Pebble Beach National Pro-Am Round Three Thoughts

I was pleasantly surprised at how restrained the television coverage was with regard to the celebrities on the course. In my memory, past years have been much more egregrious in allowing the celebs camera mugging time. It actually seemed that many of the celebs were serious about their golf

Part of that may be that golf had its own super-celebrity in the mix, Tiger Woods. Even better: he was racing up the leaderboard, getting himself into a solo 3 at -11, four shots off leader Charlie Wi.

Ken Duke, who’s from Bill Clinton’s hometown of Hope, Arkansas, is in second. Duke, 43, is on Tour by virtue of having won the 2011 Nationwide Tour Championship, but he’s no stranger to the Tour. He first qualified in 2004, but didn’t keep his cut and returned to the Nationwide. He finished at the top of the Nationwide money list in 2006 and returned to the Tour in 2007. He played on Tour in 2008 and 2009, but in that final year finished 158th and returned to the Nationwide for 2010 and 2011.

CBS did a good job, I think, with the slow-motion cameras on the amateurs, comparing their swings to the pros. What was most evident was how many of the amateurs (all of the amateurs?) had over-the-top moves. I am going to work on that.