"Crashing" the AT&T Pro Am
This week sees the annual AT&T Pro Am golf tournament occurring out at Pebble Beach. I don't fully understand quite how it works, but they have a bunch of celebrities and other amateurs playing with the pros, but yet it's still a PGA championship event and part of the PGA tour - quite how they separate it all out, I don't know.
What I do know is that the weather this morning was wet first thing, so I stayed in bed and read a book (yes, you read that right - a book!). By about 10am, the roads were fairly dry, so I decided I'd go for a bicycle ride as the weather forecast was hinting that it was now or never for this weekend and dry weather.
As the hills are too wet for mountain biking, I rode along the coast. 17 Mile Drive was closed to tourist traffic, but they let bikes in with no problem. I thought I'd cycle to Pebble Beach and see if you could see anything without a ticket.
You couldn't, lots of rent-a-cops guarding all the entrances, but this tournament takes place over three courses at the same time, and one of the three, Spyglass Hill, is near 17 mile drive closer to Monterey, so on my ride back, I ventured up the road towards Spyglass Hill and was able to get close to the action whilst still being on a public (ish - it's the 17 mile drive area after all).
I was able to take the photo below of two guys waiting to tee off - I didn't recognize their names or anything. Further back down the hill I had to wait at a crossing as some other golfers (again, didn't recognize names) and the fans following them crossed the road to get to the next tee.
Interestingly enough, the crowds were quite light - not sure if it was the weather, the economy or the fact that the golfers are spread across three courses, but it looked like it was a good tournament to go spectate at. There were also a fair few signs indicating that in 2010, the US Open will be at Pebble Beach, I imagine that'll be a lot busier.
On the way back, it tried to rain on me a couple of times, and the sky was looking vaguely ominous, so I stopped at Asilomar and snapped this shot.
In the end, the showers died out again and I was able to get a quick motorcycle ride in during the afternoon too, though the roads were damp here and there, so it was a gentle ride.
What I do know is that the weather this morning was wet first thing, so I stayed in bed and read a book (yes, you read that right - a book!). By about 10am, the roads were fairly dry, so I decided I'd go for a bicycle ride as the weather forecast was hinting that it was now or never for this weekend and dry weather.
As the hills are too wet for mountain biking, I rode along the coast. 17 Mile Drive was closed to tourist traffic, but they let bikes in with no problem. I thought I'd cycle to Pebble Beach and see if you could see anything without a ticket.
You couldn't, lots of rent-a-cops guarding all the entrances, but this tournament takes place over three courses at the same time, and one of the three, Spyglass Hill, is near 17 mile drive closer to Monterey, so on my ride back, I ventured up the road towards Spyglass Hill and was able to get close to the action whilst still being on a public (ish - it's the 17 mile drive area after all).
I was able to take the photo below of two guys waiting to tee off - I didn't recognize their names or anything. Further back down the hill I had to wait at a crossing as some other golfers (again, didn't recognize names) and the fans following them crossed the road to get to the next tee.
Interestingly enough, the crowds were quite light - not sure if it was the weather, the economy or the fact that the golfers are spread across three courses, but it looked like it was a good tournament to go spectate at. There were also a fair few signs indicating that in 2010, the US Open will be at Pebble Beach, I imagine that'll be a lot busier.On the way back, it tried to rain on me a couple of times, and the sky was looking vaguely ominous, so I stopped at Asilomar and snapped this shot.
In the end, the showers died out again and I was able to get a quick motorcycle ride in during the afternoon too, though the roads were damp here and there, so it was a gentle ride.
posted by Tim H at 8:11 PM
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