Same Old Pebble, Weather or Not

The putting green in front of the Lodge was flooded, the bunkers were starting to fill with water, it was cold and gray and the rain was pelting the rest of Pebble Beach Golf Links on Tuesday as if it had something to say.

Maybe it did. Welcome to the AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, known in years past as the Crosby, and the original home of lousy golf weather. In fact, this tournament originated the term for bad weather -- Crosby weather.

In 1996, they canceled the tournament because it didn’t stop raining long enough to get more than two rounds in, thus becoming the first event to be incomplete since the 1949 Colonial. Two years later, the tournament started Jan. 29 and ended Aug. 17 when the last round had to be postponed because of rain. The year after that, the tournament was shortened to 54 holes.

Its reputation as a poor-weather event, combined with amateurs, slow play and bumpy greens caused by too much water and too many players putting heel-prints on them has had the effect of trimming the field, especially for this week’s $5.3-million event, which begins Thursday.

Tiger Woods is sitting this one out for the second consecutive year, but he isn’t the only one. Only three players ranked in the top 10 are here -- No. 2 Vijay Singh, No. 4 and defending champion Davis Love III and No. 6 Mike Weir. Phil Mickelson, 11th-ranked, is the only other player in the top 20 who is here this week.

The weather forecast is on the bright side for the rest of the week. But even if it turns out to be wrong and everyone gets another dose of Crosby weather, maybe that simply doesn’t matter.

Bumpy greens? Peter Jacobsen said he has a solid mental approach to putting this week, no matter their condition.

“Step one, you hit it,” he said. “Step two, you either pick it out of the hole or you repeat step one.”

Jacobsen won this tournament in 1995 and he turns 50 next month, which makes him eligible for the Champions Tour. But Jacobsen also won the Greater Hartford Open in July and is exempt on the PGA Tour through 2005, so he said it makes sense to split time on both tours.

What doesn’t make sense to Jacobsen is any player who underestimates the Pebble Beach tournament and its long and colorful history.

“Bing Crosby and Jack Lemmon and Phil Harris and all these people that have come before us, that’s what defines this tournament, not bumpy greens and canceled practice rounds. That’s all part of it,” he said.

“If you’re so mentally weak that you let what goes on between your shots bother you, you know, go buy a 7-Eleven and sell Slurpees.

“Strap your rain gear on and go.”

Despite its reputation, the Pebble Beach tournament hasn’t had any weather problems, rain delays or cancellations in the last four years. It was dry and pleasant all four days last year with temperatures in the 60s as Love won for the first time in two years -- a span of 44 tournaments.

Love went on to win three more times and enjoy the best year of his career. He said he learned how to get along with Pebble Beach a long time ago.

“This tournament is about friendships and having fun and having a good attitude,” he said. “If a player worries because it’s going to be wet, it’s going to be hard, it’s going to be windy and cold, you’ve got to play with amateurs [and] it’s going to take six hours, you’ve already lost.”

There might be a couple of other items to cause concern this year. The par-five second hole has a different look, including a tree before the barranca on the left side of the fairway that comes into play on the second shot. It also has a new fairway bunker on the left side. At the 18th, a fairway bunker has been added on the right side to take away some bail-out area.

Other than that, it should be business as usual this week, whatever that means around here.