Pebble Beach

One winter during the mid-1970s I worked as a drapery installer
and slept in a VW minibus that was parked in the garage of fellow
Tour caddie Pete Bender's house in San Jose. We didn't have the
money to play much golf, so we sneaked onto Pebble Beach several
times. We would arrive just before sunrise, park in a lot by the
2nd tee, give ourselves birdies on the 1st hole and play 50-cent
skins the rest of the way.

My favorite hole at Pebble is the par-5 14th. It looks easy, but
the small, hilly, two-tiered green, which is shaped like a
split-level house, makes the hole play like a bear. The pin is
always on the hard-to-hit top-left shelf, and you'll see plenty
of pros have nothing but a short wedge approach for their third,
yet still walk off the green growling after a bogey.

*For 28 years--the last eight with his dog Squeaky--Gorjus George
has crisscrossed the U.S. drawing the yardage books used by the
pros at Tour events.

B/W DIAGRAM: DIAGRAM BY GEORGE LUCAS No. 14 Par-5 562 Yards

COLOR PHOTO: TODD BIGELOW/AURORA