AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am

05 Feb 2004 - 08 Feb 2004
Pebble Beach, California

2003 Pebble Beach National Pro-Am
© MikeWeir.com

It is great to be back in beautiful, sunny California for the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. This should be an exciting week, with Mike coming off a solid performance last week at the FBR Open, and with his history of success at this event. This tournament has a format different then most other tour events. Each professional is paired up with one amateur for all three rounds and play three different courses. Last year Mike T-3 and played with ‘amateur’ Wayne Gretzky, and this year Mike will be playing with George Roberts. Mike played with George for the first time 3 years ago and we all have become good friends since then. Our other playing partner is PGA Tour professional Craig Barlow who is also a good friend. So Mike and I are looking forward to some fun golf this week!

The weather for the past two days has been extremely cold and rainy, and the three golf courses this event is played at are completely underwater. The forecast looks to be clearing over the next couple of days so hopefully the courses will dry up a bit. The three host courses of this tournament are Poppy Hills, SpyGlass Hill, and Pebble Beach Golf Links.

Poppy Hills is the easiest course and probably the least exciting. There are five par fives, four of which are reachable in two. It is an inland course and has lots of mounds in the fairways and undulating greens. It is probably holding the most water of the three courses. Spyglass Hill is a beautiful course and may be the most difficult because it is long and very demanding. There have been no changes to Spyglass this year although it is completely saturated with water.

Pebble Beach, well, the name speaks for itself. The one thing about Pebble is that when there’s no wind it isn’t that hard at all. But, because it is on the ocean the wind usually blows making it one of most difficult courses on tour. It is in the best shape of all three courses we will be playing this week.

There have been several changes to Pebble Beach this year. On the 2nd hole, a fairway bunker has been added on the left side, the length of the par 5 has increased 15 yards, and a tree has been planted near the green. All of these changes will make the hole much more difficult, requiring many players to take three shots to get it to the green. Hole 9 has also been lengthened about 15 yards off the tee, but shouldn’t have much effect on play. The par 5, 14th hole has had several bunkers added, tightening up the drive. This hole was already quite difficult and long so I’m not crazy about the changes!

Conditions will play a very important role this week. I am very excited and encouraged about the way Mike is playing so far this year. His ball striking has been impeccable, and hopefully it will continue for a win this week!

Thanks for reading,

Brennan Little