Stankowski, Sutherland shine at Pebble

This falls into the Definitely Not a News Flash Dept., but the Monterey Peninsula is the best place on earth, especially last week for the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am when skies were sunny and the temperature was in the 60s every day. We didn't have the usual soggy February weather, which was a nice break, and, in fact, the courses played as fast as they did for the '92 and '00 U.S. Opens at Pebble Beach. One cool thing about staying in downtown Monterey: Even in my hotel room I could hear the sound of sea lions barking on the waterfront. At least, I hope they were sea lions ...

MAILBAG We do think golf course design takes at least a little skill. As designers of the Snoopy bunker at Highland Park Golf Course, we would suggest that some thought went into the design. For example, the tee is elevated 30 feet above the fairway where the Snoopy bunker is located. The bunker is positioned effectively to mark the best landing area, just to the right of Snoopy's nose. Charles Schulz had a lifetime affection for golf and was honored at the 1997 NEC World Series of Golf for his contributions to the game. He won the caddie championship at Highland Park when he was 18. He also played high school golf in Minnesota. His cartoon characters made reference to golf for nearly five decades. You might have assumed that the Snoopy bunker was "just another gimmick," but that would be a wrong assumption. It was done respectfully, with the specific designs and character of a 425-yard par-4 taken into consideration. No one will have to plow this bunker under because it's not playable. We'd be happy to provide additional clarifications and to welcome you to play at the grand opening and see for yourself. —Paul W. Miller, Gill Miller Inc., Golf Course Architects, River Falls, Wis. Thanks for the update on the Snoopy bunker I made fun of, Paul. But I think the real issue here is discrimination. What, a dog gets a bunker before a woman? Where's the Lucy sand trap? The Peppermint Patty pond? I'm giving Martha Burk your phone number. The idea of cartoon characters drawn in sand isn't anything new to Chicago golfers. Cantigny, on the site of former Chicago Tribune publisher Col. McCormick's estate, has a bunker in the shape of Dick Tracy's profile, fedora and all. I think in general you are right about the matter. For the most part cartoons are for mini-tracks, but the Dick Tracy bunker fits Cantigny, and it seems to me that Peanuts and St. Paul fit, too. Nothing like quibbling about nothing, is there? —D.J. Lane, Roselle, Ill. You're right, buddy. At least Peanuts was a great cartoon with great characters. Dick Tracy peaked in the '50s. After that, he started flying around in Diet Smith's magnetic space coupes. It was one of the worst famous comic strips ever. And an equally bad movie. What was Warren Beatty thinking? (Let me guess: Hey, Madonna, what are you doing after we get done shooting today, babe?) Is Phil Mickelson right about Tiger Woods' Nike equipment not being up to snuff? —Kevin Proffitt, Cincinnati Mickelson might have been right two years ago when Nike was still a fledgling in the golf-gear game, but the company has all-star club designer Tom Stites on its team now. I wouldn't second-guess him. An interesting analogy is to Jack Nicklaus, whose clubs were subpar for a time and who played for a while with a MacGregor ball that really was inferior. Tom Lehman's greens-in-regulation number is among the best every year, but his putting stats rarely look good. Does that mean he just isn't able to get the ball close enough to drain birdies? Is he just not being aggressive enough with his approaches (even if his driving isn't great, he still manages to get the ball on the green)? Is it simply that he's never been an above average putter (hence the change in putters last year)? This disparity made me wonder which is more important on the tour's difficult greens: being a good putter or having a good approach game? —Rod, Detroit Well, you saw it at Pebble Beach, Hot Rod. Lehman -- using a long putter -- had a 3-footer to probably clinch at least a spot in a playoff, and he missed. Granted, the 18th green at Pebble Beach was two-thirds dead because of a recent winter storm, but in pro golf, if you don't putt well, you're a dead man walking. Lehman has worked on his swing, which had gotten way off kilter midway through last year, and he said he was hitting it last week as well as he's ever hit it. More important, he is optimistic about returning to the upper echelon of the tour. Generally speaking, I'd say the most important thing is to be a good putter. It's easier to improve your ballstriking than it is to improve your putting skills.

Among the nominees for Person Who Had the Best Week -- excluding the obvious ones, like tournament winner Davis Love III, runner-up Tom Lehman and frequent nominee Meryl Streep -- was Paul Stankowski. For starters, Stankowski played in the same foursome with Bill Murray, which is a riot, and he was paired with Andy Garcia, a nice guy who plays a little on the slow side. (We'll give Garcia a break this time because Murray's joking made the galleries laugh as he was getting ready to hit and clearly broke his concentration. In the future, Andy, at least pick up once in a while when you're out of the hole.)

"It was fun playing with Bill," Stankowski said. "I enjoy a little bit of distraction. I didn't know what to expect. Bill is very considerate, he knows the game. It didn't seem like six-hour rounds because I had a smile on my face the whole day. He cracks me up. I mean, he's Bill Murray."

Another reason the week went so well was that Stankowski was actually in contention. He finished bogey-bogey to tie for seventh and earn $155,833. That was big, because now he can have a dessert. "I had a rule: No desserts until I have a top-10 finish," Stanko told me after he finished Sunday. Talk about a sacrifice. How long was his drought? "Well, I started it two weeks ago," He said. "But I love desserts. Cheesecake is my thing."

It was also a big week because the offseason wasn't a pleasant one for Stankowski: He wasn't able to work out or play much golf because of torn cartilage in his wrist. A recent cortisone shot has him pain-free, at least temporarily, so he's glad to be playing, period. "I came out in Phoenix and just wanted to get some rounds under my belt," he said. "I figure [last] week was three rounds guaranteed. I had no expectations and I've made three cuts. I'm excited about the year. Is it going to be a great year? I don't know, I wish I was a fortune-teller."

Stankowski knows one thing to expect come midseason, though: more problems with his wrist. "I'm pain-free but I'm not injury-free," he said. "The pain will come back. I can get one more cortisone shot before I have to have surgery. So I'm looking at probably getting it operated on in June. I'll be out three or four weeks, then I'll see what happens."

Nominee No. 2 for Person Who Had the Best Week is Kevin Sutherland, your defending Accenture Match Play champ. Coming into Pebble Beach, Sutherland was ranked only 61st in the world so he's on the bubble to even get into the field to defend his title. The top 64 ranked players (after the Buick Invitational this week at Torrey Pines) are invited. Despite tying for 15th at Pebble Beach, Sutherland dropped a spot to 62 in the World Ranking. "I think if I play well next week, I'll be fine," Sutherland said. "You never know. It depends on how everybody else plays. It would be nice to qualify. If I hadn't won last year, the idea of trying to play wouldn't be as great. I'd like to go back and see what I can do.If I don't make it, I'll play Tucson instead, so it's not like I'm not going to play."

Remember how Sutherland won last year, during the first full week he used the claw putting grip? That relationship was short-lived; he junked the claw for good at the Hilton Head tournament last April. Now he's using a long putter, a club he used to keep around as a training and warmup device. "I practiced with the long putter for a long time, and in the offseason I started putting pretty well with it. I used it most of November and thought, I'll give it a try, what the hell. The next thing you know, I'm using it at the Mercedes. I have no complaints with it right now. I like the way the ball rolls. The last time I screwed around with the claw, it was like, How'd I do this? It felt terrible. I'd be 20 feet away and not know how hard to hit it. I had no feel with it."

Nominees Nos. 3 and 4 are two local high school kids from Sonora, Loren Ksiazek and Scott Clifford, who got to carry the sign board for Murray's group during the first round at Poppy Hills. Teens from two schools tote the signs, and the twosomes take turns picking which group they'd like to go out with. Ksiazek and Clifford had the fourth pick for the opening round, and, incredibly, Murray's foursome was available. "Every year he's a knockout here," Clifford said. "And we had the biggest crowd of the day with us. It was so great." Their backup pick if Murray wasn't available? Lee Janzen and Emmitt Smith.

More pros and cons and ams

Celeb Ray Romano, asked about actress Patricia Heaton, who plays his wife on Everybody Loves Raymond: "Patricia is like my own wife. I don't sleep with either of them." ... More Romano, as he was about to play in a celebrity skins game Wednesday with his brother, Richard, as caddie: "The airline lost my brother's luggage in San Jose. He's wearing my underwear today." That was more than we wanted to know, Raymondo. ... Mark O'Meara on the fun that Murray brings to the event: "He puts a different element into the game. Golf has always been a quiet, reserved, peaceful game. Bill is an outgoing, funny guy. You just look at him and you want to laugh. He's brought some character to it. My only issue is doing it while the pro is trying to play. I know it's entertainment, but, still, I'm trying to make a living out here. I don't know about tossing women around the bunker -- as long as he rakes up. Sometimes he gets a little carried away. It's one thing to pull some jokes if there's a time for it, but not while the players are actually playing. Maybe I'm a stiff. I don't think I am a stiff, but that's how I feel. Bill draws a lot of people to the course, absolutely, and that's great for the tournament." ...

Tournament host Clint Eastwood on having Murray play in the pro-am: "With Bill, you've got to get out of the way so when the old ladies go flying by into the sand trap, they don't actually hit you." ... The cost of being a spectator at Pebble Beach, a course where a round of golf runs $350, is what you might expect. Some sample concession-stand prices: bag of chips, $3; beer, $5; 20-ounce soft drink, $4; coffee, $3; hamburger, $7; bottled water, $3. You don't have to worry about breaking a $50 bill at this event; you're lucky to get any change. ... Some of the ritzy homes around Pebble Beach offered public parking in their driveways and yards for a price. The going rate closest to the course was $40 early in the tournament, marked up to $50 on Sunday morning. ... Souvenir hunt: Just in case you were wondering, a Pebble Beach logo cap in the golf shop went for $26. And, no, I did not buy one. ... New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady finished fourth in the pro-am with his partner, Jesper Parnevik. Funny, he looks a lot better with a pass rush. I meant Brady, not Parnevik. ... Former Chicago Cubbie Mark Grace was 14th playing with Craig Stadler. Rush Limbaugh and Tom Pernice Jr. tied for 18th, while Murray and Scott Simpson were 21st. Twenty-five teams made the cut. ...

The star amateur of the week was Frank Herringer, a San Francisco resident and former CEO of Transamerica. Herringer, a 10-handicapper at San Francisco Golf Club, helped his pro, Brett Quigley, by 26 shots over four rounds, the most of any amateur in the field. Know which am was second-best? Murray, who helped Simpson by 25. Mark it down: Murray is going to win the pro-am portion of this event one of these years. If Simpson, who finished 53rd, had cracked the top 15 in this event and Murray had made half of his 4-footers, they'd have taken this thing down.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Gary Van Sickle writes for the magazine's Golf Plus section and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Click here to send him a question or comment.

 

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