Tuesday February 07, 2012 - 12:19 PM

On the Tee: Pebble Beach National Pro-Am

By Steve Elling | CBSSports.com Senior Golf Columnist
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D.A. Points and Bill Murray needed no 'Caddyshack' explosion to pull off their victory. (Getty Images)

Everything you need to know about the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am:.

Hole-by-hole | Past champions | Expert Picks | TV: 3-6 ET Sat., 3-6:30 ET Sun. (CBS)

For once, Bill Murray was something close to speechless.

The PGA Tour record book shows that D.A. Points was the winner last year at Pebble Beach, but he also won the pro-am portion of the festivities, with the comedian as his partner. By the end of the delirious day, the somewhat dumbstruck Murray was riffing Carl Spackler's gibberish lines from his movie, Caddyshack as he putted on Pebble Beach's famed 18th hole.

Not to be overlooked was Points' play. In a shot that ranked among the best all season, he holed a crucial, 100-yard wedge shot for an eagle on the par-5 14th hole, one of the toughest three-shot holes in annual use at professional venues. He added a birdie at the 15th and eventually held on for a two-shot win over Ryder Cupper Hunter Mahan.

Down the Sunday stretch, Murray got as much attention from the TV cameras, taking some of the heat off his professional partner. It was Points' lone PGA Tour victory to date, and he did everything but call it a Cinderella story afterward, if you will.

"To win on the PGA Tour, and especially at Pebble Beach, and especially with Bill Murray ... I don't think I could dream this up," Points said.

The seaside holes are perhaps the most stunning in all of golf. In fact, if you fork over enough jack, you can have a room with a view and a round at Pebble Beach Golf Links. Open to the deep-pocketed public, a two-night stay is required to book a tee time, which will run guests at least $715 per night at the Pebble Beach Lodge before taxes and service charges are added. From there, you can tack on another $495 per person for the round of golf at Pebble, which does not include optional, but recommended, fee for using a staff caddie. Spyglass Hill is $360 for lodge guests. The other course in the tournament rotation, Monterey Peninsula, is a private track. For more information, go to the Pebble Beach website.

Long vilified for weaker fields relative to the European Tour's Middle Eastern Swing, the West Coast events on the PGA Tour are experiencing an uptick in 2012. After a much-improved showing at the Palm Springs tournament last month, Pebble Beach can actually boast two more top-50 players that it had in the field 2011, with 12 this year. In fact, the latter figure represents one more top-50 guy than is playing this week at the EuroTour event in Dubai. While it's easy to get lost in a reverie this week with the scenery, what with the five-star views and celebrities raking it around during live play, it's worth noting that Pebble Beach is one of the shortest courses on tour at 6,816 yards, yet it somehow ranked No. 4 among favorite venues in a recent Golfworld poll of tour players. The weather is always the wildcard, though, and temperatures are predicted to remain in the low 60s for most of the week.

• It isn't everybody's cup of tea, if not bourbon when the weather turns bad, but Pebble has usually drawn one of the larger TV audiences of the year, in part because of the celebrities. Pairing pro-am celebs during live fire with professionals has become increasingly rare these days, with the list being winnowed down to a precious few, including Pebble, Disney and Palm Springs. While the celebs are a huge annoyance to some purists, and many of their professional partners, too, the old Crosby format endures. Hey, if nothing else, you can boo Bill Belichick, who is scheduled to play.

• If Kyle Stanley can do it, then why not Spencer Levin? A week ago, Stanley blew a six-shot lead after 54-holes at Torrey Pines, then came back to win his maiden event last Sunday in Phoenix. Last week, Levin blew a six-stroke lead after three rounds, too. Levin, a Sacramento native, won the state amateur title at Pebble Beach in his college years and loves the venue. He was T4 at Pebble last year, to boot. Hey, maybe it's a perverse trend.

• While the field has decent depth, it's a bit shy on big-man firepower, with Dustin Johnson representing the lone player entered who is ranked in the top-10. But Johnson's not a bad cat to have in the field. He has two victories at Pebble Beach and was the 54-hole leader at the 2010 U.S. Open at the famed seaside track. Johnson is the first player since Tiger Woods to win in each of his first four seasons on tour, though in his first three starts this year after offseason knee surgery, his best finish is a forgettable T43.

Odds on winning, via Golfodds.com and the Las Vegas Hotel and Casino: Tiger Woods 5/1, Dustin Johnson 20/1, Phil Mickelson 20/1, Hunter Mahan 20/1, Nick Watney 20/1, Rickie Fowler 25/1, Brandt Snedeker 25/1, Bryce Molder 25/1, Martin Laird 30/1, Zach Johnson 30/1, Spencer Levin? 30/1, Jim Furyk 30/1, Kevin Na 30/1, Geoff Ogilvy 40/1, Padraig Harrington 40/1, Ian Poulter 40/1, D.A. Points 40/1, Rory Sabbatini 40/1.