End of Family’s Golfing Association Came as Surprise to Nathaniel Crobsy

Nathaniel Crosby, who for eight years hosted the popular golf tournament at Pebble Beach that bore his father’s name, said Tuesday that was disappointed no compromise was reached so the family could continue sponsoring the 44-year-old Clambake.

“This came as a surprise to me in the middle of the night,” Crosby said of his mother Kathryn’s announcement on Monday that the family was withdrawing its name because of efforts to link corporate sponsors with the tournament.

Reached in Madrid, where he was attending a tournament, young Crosby said he “would have tried to compromise with them (the PGA Tour). I did not discuss this with my mother before.”

“Naturally, I’m disappointed,” Crosby, 23, said of the end of the Crosby link with the competition that his father began in 1937 for his Hollywood friends.

“I just think that it’s really a shame that it had to come to this. The purses are becoming so high for each tournament that it is impossible for the tournament to remain the way it was in the past. The prize money can hardly be covered with the gate alone,” he said.

The Monterey Peninsula Golf Foundation, governing body of the event, issued a statement Tuesday that the tournament “will continue its operations as in past years.”

Without providing details, PGA Commissioner Deane Beman said the tournament will be held under a new name and new sponsorship.