Carmel Magazine

Point of Impact 116 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 2 0 Bobby Clampett's Keys to Great Golf B Y A L A N S H I P N U C K T he Clampett family have a long history with golf around Carmel. In 1913, Frederick Clampett co-founded the 9- hole course on Carmel Point. A half century later, his grandson Bobby emerged as the best young player in the area. He had begun taking lessons from Quail Lodge's head pro Lee Martin, and then at 13, switched to Ben Doyle, the famously eccentric swing genius who haunt- ed Quail's range. Having attended public schools in Carmel, Bobby enrolled at Stevenson School for high school to further his golf education. "My God, I played Pebble or Spyglass pretty much every day for four years," Clampett says. "As you can imagine, that did so much to increase my thirst and love for the game." By his mid- to late-teens, Clampett was a phenom with a national profile, winning major amateur events and dominating the competition during an All-American career at BYU. The puri- ty of his ball striking led to a low roar : the golf world had found the next Nicklaus. It never happened. Clampett won one PGA Tour event, the 1982 Southern Open, but he is remembered now as a cautionary tale. "I lost my way," Clampett says. "I listened to too many people and changed my swing. There's a graveyard of good players who have done the same thing." Clampett became a fixture on CBS broadcasts; at this year's PGA Championship he will mark his 30th anniversary. In 2005, CBS debuted a new super-duper slow-motion camera that Clampett Clampett (here at age 11) began his long journey through golf on the driving range at Quail Lodge in Carmel Valley, taking lessons from head pro Lee Martin. Photo: Courtesy of Bobby Clampett

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