Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1314457
108 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 2 1 CBS Sports broadcaster and Pebble Beach resident Jim Nantz with actor, director, and Pebble Beach co-owner Clint Eastwood. Both men are golf aficionados and will enjoy the 75th AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am Tournament in February 2021. Photo: Tom O'Neal Movie and television star Ray Romano says he still doesn't sleep for several nights before the tournament, all due to excitement. "As an obsessed lover of the game, to be able to play side-by-side with the pros is a thrill that sometimes overwhelms me," he shares. "And the fact that you are playing with them as they compete for a real PGA tour- nament win is amazing. Imagine if you can, that the SF Giants let you play in centerfield during a real game! It's nuts." Romano will no doubt keep fans laughing when he plays his 21st AT&T in February. "I've only made the cut three times in 20 years and it took me 11 years to get the first one," he says. "But I've said this many times, to borrow a phrase someone once said about another pastime, 'My favorite thing to do in the world is to play Pebble and make the cut. My second favorite is to play Pebble and miss the cut.'" The spirit of the tournament is one of the main reasons that broadcaster Jim Nantz calls this area home. "The AT&T was always my favorite tournament as a kid growing up—the beauty, the camaraderie, the revelry—I could feel it as a viewer," says the lead CBS sports anchor, who will enter his fifth decade of announcing the tournament in 2021. "All of my suspicions—given birth in a day- dreamer's mind—were proven true," Nantz says. "Pebble Beach was gorgeous. Everyone involved with the tournament was experiencing the same warm, communal vibe. And yes, the tournament was a weeklong celebration of golf and friendship. You can't imagine the joy that came with discovering that the event exceeded my wildest expectations—the thrill it was to learn that the coziness that it imbued on a young viewer was all that I could have hoped for and more." The impression made on Nantz by the locale and the locals propelled him to relocate here, getting married on the seventh hole at Pebble. Nantz is thrilled to be raising his two youngest children in the very neighbor- hood where Bing Crosby and his cohorts once had a dream of sharing a little money with people and projects that most needed it. "You could say that the radiance of the AT&T has shone strong enough to change lives," he says. "We Nantzes are so grateful." No doubt, so many others are, too. The 75th AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am takes place February 8-14, 2021. For more information, go to attpbgolf.com. The donations are raised by sponsorships, whether from corporations or player entry fees, as well as from spectator admissions.