Pebble Beach National Pro Am Golf Tournament

A year ago Sergio Garcia blamed his lackluster golf on his broken heart. This year he is worried only about a sore right hand, hoping it doesn't cause his shots to wander. Garcia makes his season debut in the U.S. at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, which begins Thursday. And getting a hand to heal might prove easier than his heart. The 30-year-old Spaniard hasn't played here since 2001 and, in a testament to his star power, he is paired with actor Josh Duhamel of "Transformers" movie fame and husband to the Black Eyed Peas' Fergie.

This was a long walk in a beautiful park Friday. Waves were breaking along the shore. Fish leaped in the sea. Otters sunned themselves and six golfers playing on three courses on the Monterey Peninsula swept through the gorgeous scenery and onto the top of the leaderboard at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. Defending champion and first-round leader Dustin Johnson was one of them. The lanky long hitter from Myrtle Beach, S.C., never lost first place. Others just took pieces of it. Johnson shot a two-under-par 68 on the newly redone Shore Course at the Monterey Peninsula Country Club for a two-day total of 10-under 132. Also tied for the lead are former Long Beach State star Paul Goydos, who had a seven-under 65 on Spyglass Hill; Bryce Molder, who had a 65 on the same course Johnson played; Alex Cejka of the Czech Republic; J.B. Holmes, who finished tied for third last week at the Northern Trust Open at Riviera Country Club; and Matt Jones.

Bill Murray is teed off at Deane Beman and vice versa. The comic actor, fuming over criticism of his on-course antics at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, took aim at the PGA Tour commissioner with criticism of his own. He began an interview Friday with New York's WCBS-TV by "asking for the resignation of Deane Beman." Then, he lashed out at the tour commissioner, saying Beman was pursuing the decorum of golf to ridiculous heights. "It's a Nazi state out here," Murray complained.

This is the how Dustin Johnson finished off his first round as defending champion at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am: Birdie, birdie, birdie, birdie, birdie. If you're keeping score, and that's what they do at golf tournaments, the big-hitting 25-year-old from South Carolina shot an eight-under-par 64 on the Pebble Beach Links course Thursday to take a one-shot lead after the first round. The 6-foot-4 Johnson was modest after his score (which included a 30 on the back nine)

PEBBLE BEACH -- Nothing's official yet, but it seems clear that they're starting to get a little too comfortable with good weather around here. Normally, when the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am gets underway, all anybody thinks about is hauling out their thermal underwear and where the lifeboats are kept. After Thursday's first round, in bright sunshine, players were actually complaining that there was a breeze. A breeze? What's next, unsightly clouds?

It's so hard keeping track of this AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. For instance, two unusual events happened Tuesday. The sun showed up and Jack Nicklaus didn't. Weather is nearly always a factor at the tournament, which has been under water enough times that some greens have bathtub ring. Five times in the last six years, rain has washed out at least one round. In 1996, it was canceled altogether. In 1998, the last round was played six months after the third round, in August.

The AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am is an event that tends to live in the image and likeness of comedian and amateur golfer Bill Murray -- loose collars and lots of laughs. Tuesday night, things got off to the kind of roaring start that would have made Murray proud, with the annual California Golf Writers roast, er ... dinner. Among the honorees was Phil Mickelson, riding high from his Masters title last year and his Scottsdale, Ariz., tour event win last week.

Last year, Vijay Singh won nine times, but the first one was right here, the place where he came from behind on the last day to start the best year of his career. If Singh was on his way, Arron Oberholser took off in the other direction. That's what happens when you're leading on the last day, shoot 76 and need three months to get over it. "I basically didn't compete last year in the final round," he said. "I was watching Vijay play.

1 Bad weather and Pebble Beach used to be interchangeable, but it has been better than good since 2000, when rain pushed the last round to Monday. Rain showers are expected every day this week, which is no surprise to Paul Goydos, who grew accustomed to Pebble Beach weather during the rainout in 1996 and the rain in 1998 that pushed the third and last round from Feb. 2 to Aug. 17.

What would Pebble Beach golf be without rain? It has been unseasonably dry, up to now, but because the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am begins today, it must be the cue to hit the rain button once again. The forecast this weekend is for umbrella weather, which should surprise few here on the Monterey Peninsula, especially the 180 pros who have shown up to play with their amateur partners in this $5.5-million tournament at Pebble Beach, Poppy Hills and Spyglass Hill.

A year ago Sergio Garcia blamed his lackluster golf on his broken heart. This year he is worried only about a sore right hand, hoping it doesn't cause his shots to wander. Garcia makes his season debut in the U.S. at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, which begins Thursday. And getting a hand to heal might prove easier than his heart. The 30-year-old Spaniard hasn't played here since 2001 and, in a testament to his star power, he is paired with actor Josh Duhamel of "Transformers" movie fame and husband to the Black Eyed Peas' Fergie.

A tree fell in the fairway, and PGA Tour officials heard it. They postponed the final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am until today, given appalling conditions that included 60-mph gusts, spiteful rain and one downed, grand old Monterey pine on the No. 3 fairway at Pebble Beach. If weather allows today -- and the forecast didn't look optimal -- the first of the 68 remaining players will tee off at 7:30 a.m. and the final group will go at 9:20 a.m.

Around here where the weather has a legacy of rudeness toward the golf, they're about to hold a Sunday referendum on one Chanticleer and a bunch of meteorologists. The former would be Dustin Johnson, the laconic 24-year-old ball-destroyer who became the first guy to make All-American while playing for the Coastal Carolina University Chanticleers and who at a whopping 15 under par led by four shots after three rounds.

In a matter potentially chilling for golf junkies, Retief Goosen has turned 40 and donned sunglasses and commandeered a belly putter. It's pretty weird, but in reassuring news, he remains the same old pulseless artisan who might just shoot a 64 at some hallowed ground with 18 holes in it, as occurred Friday at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

So many humans charged up the leaderboard on the Monterey Peninsula's toothless Thursday that some of them were bound to defy belief. So up around the top you had a guy who owes his career partly to a perceptive grandfather and a BMX cycle accident in a mud puddle, a guy who quit golf after 2006 to enter sales for a Las Vegas nonprofit, and a major winner who hasn't played the event since 2000 because, well, he didn't like it. Question: "Why didn't you come back here?"

With weather forecasts hinting at classic Pebble malevolence, at serial downpours and wretched damp cold, the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am might favor its top-ranked player, who can paint you a vivid yarn of rude conditions from childhood in Ireland. Padraig Harrington has been fighting that hook, though. "I've done quite a bit of work during the winter," said the winner of the last two major tournaments. "And what tends to happen is when you are changing things and working on things, you overdo it, and there's a compensation in there that needs to be balanced out. It does take a little bit of competition, a little bit of playing to figure that out."

Thursday's opening round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am was perfect for everyone who enjoys hanging out in the frozen foods section, stuffing trays of ice cubes in their pockets and receiving an Arctic air face-lift. Catching a breeze, Phil Mickelson eagled his last hole at Poppy Hills to catch John Mallinger and Nick Watney at seven-under-par 65 to share the 18-hole lead. Highlights were probably relegated to the Weather Channel.

Here's a real bulletin: Rain washed out the day's round of golf at Pebble Beach, Spyglass and Poppy Hills. The way things are going here in Waterworld, the only surprising news would be if they actually got to play a complete round in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and Annual Soak-Off. Of course, Sunday's washed-out round was supposed to be the concluding one, but a heavy downpour forced suspension of play just before 10 a.m., and 3 1/2 hours later play was postponed.

PEBBLE BEACH -- Say what you want about Steve Lowery, but you can count on him. He's good for a win every, say, couple of hundred tournaments. In fact, it's exactly every 200 tournaments. After Lowery came from behind to run down a sagging Vijay Singh to win the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, that's how long it had been between victories.