Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/784242
Taylor's outpouring of emotion was a fitting end to a tournament that has become defined by feeling. A decade ago, when the Pro-Am was struggling to attract the PGA Tour's top players, a common refrain from those who skipped the event (usually muttered off-the-record) was that they didn't want to have spend a week with a stranger as a pro-am partner. Now top pros are coming back for a very personal reason: friendship. Last year, pop superstar Justin Timberlake talked his buddy Justin Rose, the 2013 U.S. Open champ and reigning Olympic gold medalist, into playing Pebble for the first time and Rose had such a good time he's back again in 2017. Similarly, when country singer Toby Keith announced he would play the tournament in 2016, his friend Steve Stricker, a 12- time Tour winner, decided to join him, teeing it up at Pebble for the first time in nearly a decade. "It's recreating the old Clambake feel," says Tournament Director Steve John. "This event was founded by Bing Crosby as a gathering of friends and organically here the last couple of years that cama- raderie has come back. Now the pros and the celebs are playing with close friends and they're having a ball." John jokes that it was good luck that Timberlake, a strong 4 handicap, missed the pro-am cut by two strokes in 2016 because that ensured he'll return with Rose for another attempt to secure an elusive Sunday tee time. A couple of new faces will enliven the celebrity field. Future basketball Hall of Famer Ray Allen has Though Phil the Thrill still remains dangerous, and his contemporary Tiger Woods is attempting yet another come- back, the Tour has been reinvigorated by a new era of youthful superstars. C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 131