Golf is played in many beautiful places, but Pebble Beach on the Pacific coast of California near San Francisco is probably the long-held dream of most amateurs around the world. This week 150 golfers have the opportunity to play on the three courses of the large complex overlooking the sea and to do so with some of the best golfers on the planet, from Jordan Spieth to Justin Rose.
In fact, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am is being held from today to Sunday, an anomalous race, but valid for the Fedex classification: the points up for grabs are 500; the prize pool for the pros is 7 million dollars; the first coin of 1,260 million. A tournament with flakes, won twice in the last three editions by Brandt Snedeker, who defends the title again this year.
The formula is unusual, because the professionals compete in two competitions at the same time, a pro-am, i.e. a competition in pairs with an amateur, with the 4-ball formula being the best, and an individual stroke competition. There are many good names: in addition to Spieth, number one in the world, we find six of the top ten players in the ranking, Jason Day (3), Bubba Watson (6), Justin Rose (7), Dustin Johnson (8), Patrick Reed (9) and a champion like Phil Mickelson, who prevailed four times in this race.
The weather promises to be clement and fun should be guaranteed, even for the pairings of players with characters from the show, especially actors like Andy Garcia, Josh Duhamel, Mark Wahlberg or Chris O'Donnell. But there are also entrepreneurs and musicians: Spieth, for example, shares his fortunes with country singer Jake Owen. The tournament is broadcast live on Sky Sports.
On the same days, but with a different time zone, the European circuit moves back to South Africa, to Waterkloof, near Pretoria, where the players compete, from today to Sunday, in the Tshwane Open, a tournament organized in collaboration with the Sunshine Tour There are no less than five Italians in the running: Francesco Laporta, Nino Bertasio, Nicolò Ravano, Marco Crespi, Edoardo Molinari, all chasing points and looking for their first success of the season. Edoardo, the most famous of the patrol, hopes to find the best shape of him after a black period.
In this context, the South African players are the favourites, in particular Charl Schwartzel and George Coetzee, defending champion. There is one million euros up for grabs, around 167 thousand euros for the first.
Also of recent days is the news that the 2016 Spanish Open, whose fate still seemed uncertain, will be held from 14 to 17 April in Valderrama, near Marbella, on a fascinating course, inhabited by centuries-old oaks and of the highest level under the competitive profile. The host of the race will be the Sergio Garcia Foundation, which thus joins the exclusive club of champions who support the European tour, together with Ernie Els, Rory McIlroy, Paul Lawrie and Luke Donald.
Finally, some updates on Tiger Woods: Joe LaCava, caddy of the former world number one, has declared that he is not available to other players, even if his employer's forced stoppage is costing him time and money. Joe waits for the tiger, because he's sure he hasn't thrown in the towel. “I am confident – he said – Tiger will return to competitive play, to do well and to win”.
