Peter Jacobsen and his long-ago caddie Mike “Fluff” Cowan did an encore at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am last week, reveling in the sunshine and the memories while offering a bit of parting advice to today’s PGA Tour players.
Jacobsen played his first PGA Tour event at Pebble Beach in 1977 and his appearance last week was his last competitive event on any tour. He won seven PGA Tour events and two majors on the PGA Tour Champions among 830 career starts.
He’s 67 now, stays busy doing television work and starting a foundation. Jacobsen is forever grateful to the Pebble Beach event, which this year had just eight of the top 50 players in the world ranking.
“This tournament, in my estimation, is the most important tournament we have on the PGA Tour,” Jacobsen said. “Where else can these players that benefit from the generosity of these title sponsors play with those title sponsors?
“I think the tournament should be the first one that players check on their schedule. Not the majors, not any other tournament. This one.”
Jacobsen (above) is paying attention to what’s happening with reports of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Investments offering top players enormous guarantees to join the as-yet-unannounced new league. It’s why a number of top players were at the Saudi International last week where appearance fees were allowed.
Jacobsen said he doesn’t have a problem with players accepting appearance fees – he did it in his career – but it bothered him that it came opposite the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. He’s also skeptical about the new league getting off the ground.
“I don’t think this is a critical moment because I don’t think this other professional league is going to happen. I have a lot of respect and great admiration for these tour players. I think they know where their bread is buttered,” Jacobsen said.
“If they want to continue playing for Claret Jugs and green jackets and trophies on the PGA Tour, they’re going to understand this is where you need to play. Unless you’re just looking for a big payday and you take a big stack of money and go play somewhere else.
“Phil Mickelson made some pretty strong comments about the tour being enormously greedy. I don’t know how much Phil is being paid overseas, I imagine he’s getting a pretty hefty chunk of money.
“There are players that if they want that money then they should take it and they’ll probably never play on tour or in any other substantial tour around the world again. I think this is a lot of talk, nothing is going to happen.”
Ron Green Jr.