Under The Knife: Pebble's Beach 14th Green

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John Strege reports that the long-anticipated but much-delayed restoration of Pebble Beach's 14th green is underway.

The scene of some memorable boondoggles in recent years, Chandler Egan's marvelous two-tiered green had become too severe with modern green speeds, rendering the front portion unusable for nearly two decades.

That will be changing with a move to 4,000 square feet of surface instead of the current, gulp, 3,200. Maintaining the original concept of the green seems to be the priority, reports Strege after talking to R.J. Harper.

"Through a collection of all the photos, we landed on something we think is the right way. We’re increasing it to the original size and we’re going to keep the general shape to the green. The big cavernous bunker remains, but we’re lowering the top lip that if your ball came down there it would shoot it to the back of the green. We're leveling off the upper part of the green, increasing square footing by going back, and recreateing the pin location back right that no longer had been available to us."

 John Maginnes Tweeted this photo of the construction:

Nice: Chandler Egan's 1904 Olympic Medals Found, On Display

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Nice work by Dave Shedloski to tell the story of Chandler Egan's medals having been found by his family and handed over to the USGA for display in Far Hills and the U.S. Open, before moving on to the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Longtime readers know about Egan, the actual architect of Pebble Beach as we know it who, for mysterious reasons, is ignored by historians who apparently aren't as enchanted with his story as they are with the Neville/Grant/amateurs-make-good story. But Egan's life in golf was pretty impressive: Harvard man, Olympic medalist, U.S. Amateur champion, NCAA individual champion (and three time team winner), golf architect, beloved friend of Bobby Jones, etc.

Shedloski writes at GolfDigest.com:

Until a year ago historians believed that none of the individual medals from the golf competition in the 1904 Olympics at Glen Echo Country Club in St. Louis still existed. That changed when the silver medal of H. Chandler Egan, former U.S. Amateur champion, was discovered (along with his team gold medal) in the bottom of a bookcase in the former home of Egan’s daughter in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, about 25 miles southeast of Cleveland.

Buddies Tournament! Celebs Dragging Name Pros To Pebble?

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It's still a tad early to declare the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am field the best ever (the tournament director is), but the improvement is already noticeable.

The reason for more stars is interesting: celebs drawing in their buddy golf pros. Ron Kroichick reports:

Celebrity impact: Watson will play for the first time since 2007 because one of his good friends, actor/producer Mark Wahlberg, is playing. That prompted Watson to request a pairing with Wahlberg. Done.

Similarly, soon after American League MVP Josh Donaldson signed up, fellow Alabaman Jason Dufner, the 2013 PGA Championship winner, hopped aboard. Steve Stricker, a 12-time tour winner, will make his first appearance in 10 years — because he wants to play with country singer Toby Keith, a friend.

“It’s kind of turned into a buddy tournament,” John said.

$27 Million Gets Views Of Pebble's 10th, White Sand Beach

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Ok, before you balk at the $27 million someone paid for the 4-bedroom house behind No. 10 green at Pebble Beach Golf Links, check out the slideshow from Architectural Digest (thanks reader Tim).

Besides looking at one of my favorite holes in golf and the white sand beach (hope you like dog walkers!), there is that little bar and the view looking out at holes 7 through 10...

 

Some Pebble Beach 17th Photos Under Construction

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Thanks to reader Jay for these photos of the revamped 17th at Pebble Beach under construction/grow in. The green has been sodded, in case you were wondering.

The reclaimed square footage and basic bunker shapes look excellent. The final details remain TBD.

Thanks Jay:

Plenty of drainage in the approach!

Video: Part 2 Of Pebble vs. Riviera

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Through 9-holes the match is all even after Pebble Beach's ocean stretch of holes 7-9 walzed over Riv's architecturally disrepaired stretch, setting up the toughest call of the day: Riviera's 10th vs Pebble's 10th. Both American classics...who will start the back off with a win?

UnShackeled part 2:

Video: (1) Pebble Beach Vs. (2) Riviera

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The Brothers Morrissett introduced me to the joys of using match play to settle the most vital debate of all: "which course is better." By no means a perfect argument-settler, match playing holes somehow ends up working itself out over 18 holes.

In another installment of the UnShackeled series, I match up the two best designs on the PGA Tour and two of my favorite courses on the planet (even if both have seen betters days architecturally, something that factors into this match).

So here goes, the first nine of top seed Pebble Beach taking on Riviera. The back nine and match victor will be resolved tomorrow.

Noteworthy Pebble Beach Tree Goes Down In Winter Storm

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John Strege with the lowdown on the small cypress tree that went down at Pebble Beach's iconic finishing hole.

The tree was one of two planted down the fairway in 2004 when two trees on 18 were diseased and also out of play due to the elite, Olympic-caliber athletes now playing the game, unlike in the past.

One of the two cypress trees in the landing area of the 18th fairway at Pebble Beach Golf Links was toppled Thursday by strong winds that were a part of what the National Weather Service predicted would be one of Northern California’s strongest storms in years.

The photo below, a screenshot taken during the storm from Pebble Beach’s Live Cam looking down the 18th fairway, shows the downed tree in the upper left-hand corner.

In a later post Strege reports that winter conditions will preclude a replacement tree prior to the AT&T National Pro-Am and also features a close up photo of the downed tree.