Winter 2023

98 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 2 3 swing. It was too early for television, but Crosby created a short movie of the tournament which made its way around the nation. For the fifth annual tournament in 1941, Crosby enlarged the field to 320 golfers, 160 teams, for what became a three-day tourna- ment. Half the field played on Friday and half on Saturday. The low 10 teams on each day qualified for the final round on Sunday, as did the low professionals and several top pros that were guaranteed both rounds. Another change was that three professional women played—Babe Zaharias, Patty Berg and Opal Hill. Playing from the men’s tees, they posted three of the four highest scores in their first round and missed the professional cut. Significantly, Crosby made his 1941 tourna- ment a charity event. All ticket sales, both advance and at the gate, were donated to char- ity—split that year between the Los Angeles League for Crippled Children and San Diego’s Junior League. The charity take exceeded the $3,000 purse split by the pros. Whether there would be a sixth Crosby, titled for 1942 as the “National Pro-Amateur Championship sponsored by Bing Crosby,” was in doubt following the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. But on December 16, defense authorities green-lighted the PGA’s winter tournaments at Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland and Rancho Santa Fe. Crosby raised the professional purse to $5,000 for 1942, and again, charity dollars were higher at $8,000. The marquee foursome that year had Crosby paired with Snead (the Crosby winner in 1936, 1937 and 1941) and Bob Hope paired with Ben Hogan, who had just won at both Los Angeles and San Francisco and was runner-up at Oakland. But it was amateur Johnny Dawson that stole the show. Paired with professional Harry Cooper, Dawson’s 66-67—133 secured their team victory, and bested the two lowest pros Lloyd Mangrum (70-66—136) and Leland Gibson (67-69—136). As the men and resources needed for World War II increased, future tournaments were can- celed, including the 1942 U.S. Amateur sched- uled to be played at Pebble Beach in September. The USGA resumed their championships in 1946, but Crosby did not. While golf was on the rise in 1946, Monterey’s fishing indus- try—the economic engine that saw the Monterey-area econo- my through the war years—saw a sharp decline.The sardine population had fallen to the point that many canneries were forced to close as fishermen took their boats to richer fish- eries.Tourism was the new fallback for the econ- omy. Community leaders met to strategize. Winter was the slowest season. How could they bring people to the peninsula. Monterey Herald sportswriter Ted Durein remembered the old Crosby tournament and suggested having him bring it to the peninsula. He pointed out that in April, syndicated columnist Gene Handsaker had Arnold Palmer first played in the Crosby in 1958. He missed playing in only one Crosby over the next 14 years, and missed the cut only once—in 1964, the year of this photo with Crosby. Crosby was a member of the Lakeside Country Club in Burbank, where he developed close friendships with other Hollywood golfers and many professional golfers. Photo: William C. Brooks photo/Pebble Beach Co. Lagorio Archive