Lonely golf at the AT&T

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — There wasn’t a rain cloud in sight. Or any spectators either. Nature is responsible for the first. The people who run the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am get credit or blame — you decide — for the other. 

Yes, time once more for Northern California’s favorite golfing event — maybe America’s, if you go by the TV ratings — when show business and big business hook up with players who really mean business.

It was created in the 1930s by Bing Crosby (go ahead, Google his name or his game), and as much because of the format and the spectacular landfall on which it long has been held — not to mention the conditions — it has persisted for eight decades.

Not that everyone who plays the PGA tour is enthralled. They don’t like rotating among three courses, Pebble Beach, Monterey Peninsula and Spyglass Hill. They don’t like being slowed by amateurs, rounds usually lasting six hours. They don’t like the climate, although everything was gorgeous on Tuesday.

The AT&T — for nostalgia’s sake, we’ll call it the Crosby — is remembered and heralded for storms and cold. The bad weather might not have produced wonderful golf, but it has given us at least one memorable comment.

“I can’t wait,” said the singer Phil Harris, “to get out of these wet clothes and into a dry martini.”

I can’t wait to see fans swarming over the courses. For no good reason, tickets are no longer sold for practice rounds on Tuesday. It was lonely out there, other than a few locals.

It’s a different world. We understand that. But when you can walk six blocks from Flaherty’s restaurant in Carmel, only a few yards from Pebble Beach, and not encounter another human soul, it’s a strange world.

That doesn’t particularly bother or affect Viktor Hovland, who seems content any place on any course. He grew up in Norway — no sardine jokes, please — went to Oklahoma State and won the 2018 U.S. Amateur at Pebble.

Those amateurs are not to be confused with the ones in the AT&T, who are more recognized — Bills quarterback Josh Allen, retired Giants catcher Buster Posey, 49ers Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young, soccer star Gareth Bale and as always Bill Murray — but don’t carry handicaps.

That doesn’t mean they might not carry their pro.

“Obviously you want to have fun and play well,” said Hovland about teaming up. “I like to play fast. But I do enjoy the format. It’s very unique to be able to play a PGA Tour event with an amateur, and I don't mind it. But I'd prefer to play fast, and I'm here to obviously try to win the golf tournament, so it depends on the partner, as well. I think you get to kind of have a little bit of a different feel to it. It feels more relaxed.”

The lack of fans? AT&T officials decided after shifting the celebrity shoot-out from Tuesday to Wednesday that marshals and security types appreciate time off before tournament play begins Thursday.

What? Didn’t we have too much lonely golf when Covid closed things down three years ago?

“That is a different dynamic,” said Hovland. “It felt lonely.”

As it did Tuesday.

Niners' magical season ends in hopelessness

What happens when there isn’t any more? When the season that was so magical becomes so prosaic and sad? When the dream so unexpectedly becomes, if not a nightmare, than a feeling of hopelessness?

What happens when everything that was going so right goes so very wrong? When you lose your quarterback, your cool and most significantly the game that was going to put you into the Super Bowl?

Everybody knew the Philadelphia Eagles were a great team. Didn’t they have the best record in the NFC? Weren’t they playing at home Sunday? Maybe if the 49ers aren’t forced to use a quarterback who in effect was fourth string, Philly still dominates as it did, crushing the 49ers, 31-7.

Or maybe not.

You’ve heard the phrase — part reality, part agony — that one plays the cards he or she is dealt. Your starting quarterback gets pummeled minutes into the game? Your usually disciplined defense starts making one penalty after another? The officials seem biased? (Which they are not).

Kismet, baby. Fate. You do the best you can.

Unfortunately for the Niners, down to a quarterback who virtually had been found in the wilderness, 36-year-old Josh Johnson, getting called for penalties after what might have been a game-deciding sequence, the best wasn’t good enough.

And so it is done, this 2022 season, when a kid who was known as Mr. Irrelevant, quarterback Brock Purdy, had helped win a dozen games in succession, and in the process won plaudits and fame.

It was being billed as a fairy tale, the guy taken at the bottom of the draft, along with a defense that was on top of the league stats, bringing a title to the City by the Bay. But as we learned as kids, not all fairy tales have a happy ending.

And yet, this topsy-turvy Niner season has just concluded — the 3-4 start, the injury to the QB who was the starter; the injury to the steadfast loyal kid who replaced him, Jimmy Garoppolo; then on Sunday the injury to the kid who replaced Jimmy G, the surprisingly skilled Purdy.

If you’re a Niners fan, even a fan of pro football, do you cling only to the results of the final game, the end, or are you able to find at least a small measure of satisfaction in that big picture, a long winning streak and, after yet another victory over the Dallas Cowboys, a place in the conference title game?

Donte Whitner, a onetime defensive back, said in so many words that the only way to judge success is whether a team wins the Super Bowl. Or doesn’t win the Super Bowl.

That’s a bit shortsighted. The Niners didn’t even advance to the Super Bowl, but look at what was accomplished. The man at the most important position, the quarterback, gets knocked out of the game so quickly. It is not Brock Purdy’s fault or coach Kyle Shanahan’s fault.

“I wish we had a little better opportunity,” said Shanahan, understandably emotional.

If wishes were horses … you know the saying. The only place this Niners team will be riding is off into the sunset.

Niners: After win over America’s Team comes Philly

You know the lyric, The road gets tougher, it’s lonelier and rougher. Not about the NFL playoffs, but it should have been.

Just about the time everything’s going splendidly, a divisional playoff win over the erstwhile America’s team, the Dallas Cowboys, the 49ers get the team currently acknowledged to be best in America.

Or least the best in the NFC, which may be one and the same, the Philadelphia Eagles.

They also get one game away from another Super Bowl.

But because that game is against the Eagles, Sunday in the chill at Philly, one mustn’t make future plans.

As Niners coach Kyle Shanahan stood on the field at Levi’s Stadium, where after the 19-12 victory over Dallas he agreed to appear for Bay Area television — people get magnanimous following big wins — the subject of the Eagles was brought up.

Philly may not quite have the magic and the history of Dallas, which always has had the attention of, and occasionally the edge over, the Niners.

They offer no Jerry Jones in egotistical splendor making promises, no memories of Montana to Clark — The Catch — fulfilling promises. They are just a franchise that started the schedule with a victory and a lead over everybody.

Also with a roster that so crushed the New York Giants Saturday night in the other divisional playoff, going in front 28-7 in the first half before winning 38-7, the New York writers were shocked — which seemingly is impossible.

“They’re very good,” or words to that effect, conceded Shanahan about the Eagles, whose quarterback, Jalen Hurts, missed a considerable part of the season with an injury, but were dominant because of, yes, defense.

The same thing that won for the 49ers and the Cowboys, teams that in the long-ago era were known for offense, Montana and Steve Young, Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman. Now their reputation is constructed on defense, as a halftime score of 9-6 would verify.

The Niners scored the game’s only touchdown, a two-yard run by Christian McCaffrey, in the fourth quarter.

Defense and turnovers are the difference in the postseason. San Francisco limited the Cowboys to 282 net yards while gaining 312. Niner quarterback Brock Purdy didn’t throw an interception; Dallas’ revered and reviled Dak Prescott threw two.

Purdy is 7-0 since replacing Jimmy Garoppolo (who of course replaced Trey Lance, who was forced by injuries to sit out). The question is what San Francisco will do with all three quarterbacks next season.

First comes the question of whether this season, Purdy, famous as Mr. Irrelevant, last pick in the draft, can be the first rookie to be a Super Bowl quarterback.

He’s already the third rookie to win two playoff games.

Tight end George Kittle, whose catch of a slapped ball was worthy of the many replays it got on Fox, said of Purdy, “Brock is a good quarterback. He keeps his eyes up when the play is falling apart and gives us a shot at the ball.” 

He certainly has given them a shot at the championship.

A wild win for Niners in wild card

This wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. Or then, perusing history, maybe it was. After all, the words “wild card” can be interpreted any way you decide.

And the prevailing wisdom about the 49ers was that their game against Seattle wouldn’t be as wild as it turned out to be.

The Niners had defeated the Seahawks in both regular-season games this fall and winter, but as has been pointed out quite accurately, it’s difficult to beat another team three in a row in the NFL.

Unless they are mismatched. Which, in a second half that began with the heavily favored Niners trailing by a point, ultimately turned out to be the situation.

San Francisco, with its top-ranked defense taking control as it has so often, scored 25 points before the Seahawks got a touchdown, with three minutes remaining, that didn’t matter.

So the 49ers won 41-23 on Saturday and are into the next round of the playoffs, for a game that will be played, as was this wildest of cards, at Levi’s Stadium against a yet undetermined opponent.

And most likely, not in the rain that has been punishing the Bay Area and returned in the third quarter, as seemingly did the Niners.

Yes, for those of a certain age, it brings back memories of 1981, when the weather was inclement and the results were inspiring, San Francisco beating the New York Giants on a Candlestick Park field barely playable — remember the sod squad? — and then on the Montana-to-Clark pass taking down the Cowboys and going to the Super Bowl.

Where this journey concludes is unpredictable, but at least the Niners are still a presence, and head coach Kyle Shanahan is still a happy individual — after being less happy at two quarters into the Seattle game.

The Niners were doing virtually everything they needed to do in the first half, other than getting people into the end zone, a rather significant problem.

“You’ve got to score points,” said Shanahan, and then someone reminded him the Niners gained more yards in this game, 505, than in any this season.

“We only had 13 points until late in the first half,” said the coach.

Rookie quarterback Brock Purdy threw four touchdown passes. Not quite a rookie after playing six games — and winning every one — he was under pressure early. Sure, he was unbeaten and had performed remarkably for a man taken last in the draft (actually for anyone taken anywhere in the draft). But this was his first postseason game. Ever.

Under pressure from a pass rush carefully crafted by Seahawks coach Pete Carroll, Purdy, a righthander, kept running to his left before throwing an incompletion.

Asked if he thought Purdy was nervous, Shanahan said, “No, the deficit made me nervous. I appreciate what he’s doing. I was wishing he could have had a couple of touchdowns.”

They got one quickly after Niners defensive lineman Charles Omenihu knocked the football loose from Seattle QB Geno Smith. The 49ers recovered at their own 19 with some three minutes left in the third quarter. That did it for the Seahawks.

“The ball hit the ground,” said Shanahan. “I saw it bouncing and kept thinking, ‘Grab it.’ He scooped it up.”

And San Francisco was about to scoop up a win that shouldn’t have been as difficult as it became.

Will third time against Seattle be a problem for Niners?

The thinking in the NFL is that you don’t beat another team three times in a season. Which means the 49ers might have a problem. Or that whatever people say doesn’t mean as much as how people play.    

The first round of the playoffs, a wild card game on Saturday at Levi’s Stadium, will be the third between the Niners and Seahawks. San Francisco won the other two, one at home, one up north.

Sure, the Seahawks may have figured out by now what they must do to beat the Niners, but so what? The personnel hasn’t changed — although the Niners have used two different quarterbacks, so why should the results?

San Francisco has the longest current winning streak in the sport, 10 in a row, topped off Sunday by a 38-13 win over the Arizona Cardinals.

But a rather mortifying 3-4 start to a record that at 13-4 is their best in a long while, left the 49ers a game behind the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC standings.

Philly earned the bye, the week off, which can be a refresher for any athlete who’s been pounding and pounded on since training camp in July. But what matters is qualifying for the tournament, the postseason, and that’s what San Francisco has accomplished.

What any team needs is to be playing its best football in January. The current longest win streak in pro football is an indication that the Niners are doing just that.

Somehow, by planning or fate, the guys who run the league have the ability — or the fortune — to keep us fascinated until the final moments of the final regular season game. That happened Sunday night

Detroit at Green Bay, former Cal quarterback Jared Goff, a No. 1 overall pick, against former Cal quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who should have been a No. 1 overall pick. The game was in the chill at Lambeau Field. The Packers were ahead.

But Goff and the Lions won. The Packers, the probable Niners opponent in the wild card, were done. So perhaps is Rodgers, age 39.

The Niners are far from done. They’ve got the best defense in the NFL — as you’ve been instructed, defense wins. They’ve got a rookie quarterback, Brock Purdy, who barely was drafted and has never lost a game; they once again have their full roster, with Deebo Samuel and Elijah Mitchell back from injuries and running wild.

And they have old mo, momentum.

The knock on the Niners is they lost to the Kansas City Chiefs and beat a lot of lesser teams like the Seahawks and Los Angeles Rams. We’ll see if it matters.

“I don’t know if I’ve had this feeling that I have right now about our team and the opportunity we have to win this thing,” said Niners linebacker Fred Warner. “We have everything we need on this team to do what we need to do.”

He was on the 2019 team that was 13-3 (the sked has since been altered to 17 games) and lost to KC in Super Bowl LIV. Comparisons are difficult, especially after a gap of three years. 

Coaches believe in their system and their players but understand their plans can fail with a freak bounce or a bad throw. “It’s a relief,” head coach Kyle Shanahan said of getting to the postseason. “It was a stressful week knowing you needed a win, but you’re thinking about the (playoffs) also. So being able to pull off the win — and being able to rest some guys at the end — was great.”

Rose Bowl: Grandaddy has it tough

PASADENA—So the home of old grand daddy made it to the century mark on Monday. That’s the Rose Bowl, the stadium, which opened in 1923, 21 years after they played the first Rose Bowl game.

For me it was was the 69th in a row. No I didn’t go to Texas for the 2021 game, moved there because of Covid restrictions in California, but otherwise as program salesman (then in high school) or sports writer, all the others.

And of course I saw the Bowl played in a rainstorm, 1955, when people dumped tickets for $1.50 and the irascible Ohio State coach Woody Hayes complained because the USC band marched on a soggy field at halftime—as if the athletes hadn’t already torn it up. The Buckeyes still won.

It kept threatening to rain this Rose Bowl when Penn State, breaking a halftime tie by breaking loose on an 87 yard run, by Nicholas Singleton, beat Utah 35-21.

It finally did rain near the end of the game, but it was gloomy, cool (54 degrees) and generally as depressing as the Utes’ defense.

Not that the offense was much better until the very end, after in fact the game already was decided.

The sort of day that would have had Jim Murray, the late L.A Times sports columnist gleeful, if in private. When a Rose Bowl was played in sunshine, as usually was the situation, Murray, would give us one of the “and there goes the neighborhood” pieces.

Everyone residing in Ohio or Michigan, trapped indoors, would be coming out to Southern California, creating even more traffic.

What Penn State created in this Rose Bowl was really a re-creation.

The first a year ago to Ohio State was memorable. Not this one, however.

The Rose Bowl used to have a place of its own, a holiday tradition. Newspapers treated it reverently if perhaps for no other reason than the attention it brought to a region that had a lot of land and not a large population.

Alas everything changes, in sports, in society. There were so many football games on television, college and pro, the past few days, you sometimes didn’t know who was playing who. 

The Rose Bowl announced its usual sellout of more than 90,000, although there seemed to be numerous empty seats. Maybe we’ll get some idea when the television ratings are announced.

The Rose Bowl long has had its own time slot (2pm Pacific, 5pm Eastern). It no longer has exclusivity or maybe priority. Depending on your rooting interest or alma mater, will it be on your schedule?

Granddaddy--I only hope it is.