Winter 2023

106 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 2 3 “Champagne” Tony Lema (center), after winning the 1964 Crosby Pro-Am, earned his moniker by supplying champagne to the media at Pebble Beach after every win. Photo: William C. Brooks photo/Pebble Beach Co. Lagorio Archive that rolled in for an eagle-2 and brought him back to par for the round and 3-under for the tournament. He was tied with Fazio with two holes to play. He parred 17 and 18, and the first Crosby at Pebble Beach ended in a tie. Despite the rain, the tournament was deemed a success. It raised more than $8,000 for charity, with the local portion going to launch a youth center in Carmel (Monterey already had one). Crosby loved the event and the locale. In 1948 he built a home near the 13th tee at Pebble Beach, splitting his time for several years between Hollywood, Pebble Beach and Hillsborough. The tournament officially became the “Bing Crosby National Pro-Am.” Unofficially, every- body either called it “The Crosby” or “The Clambake.” For the record, they didn’t bake clams. The term, first used at Crosby’s 1938 tournament, was based on Merriam-Webster’s second definition: “A gathering characterized by noisy sociability.”That isn’t a bad description for the week-long string of parties that surround the annual tournament. Jack Morris, former golf-pro turned sports- writer, who played in some of Bing’s early pro- ams, saw it differently, writing in Game & Gossip Magazine :“Why it is called a clambake I do not know. Not this type of tournament. The old Bing Crosby tournament was a clambake...At that tourney everyone got drunk and went around looking at pretty girls and singing and not giving much of a damn about anything except having fun...Everyone had a helluva time. This is a good tournament that we have here. Make no mistake about that. But it seems to me the boys bear down a little bit more than they used to.” Morris wrote that in 1953, so you decide. While the tournament has seen several changes over the years, and will again this year, the event Crosby brought to the peninsula in 1947, remains a lasting legacy of good times and great golf. Whether you call it “The Crosby” or the “AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am” (AT&T being the title sponsor since 1986), rain or shine, it is always an entertaining blend of top professional and amateur golfers on chal- lenging and scenic courses, run by an army of volunteers and with a charity component that now raises millions of dollars each year, man- aged many years now by the Monterey Peninsula Foundation. Morris was right on one score:“This is a good tournament that we have here. Make no mis- take about that.”