble, but if I could only play one on this trip, I’d still play Pebble. Why? Because it’s Pebble (and easier than Spyglass).
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I have crappy Internet and cell service at my motel this week, so I’m having trouble uploading the pairings, but I posted them on Twitter earlier today.
You can see them here and here.
(Sorry about the quality, but I had to take pictures of the paper copy we got in the media center and I don’t have an online version to copy and paste and it doesn’t seem to be posted anywhere else yet.)
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Meanwhile, Vijay Singh, who withdrew last week from the Waste Management Phoenix Open, is in the field at Pebble Beach. He’s supposed to play with Lee Westwood and his dad John Westwood. However, Vijay is meeting with PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem on Wednesday, according to GolfChannel.com.
Last Tuesday, a Sports Illustrated story reported that Singh had admitted to using Deer Antler Spray, which contains IGF-1, a banned substance in all major leagues, including the Tour.
Is a suspension pending? Does Vijay deserve to be suspended for using a banned substance — whether he knew it was prohibited or not (ignorance isn’t necessarily innocence)?
Vijay was hitting balls on the range in the morning and again late in the afternoon on Tuesday.
Recent Tweets
I have to hand it to you Stephanie, taking an early Monday flight to report on this farce when most of us would have stayed in Phoenix and joined the event after the yuk-fest is over.
Won’t be watching, but the Seahawk fan in me hopes that Harbdouche’s ever-present rage flares up and he plants his wedge upside Chris Berman’s head. A 2-fer with Jim spending the next 25 years whining about San Quentin prison food and ESPN watchers not subjected to Berman’s tired act.
DVR’s were invented for broadcasts like Saturday at Pebble. I’ll be able to watch the pro tournament portion of the broadcast in about 30 minutes.
Thanks, just took DJ off the fantasy lineup, too much pressure playing with 99
I believe a grammy winning member of the rock-n-roll hall of fame more than “loosely” qualifies as a “celeb”, and he’s not a bad player either. I might have to go dig up some of my old 8-tracks.
DJ is flinging it with Paulina Gretzky and now he is paired with Wayne at the AT&T?
Do the organizers set up the pairings? Sheesh.
I am not sure I want this if I am DJ.
Oh, and Spyglass is not a better course than Pebble.
Pebble might have the greatest six hole stretch in all of Golfdom (5th to 10th), and two world-class finishing holes (17th and 18th). Pebble might have some non-descript holes here and there, but it has way too much firepower for Spyglass to compete.
It is fashionable for people to downgrade Pebble because it is so overexposed. But, hole-per-hole, it is a dramatically stronger course than Spyglass.
A similar phenomenon is where people suggest that Bandon Trails is on par with Pacific Dunes. No effing way.
(On a related note, I think Bandon Trails is a slightly better course than Spyglass, but they are definitely both B-side courses considering their neighborhood competition).
Thanks for posting and the info. Can you explain how the pairings process works ? Some of them are obviously set up (DJ and Gretzy), or repeats of prior years, such as Murray and DA Points, but some others seem to be pretty random. Condy Rice for example – is there any connection to Jason Bohn ? He seems to be a little on the low profile side compared to her ? But maybe not.. Can either party request someone or just the pros ? Just curious.
Wow….so excited to see Bill Murry act like an a$$ all week.
Less Murray, more Paulina Gretzky please: http://wp.me/p32cTD-28
To everyone who asked about how they do the pairings: It’s a mix of pros and ams putting in requests, and then some of it is random, and of course, there are some politics involved. (i.e. DJ and Gretzky requested each other. They’ve played a lot together in the past.)
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