WHAT’S FINER? : A Clambake in Carolina . . . : . . . Or at Pebble Beach? New Vistas for Crosby

It seemed strange. Here was a mighty conglomerate, defenseless against the relics and the almost mythic presence of the late Bing Crosby.

But the future of a golf tournament was at stake. Not just any tournament. This was a slice of Americana about to disappear. If a little sentimentality could help, so be it.

So Crosby’s widow, Kathryn, came armed with a scrapbook and a collection of letters and photographs Thursday when she discussed the future of the Crosby Pro-Am, better known as the Clambake for most of its history.

‘I have my orders from Bing,” she said. “I know what I have to do. He left me instructions about the tournament.”

Mrs. Crosby had denounced efforts to make the event “another corporate sideshow” when she severed the family’s ties to the tournament earlier this spring. She had rejected an offer from American Telephone & Telegraph to co-sponsor the tournament and share the name for $750,000.

Now the tournament has been reconstituted and, in its new guise, will take a transcontinental journey of 3,000 miles, from the rocky, fog-shrouded shores of the Pacific, to something called Bermuda Run, a little-known course near Winston-Salem in the heart of North Carolina. From the cold, mists and wind--known as Crosby weather--that prevailed on the Monterrey Peninsula in February, to the heat and humidity of a Carolina summer.

The tournament will be played the first week of June, right after the Charlotte 600, one of NASCAR’s big stock car racing events and a potential rival for attention in North Carolina. It will also be opposite the PGA-sponsored Westchester tournament, and there probably will not be any touring pros in the field.

Kathryn Crosby said pro golfers would be welcome, but she acknowledged that they would have to obtain permission from the PGA in order to play in the Crosby.

There may not be any big-name golfers, but there will be is a roster of Crosby friends, such as Tennessee Ernie Ford, Dinah Shore, Jack Lemmon, Jim Garner and Hal Linden, along with a lineup of well-heeled executives.

“Of course, I’ll feel sad next February,” said Mrs. Crosby, who remained tightly controlled as she fought to be heard over the click of camera shutters in a press conference at a downtown hotel.

“I got so used to smiling in the rain. . . . But I see this as a step forward, a step that must be taken. Bing probably would have taken this step sooner.”

She is not without fear.

“Every time you take a new step, you panic because it’s something new,” she admitted. “There was a period (after the demise of the old Clambake) when I cried a lot.”

Asked why it had had to come to this, she said: “I wish I could explain. Every move was like a forced move in a chess game. I never talked to AT&T;, and I only talked once to (PGA Commissioner) Deane Beman. I found out they had a handshake deal before (the Crosby board of directors) was approached. I don’t understand any more than that.”

She said she doesn’t view this as a sporting tragedy.

“I think the Crosby is growing and evolving,” she said, proving she can still smile in the rain, after a fashion.

She showed reporters a scrapbook full of yellowed clippings in which the roots of this golfing tradition are preserved. She also displayed a color photo of Crosby taken on the golf course in Spain where he played on the day of his death in 1977.

A glimpse of the scrapbook, which belonged to her husband, suggests how dramatically the late singer’s favorite sport has evolved.

There were no six-figure purses and no convoluted tournament names giving top billing to some corporation when the first Bing Crosby Pro Am was played at Rancho Santa Fe, 30 miles north of here, in 1937, with first prize of $500 going to the winner, Sam Snead.

“Bing just wanted a way to play golf with his friends,” Mrs. Crosby said. “Now the pros want a purse of $1 million per week. That’s splendid, I suppose, but today’s golfers are businessmen as well as athletes.”

When the Clambake was begun, the players were more independent--gypsies, in Bing’s view, she said.

“It’s like Robin Hood in reverse,” she said. “There’s a lot of marketing and show biz in golf now.”

She admitted she felt torn, because son Nathaniel is a pro golfer. She said Nathaniel doesn’t yet know the new format, which was entirely her inspiration. Nathaniel was in Europe and was unavailable for comment.

“It’s hard to change what you know,” she said when asked whether Nathaniel might favor the new format. “A lot of us have a hard time learning that a disappointment is really an opportunity.”

When asked about her differences with the PGA and potential sponsors, Mrs. Crosby got emotional.

“I’m a woman, I can’t fight,” she said. “I don’t think I have been at war with the PGA.

“Bing felt if the pool of money for charity was less than 50% of the gross, the tournament shouldn’t be continued,” Mrs. Crosby said.

She reported that the 1985 tournament grossed $1.8 million, about $450,000 of which went to charity. She said $600,000 went to the golfers and the remainder to the PGA.

Under the new format, the Crosby field will consist of 200 golfers playing as two-man teams in two divisions.

In the USA division, teams will compete for a purse of $1 million, to be distributed to charities within the winning states.

In the Builders of America division, teams from 50 leading corporations will compete for another $1 million, which the winners will distribute to charities of their choice.

In each division, the first prize will be $500,000, “a nice chunk to give away,” she said.

The celebrities will arrive by limo or helicopter at the gate-guarded 1,000-acre course. “It will be very chic,” she said.

President Reagan declined to participate--the only day he plays golf is Jan. 1 with Walter Annenberg in Palm Springs--but Mrs. Crosby said he has agreed to throw out the first ball. That would be a new sporting ritual, but she didn’t elaborate.

“People regretted that the coziness was gone from Pebble Beach,” she said, directing her attention to the future again. “This will be a better show for TV and the gallery. There will be room to park a station wagon and spread a blanket for the kids.”

The new course will accommodate more fans and will offer security advantages over Pebble Beach, she said.

“Bing always worried about security, particularly when President Ford was a participant,” she said.

Meanwhile, some familiar old problems--wind and fog--will still be there to confront the golfers when the PGA returns to Pebble Beach next winter. There will be a tournament played on the Monterey Peninsula in February. It just won’t be the Crosby Clambake.