Experience, patience and length a key at Pebble Beach  PGATOUR.com Correspondent PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. -- Umbrella, rain suit, extra gloves. Those were the first three items on Davis Love III's packing list for this week's AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. They're the easy ones to prepare. Experience, patience, length.  (Greenwood/WireImage)
Those items are a bit harder to acquire. But after two decades of competing on the Monterey Peninsula, Love isn't about to let a little foul weather ruin his week. "We've played lift, clean and place in the woods," Love joked beside the 18th green at Pebble Beach Golf Links after capping his preparation for the event he won in 2001 and 2003. "It's unfortunate but we're used to it. I saw the assistant [course] superintendent at dinner last night and he said, 'Every time you guys come here you bring the rain.' We'll deal with it." Wednesday's forecast bore an 80-percent chance of precipitation, yet the day wound up delivering only the occasional pocket of drizzle. Sooner or later, though, Mother Nature is bound to deliver big time on a 60-percent chance of rain every day through the weekend. Considering the postcard weather of recent years the clouds were bound to gather on the PGA TOUR's northernmost stop of its West Coast swing. All that means is that players who have only a few years under their belts will face an entirely new set of challenges when play begins Thursday at Pebble Beach, Poppy Hills and Spyglass Hill. "When the weather's bad it takes a little getting used to," explained Love, who has half a dozen top-10 finishes here in his career -- four since 1999. "If it's nice, the way it has been the last few years, then anybody probably can win. But experience, patience and length pay off when you get a tournament with bad conditions." Love missed five of his first seven cuts from his debut in 1986, the same year AT&T became the tournament's sponsor nearly a decade after the death of patriarch Bing Crosby. It wasn't until 1991 that Love shot in the 60s at any of the courses, tying for fourth behind Paul Azinger. "Patience is important here -- I learned that early in my career from Mark O'Meara," Love said. "Being patient and having a lot of experience can serve you very well here. Hopefully, I can take advantage of the experience." He feels comfortable with his game, but then the season's young. He's played only three times, tying for fourth in the winners-only Mercedes-Benz Championship in Hawaii and finishing mid-pack in the Sony Open in Hawaii and last week's FBR Open in Phoenix. "Beginning of the year it's hard to get a handle on it," Love said. "But I'm hitting the ball solidly and long. I made a lot of nice putts on Sunday and started getting confidence in the putter. I feel like I'm in good shape." That Sunday round, by the way, was a 65 that included his first eagle of the season. He'll need at least one or two of those this week to contend in a field that features five of the top-10 players in the Official World Golf Ranking. Among them is No. 9 Padraig Harrington of Ireland, who won the pro-am format Alfred Dunhill Links Championship last year, an event with British Open site Carnoustie in its rotation. This marks Harrington's first start at Pebble Beach and his first TOUR appearance this season. Also among the top-10 attendees are second-ranked Jim Furyk (three top 10s at Pebble Beach, the most recent in 2003), sixth-ranked Phil Mickelson (the 1998 and 2005 champion), seventh-ranked Vijay Singh (the 2004 victor and twice a runner-up) and eighth-ranked Luke Donald (top 20 the last three years and making his fifth career start). But the week unquestionably belongs -- at least until Saturday's cut -- to the celebrities among the 180 amateurs. That list includes New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady; actors Kevin Costner, Andy Garcia, Kevin James, Bill Murray and Ray Romano; entertainers Michael Bolton, George Lopez and Clay Walker; and musicians Glenn Frey, Kenny G, Huey Lewis and Darius Rucker. The grail for the amateurs is a Sunday starting time and the chance to win the Pro-Am title first presented by Crosby in 1937. To get that crown an amateur will need solid support from his professional. And considering this year's weather forecast, the more experienced the better. |
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