Go West, Young Man

I'm under the gun, so let's talk AT&T/Pebble, and I'll try to give you my undivided attention tomorrow.

Shack's always been a fan of the West Coast Swing, duh!, since it's the best architecture the Tour touches all year.  See if you think it lives up to the header:

Pebble Pro-Am, West Coast Swing Have Their Swagger Back?

Shall we give him time to make his case?  Of course we will:

Amazing what a little tinkering with formats and emphasizing course design can do!

Not long ago the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Amwas known for six hour rounds, has-been pros in the field and never-was "celebrities" getting too much air time. With the world's top-3 playing this year and plenty of celebrity intrigue to offset the corporate crowd--Golfweek posted the full field list here--Der Bingle's baby is back.

 Formats?  Anyone know of what he speaks?

Ron Kroichek agrees, using the concept of mojo in his account:

Several years ago, while covering the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, I made a customary scan of the leaderboard – seeking a marquee name, an inspiring comeback tale, a compelling story of any kind – that produced absolutely nothing. Zero. Zilch. 

That moment, frozen in my memory, was emblematic of an embarrassingly lean stretch for the once-prestigious tournament. PGA Tour journeymen such as Steve Lowery (2008) and D.A. Points (2011) won the AT&T, reinforcing how it had become an afterthought to most top Tour pros. 

Not anymore. 

This week’s field includes the top three players in the world ranking: Dustin Johnson, Jon Rahm and Jordan Spieth. Former world No. 1s Rory McIlroy and Jason Day also will tee it up in the Pro-Am, which begins Thursday on California’s Monterey Peninsula.

I know....Just because they're in the field, it doesn't mean they'll be on the leaderboard.   Randall Mell is over the moon as well:

Maybe it’s fitting Doral doesn’t host a PGA Tour event anymore. The old adage that the year in golf doesn’t begin until Doral wouldn’t hold up any longer. Today’s stars aren’t using the West Coast swing to get warm in a run up to the Masters. They hit the year hot with Johnson, Rahm and Jason Day among the big names getting on the board with victories in January. 

The intensity only builds this week with Spieth looking to rebound from a missed cut in Phoenix last week. He is defending the title he won last year. It also builds with McIlroy making his first PGA Tour start of the year after coming off second- and third-place finishes on the European Tour last month.

True, but....  Back to Geoff for a sec:

Over at CBSSports.com, Kyle Porter notes the seemingly improved week-to-week qualityof the tour. While I'll remind him of this column in mid to late May, the point should be made that the fall wraparound schedule has not harmed the West Coast Swing as folks like me feared. Perhaps it's the mediocre quality of those events and lack of eyeballs trained on them, but the West Coast still feels like the tour's bread-and-butter season for big venues, big fields and lots of eyeballs. As it and the Florida season should be given a quick study of history. 

Also not to be discounted: the subtle but important inclusion of stars who don't play 25 events the previous year now being forced to play events haven't been to in at least four years. That subtle PGA Tour rule could, for instance, explain Rory McIlroy's appearance this week. Or, at the very least, helped get him to Pebble Beach when making out a schedule in search of adding an event due to the rule.

I'm one of those guys that was concerned about this portion of the schedule, so I'm glad to see the strong fields.  As relates to this event, the organizers have been really smart in improving the playing experience, including:

1.  Deep-sixing the dreadful Poppy Hills;
2.  Attracting a better class of amateurs, and;
3. Allowing the players to play with whom they choose.

I'm surprised to see Rory make it to the West Coast, but he's playing with his Dad (as he does in the Dunhill Cup).  Monterrey Peninsula with your Dad?  A no-brainer for sure...

But in the interest of fair play, we'll allow Tron Carter at No Laying Up to remind us of what still needs fixing:

– Pebble is a mere shell of what it could/should be, and with a 2-3 night stay required just to play ($800+ per night plus $495 green free + cart fee), that’s not changing anytime soon. I have no issue with the cost (it’s a market economy and they’re full everyday, so more power to them). I’m not going to sit here and shit all over the place, but let’s acknowledge that with a proper restoration the place would be absolute fire.

I quite agree, but more on this in a bit.

– Spyglass, just in general, falls in the “worst” category. Andy included Rob Collins’ summation of Spyglass in his Fried Egg newsletter today but I’m going to throw it in here too because it never gets old:

I can’t stand Spyglass Hill. It’s the worst golf course on a great piece of land that I’ve ever seen. It’s a target golf slog filled with forgettable holes. The best stretch of golf occurs early & the routing fizzles from the middle of the front nine until your walk up the unremarkable eighteenth. The bad routing & repetitious nature of the holes makes one wonder if there were extenuating circumstances out of the architect’s control that held the course back from achieving the remarkable potential of the land. Every time I hear somebody remark that it is a better course than Pebble Beach, my mind goes blank and I become physically incapable of hearing anything else that they have to say.

I've only played Spyglass one time, and I enjoyed it well enough.  It's true that the ocean holes come early in the proceedings, but I suspect it would have been difficult to route it in any other way.

But this guy also had issues with Spyglass:

Pebble Beach and Cypress Point make you want to play. Spyglass Hill - that's different; that makes you want to go fishing. JACK NICKLAUS

Or maybe he just felt like fishing....

And let's not forget the maost painful day in golf broadcasting:

– Saturday coverage is akin to watching a car collision in slow motion (sponsored by KonicaMinolta). Coverage will undoubtedly be delayed both Saturday and Sunday by a long-running college basketball game, we’ll be told that it’s airing online (not helpful if you’re at a bar or you’d like to watch on an actual TV), and the leaders will be playing one of the best stretches of holes in the world (7-8-9) during the gap in coverage. At some point this week you may wonder why a certain amateur is being shown, or interviewed. According to #sources the production team actually goes down a list of people they have to get onto the telecast (friends of CBS execs, favors, etc.) CBS: Crony Broadcasting System!

It seems that not everybody loves Raymond....

Mr. Shipnuck got a topical question in his Twitter Feed:

#AskAlan if you were forced by the USGA to redesign one hole at Pebble in time for the Open next year, which one would it be and what would you do to it? -@AndresSotoMarin

To which the only appropriate response is, only one?

The truth about Pebble is that amid its many splendors are far too many inconsequential holes.  Alan adheres to the premise of the question with his answer:

The Mike Davis bunkers on the 6th fairway have been a disaster, turning the pros

cautious on a hole that should force more risk. But shrinking and relocating them is more of a tweak. To make a more substantive change, I would work on the first hole. It's such an awkward drive, and it's not much fun to watch guys tee off with 4-irons. I would push the tees way up, reshape the green and bunkers and do a little tree removal to turn it into a driveable par-4. That would add so much adrenaline to the start of the round, and could be the beginning of an epic charge, a la Arnie at Cherry Hills.

In fact, the first four holes are utterly forgettable....Used to be five, but the new Par-3 at least is on the water....

They've redone the two greens that were unplayable in 2010, the 14th and 17th, though that's not an issue for resort play.  The 16th green is deserving of a clown face, especially when running at U.S. Open speeds.

And while the 9th and 10th holes are each quire spectacular, I've always been amused that they're basically the same golf hole.