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A day of starry splendor in the grass at Pebble Beach

By Bruce Newman
Published on

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. -- Perhaps the best thing you could say about the 3M Celebrity Challenge at this year's AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am was this: Nobody actually got hurt, and only a few reputations were seriously damaged.

Expectations for the caliber of play are usually low at a celebrity scramble, and they were perfectly met by Wednesday's winning twosome of "Everybody Loves Raymond" star Ray Romano and Lady Antebellum singer Charles Kelley, who spent most of the day playing like their namesake -- Ray Charles.

Kelley, part of a country contingent of four good ol' boys in the 12-man field, grew up at golf's high church, working as a range boy for Augusta National in Georgia, home of the Masters tournament.

Perhaps sensing victory despite his team's consistently questionable play, Kelley lit up a cigar on the third fairway. When asked about his chances, he rolled back the sleeve of his sweater, revealing the lyrics to the Beatles' song "Blackbird" tattooed on his right forearm: "All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arise." Kelley then pulled out a wedge and hit it 10 yards past the green.

All the money went to charity, and by getting so close to the final pin, Kelley gave Eastwood's team a $60,000 prize. Bill Murray's team divided $40,000 among its favorite causes.

The Celebrity Challenge is a best-ball event, which should mean fewer players taking shots, but it still took an hour and a half just to play the first three holes. At times, Titleists were whizzing past people's heads like ordnance at a gunnery range. Josh Duhamel, who kept warning spectators to run for their lives, finally pounded a sizzling iron shot into a grandstand on the 17th hole, where a sizable segment of the gallery was made up of military men and women wearing fatigues.

The two team captains were "American Sniper" director Clint Eastwood, whose marksmanship on Pebble's narrow links course no doubt made him rue having that title hung around his neck, and perennial crowd favorite Bill Murray.

Resplendent in a black Borsalino hat, gray shirt with matching cravat and blue golf shoes, Murray and teammate Huey Lewis won the first hole -- and $20,000 for their respective charities -- but it took Murray a bit longer to limber up his comic chops. "There's a lot of people to thank," he said on the green. "I wish I had more time, but I only have 20 years to live."

It was evident Murray was trying hard not to let down the galleries, but you could see his heart is no longer in being the Clown Prince of Golf anymore. He won the Pro-Am a few years ago, and his antics are more muted now. But by the third hole, he had hoisted 9-month-old Tydus Talbott, of Salinas, over his head, and whenever someone burst out of the gallery and asked for a photo with him, Murray obliged.

Nancy Sorensen, of Monterey, grabbed Murray while her friend Hillary Byrne snapped pictures, at one point during their tete-a-tete excitedly exclaiming, "There's no security here!" Moments later, Byrne was ushered away from Murray by a security guard.

Eastwood, who will be 85 in May, was hitting his ironies better than his irons. He showed up with the words "Fac Diem Meam" embroidered on the back, Latin for "Make My Day." He also brought along former top touring pro Nick Faldo as his caddy, but neither that nor the six Oscars for which "American Sniper" is nominated did much to make Eastwood's day. He decapitated several shots, skulling the ball a few yards downrange, barely making it off the tee on the second hole. When the event ended in a playoff putting contest 50 feet from the 18th hole, Eastwood's ball traveled about six feet and died.

He was carried most of the day by his diminutive playing partner, Kenny G, the mono-consonant, monotone sax player. G was greeted as he emerged from the clubhouse Wednesday morning by a blast from Lars Knutsen, of Pollock Pines, who was wielding a shofar, the traditional Jewish ram's horn. Being outplayed by a guy with an antler may have been the signal G needed to step up his game.

Knutsen has been coming to the Pro-Am since 1968, when Bing Crosby and his Hollywood buddies were still playing the "Whisky Run" -- a five-hole dash when they were too soused to tee it up for the full 18. Knutsen was pleased to see the event looking a bit more like the Grand Ol' Opry, he said, because he "had an encounter with God through a country singer." And, heavens, they seemed to be everywhere. In addition to Kelley, there was Joe Don Rooney of Rascal Flatts, who is married to 2005 Playboy Playmate of the Year Tiffany Fallon, and inexplicably played the entire round under sunny skies wearing a knit ski cap. Clay Walker, a hit-making "hunk in a hat" on the country charts, traded his usual lid for a golf cap. He walked the course hand-in-hand with his son, William Clayton Walker, one of his three children with "Clay" embedded in their names.

Nashville's biggest hitter, Jake Owen sank a 25-foot putt for $20,000 on the third hole. Owen was aiming for a career as a professional golfer, but a wakeboarding accident while he was at Florida State University forced him to start crooning in a cover band called Yeehaw Junction. He was later involved in a go-karting accident that cost him the tip of the ring finger on his right hand. Owen played Pebble with the finger ungloved. "He'll take his shoes off sometimes," said Owen's wife Lacey, whose lips are tattooed on his right bicep, "but he takes his golf seriously."

Murray pretended to be taking his game pretty seriously, too, as he prepared to lay up on the final hole. "On a day like this, to stand next to the Merchandise Pavilion, it's a dream come true," Murray said. Then he struck his second shot right at the huge white tent, flubbed his putt in the playoff, and threw his ball into the bay. He seemed to be having a pretty good time by then.

This article was written by Bruce Newman from Mercury News and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.