Kathryn Crosby Changes Mind About Pro-Am

Kathryn Crosby, four days after announcing she was withdrawing the family name from the Bing Crosby National Pro-Am golf tournament, said Thursday she has changed her mind.

“I have been besieged by requests from all over the world to make a final effort to save Bing’s tournament,” she said in a statement released through a family friend.

Her two sons, Nathaniel and Harry, were quoted Thursday by the San Francisco Examiner as saying they wanted to keep the Crosby name associated with the annual PGA Tour event at Pebble Beach.

Kathryn Crosby said Monday that there would be no more Crosby Pro-Am because “the wrong elements have seized control of what was Bing’s tournament, and they are determined to transform the old ‘Clambake’ into just another corporate sideshow for the PGA. Bing would never have permitted such exploitation of his name.”

The Monterey Peninsula Golf Foundation, which runs the tournament, responded that it would make plans to continue the PGA event with a new name.

Mrs. Crosby said that tournament committee people had talked to the American Telephone & Telegraph Co. about possible involvement in the Crosby.

“Major corporations have generously offered far more assistance than AT&T;, with pledges to maintain the integrity of Bing’s name and the event,” Thursday’s statement said.

“Therefore, I have decided to continue the Crosby, accepting support as in past years for the Bing Crosby Youth Foundation, and also as a benefit for the Monterey Peninsula charities, with the sole condition that those who worked to undermine the integrity of the tournament step aside in favor of Bing’s friends who have expressed their desire to continue in the grand old tradition of Bing’s Clambake.”