Mickelson, Writers Are on Same Page

The AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am is an event that tends to live in the image and likeness of comedian and amateur golfer Bill Murray -- loose collars and lots of laughs. Tuesday night, things got off to the kind of roaring start that would have made Murray proud, with the annual California Golf Writers roast, er ... dinner.

Among the honorees was Phil Mickelson, riding high from his Masters title last year and his Scottsdale, Ariz., tour event win last week. The writers put Mickelson in their hall of fame, and Mickelson returned the honor in the spirit of the evening.

“I have come to understand and appreciate writers much more recently, since I started working on a book last fall,” Mickelson said. “Before that, I thought golf writers got up every morning, played a round of golf, had lunch, showed up for our last three holes and then went to dinner.”

Other awards went to Vijay Singh, the defending champion here and the No. 1-ranked player in the world. He was an easy choice for the writers as player of the year.

Also an easy choice, for Champions Tour player of the year, was Craig Stadler, the USC grad who won five times in 2004, including three in a row.

Stadler, who still plays occasionally on the regular tour and is paired with his son, Kevin, for the first three rounds, said he has had many great moments here, but none better than last year when he was playing with his son in a foursome that included musician Glenn Frey of the Eagles.

“We just finished a hole and were walking toward the next one when I noticed this elderly couple sitting there, covered with a blanket,” Stadler said. “The elderly man was looking at the program and in a loud voice, asking his wife, ‘Which are the celebrities in this group?’ She looked at the program again and then got all excited. ‘It’s the Statler Brothers.’ ”

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Roger Maltbie, the network golf broadcaster who also had a moment or two on the pro tour years ago, was presented with a six-foot metal stake. As the story went, certainly colored by years of fictional elaboration, Maltbie once won Jack Nicklaus’ Memorial tournament in Dublin, Ohio, when an errant shot he hit bounced off the metal marker stake and caromed onto the green for a make-able putt. Beaten by Maltbie’s fluky finish was Hale Irwin, the favorite and a friend of Nicklaus.

A few years later, Nicklaus won his own event, and as Maltbie told the story, was at a celebration party when Maltbie wandered past.

“I looked at him,” Maltbie said, “and said, ‘You know, I never thought this tournament would have a fluke winner.’ ”

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Thomas Bonk, golf writer for The Times the last 11 years, was presented the Hayward-Newland Award as California Golf Writer of the Year, and tennis legend Jack Kramer, longtime owner of Los Serranos Golf Club in Chino, received the group’s Golden State Award for meritorious service.

Kramer praised the game of golf and stunned the audience by saying that he had been involved in, and loved, both sports for a long time, but that he had recently come to the conclusion that “golf is the best game.”

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Comedian George Lopez, whose home is on the Pebble Beach course and whose newfound passion is golf, received the group’s Caddyshack Award and told the audience that he was “created from a portion of Lee Trevino’s thigh bone” and that golf is a great game because, “Where else do you get to beat something white with a stick?”

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Players and celebrities scattered to area courses for a final day of practice Wednesday before the tournament begins today, to be played on Spyglass Hill, Poppy Hills and Pebble Beach. But they played one event, a five-hole celebrity shootout for area charities that was won when Murray hit a lob wedge to within 18 inches of the hole in a chip-off. Murray and movie star/teammate Chris O’Donnell won $25,000 to be split among their charities.

Murray, wearing a black tam and red suspenders, watched his chip land and walked directly off the green and toward the clubhouse, never looking back.