They’re Like Crosby and Hope : Golf: Mark O’Meara and Pebble Beach have been an almost perfect match. He’s trying for his third consecutive victory in the pro-am event there.

If ever a player had a love affair with a golf course, then Mark O’Meara has one with Pebble Beach.

As an amateur he won the state championship here in 1979. Then in 1985, the last year the Pebble Beach tournament was identified with Bing Crosby, O’Meara won the PGA Tour event.

His winning at Pebble Beach has become a habit, with victories in 1989 and 1990 in what is now called the AT & T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

Whatever the tournament, O’Meara, 34, is comfortable on courses here that have been frustrating for others.

He will be trying to win for a third consecutive time when the tournament starts today on three courses--Poppy Hills, which replaces Cypress Point in the rotation, Spyglass and Pebble Beach.

O’Meara can be the first player to win the same event three years in a row since Tom Watson won the Byron Nelson Classic in 1978-80.

Asked to assess his chances, O’Meara, a former Cal State Long Beach player, said:

“If you were in my shoes and you could pick one course that you would want to have a love affair with, which course would you pick?

“Even though I’ve won here the last two years and 1985, if you would have asked me prior to that I would say that to me it’s the best golf course (Pebble Beach) in the world. It’s a course that was built years ago, and it’s nature at its finest.

“Sometimes it can get very intimidating, and other times it be can be calm and serene. However, even if you’re playing bad you can look at the ocean and rocks and say, ‘Man, this is nice. This is what it’s all about.’ ”

O’Meara said the only bad omen is the fact that he made the cut in the recent Phoenix Open.

“When I missed the cut at Phoenix the past two years, I won here,” he said.

Asked to assess his chances of winning here again, O’Meara said:

“There are 185 other guys who have a very good chance. Golf has changed the last five to seven years. Players have improved at a tremendous rate, and there are more guys who can win a tournament.

“You’re always going to see new faces on the leader board, like Nolan Henke last week at Phoenix.

“I like my chances as well as any of the others, though, and I actually like mine a little bit better because I have had past success here and I can dwell on that. No matter what happens, my name is on that plaque in front of the first tee.”

Half of O’Meara’s six tour victories have been at Pebble Beach in a pro career that began in 1981.

Last year, he won with his father, Bob, a 17-handicapper, as his amateur partner.

“What event can you play in and compete alongside your father?” O’Meara said. “My most exciting win, though, was in 1989 when I made a birdie here on the last hole to beat Tom Kite.”

O’Meara isn’t playing with his father this year.

“He’s out of there. He spent too much time in the press room,” O’Meara said.

For sure, the senior O’Meara reveled in his short term in the spotlight, delighting his son.

“The key for an amateur to play Pebble Beach well is to be either pretty long off the tee or chip and putt well, and my Dad doesn’t fit any of those three categories very well,” O’Meara said.

Even though some players have been critical of Poppy Hills because of its huge greens, severe doglegs and blind tee shots, O’Meara said has no quarrel with the course.

“You have to have pinpoint accuracy off the tee, and it’s a position-type course. You have to be accurate with your irons and yardage on your second shots because the greens are rather large,” O’Meara said, adding that he didn’t have the feel for the course in a practice round because he hadn’t played it previously.

“But I thought it was fun. It didn’t bother me.”

O’Meara recognizes that Cypress Point was part of the tradition of the Pebble Beach tournament, but he said he wouldn’t miss playing there.

He was specifically referring to the par-three 16th hole with a 231-yard carry over the ocean.

“It has always been a nemesis: a big target (the green), a big ocean and rocks around it,” O’Meara said, adding that it was always a decision whether to go for the green or lay up and play it safe, get a four and get out of there.

In any event, Poppy Hills probably will replace Cypress Point in another sense when the pros come in with their horror stories.

Golf Notes

Arnold Palmer, 61, is playing in the Pebble Beach tournament for the first time since 1980. He said he was frustrated here earlier. “I still wanted to win, and I wasn’t playing well enough to win,” he said. He added that there is not as much pressure on him now to win. However, he is not satisfied with his game. “I’ll either play better or I’ll quit,” he said. Even though Palmer has never won here, he has enjoyed the experience, even citing snowball fights in front of the The Lodge when the weather turned nasty one year.

Actor Jack Lemmon, who has missed the cut 28 times, will be trying again to make it with his pro partner, Peter Jacobsen. . . . Mark O’Meara has recovered from a painful ear ailment caused by pressurization that he suffered while on a flight to Sydney, Australia, earlier in the month. “I never experienced that much pain. I thought I was going to pass out. I lost my hearing on the right side. But my hearing is fine now,” he said. . . . The weather has been near perfect with clear skies and the temperature in the mid-60s. . . . Rocco Mediate, a late replacement for Hale Irwin, won the Merrill Lynch Shootout Tuesday. He beat Larry Mize in a chip-off to earn $4,000. . . . . . . The players rotate courses for the first three days and return to Pebble Beach for the final round on Sunday.