Maginnes: We saw Pebble Beach at its peak last week

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It is a losing battle against a timeless opponent. A glorious stalemate is what passes for victory. But a stalemate is impossible when one side is relentless and the other is doomed to succumb.

Waves crash around the small green at the par-3 seventh hole. (Getty Images)

Those are the thoughts that assault you as you stand witness behind the 18th green at Pebble. On normal days, the view is spectacular. But on days like Saturday when the Pacific Ocean hints at its might and pounds with fury, there is no more beautiful place in the world.

High tide came late in the morning. The glorious improvisation and rhythmical assault of the water on rocks and shore upstaged even the most prominent Hollywood luminaries. Pebble Beach was designed for days like today. In all her glorious splendor she stands majestically and absorbs every blow.

It is impossible not to be a little introspective as you watch in awe those spires of water that climb dozens of feet into the air following the meeting of sea and land. People speak in hushed tones, or not at all. You want to capture the moment but they ebb with the tide. Pictures can halt an instant but the lens can only please one of the senses.

The constant rumble and groan of the collision fills the air dotted by the staccato of cascading water on rocks. The growl washes through you like the bass at a live concert. While never silent, there are days like Saturday when volume is turned up. Waves born of far off storms bear silent waves that voice their pent-up frustration in sheets of sound that wash over and through you while you take it all in.

There is no other stage in golf quite like it. The confluence of greens and blues constantly in motion means something different to all those who take in her beauty. It is impossible to visit and walk Pebble Beach and be unaffected.

While every day there is special, never in recent history has the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am enjoyed a week of weather like it was blessed with last week. Taking a minute after finishing his round Saturday at the Allianz Championship, Bruce Lietzke joked that he couldn't remember three days of sunny weather at Pebble Beach in his career -- much less three days in a row.

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Late night talk show host and avid golfer Carson Daly described his experience at Pebble Beach on Saturday as akin to being in church. And for the professionals, this week is hardly just another tournament.

Would Peter Jacobson and Craig Stadler come play with the kids opposite a Champions Tour event any other week? Maybe Masters week for Stads, but that is about it. Jim Nantz from CBS said that the Masters is his favorite tournament, but that the week of Pebble Beach was his favorite week of the year.

If you have never seen Pebble Beach for yourself and drunk in the atmosphere, then I implore you to come. My words here fall frustratingly short of describing the beauty. Pebble Beach is the only golf course that I would visit without clubs just to walk her fairways and take in her all her majesty.

If I had one last round to play it would be here. Every time you play Pebble Beach it is like playing it for the first time. Perhaps it is the fact that the tides are ever changing and the fragrant breeze is hardly constant that give Pebble Beach so many faces. When the sun is out and the sky is clear, Pebble Beach is golf's own version of paradise.

The romantic poet William Wordsworth once wrote, "The ocean is a mighty harmonist." There is perhaps no greater example of land and sea touched by the hand of man flowing harmoniously than Pebble Beach.

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