Pebble Beach Is a Washout

That golf tournament played at Pebble Beach, the one sponsored by AT&T;? The weather hung up on it Sunday.

For the first time since 1949, bad weather forced cancellation of a PGA Tour event, soon after it became clear that the only way to play Spyglass Hill was with snorkel and fins.

“There was just too much water,” tournament director Lou Russo said. “It’s just too wet.”

In the judgment of PGA Tour officials, there would not be enough improvement to play the AT&T; today and they disconnected it.

So the 36-hole 1996 Pebble Beach National Pro Am was sent to a watery grave. Not since the 1949 Colonial in Dallas has a PGA Tour event been entirely scrubbed, which at least makes the AT&T; important in a historic sense.

It’s the first event in 47 years that won’t go into the record books. It’s not an official tournament, so there’s no winner, no trophy, no winner’s check, no official money, no Pro-Am results, no nothing, basically.

“It’s as if we weren’t here, except we all were here,” the PGA Tour’s Wes Seeley said.

The Monterey Peninsula Golf Foundation was required to pay half the $1.5-million purse to the field of 180 professionals, but increased that slightly to $900,000 and paid each one $5,000.

Jeff Maggert, who led the event by one shot at eight-under par 136, received the same money as Jerry Foltz, who was tied for last at five-over 149.

Maggert said he didn’t care about the money, only about the opportunity he missed.

“Obviously I’m disappointed,” Maggert said. “There are about 20 or 30 guys who could have won the tournament and I’m speaking for them too.

“But the Tour probably made a logical decision.”

Basically, the problem was on one hole on one course--the 16th fairway at Spyglass, one of three courses used in the tournament rotation, along with Pebble Beach and Poppy Hills.

There was so much casual water on the fairway that players could not move their balls and improve their position. PGA and tournament officials tried to have a drop position ready, but the area wouldn’t remain drained.

“There was one other place,” Russo said. “You would have to go 40 yards into the rough in the trees to drop your ball.”

David Eger, the Tour’s vice president of competition, said dropping balls in the rough behind pine trees was not the way to go.

“That’s not golf,” he said.

Steve Elkington, five shots off the lead, said Spyglass was unplayable.

“It’s out of business over there,” he said. “You can’t play by the rules. It’s not a big decision to me.”

Eger said there are plans to improve the drainage at Spyglass, where runoff from inclines crosses several fairways.

The 1966 and 1991 Houston tournaments began in April and were completed in October after bad weather forced their postponement. But Pebble Beach, which has a long and colorful history of bad weather, never had been scrubbed--until Sunday.