Who You Gonna Call?

A week of smiles climaxed like a sophisticated punch line when Bill Murray won the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am with D.A. Points (page 42). Similarly, if you're an SI subscriber, you could start grinning and for the first time get for free what we're calling All Access to the magazine in all digital formats—tablet, smartphone and computer. This is particularly good timing because the Swimsuit Issue launched this week with 17 supermodels setting trillions of pixels ablaze, as well as the equivalent of two feature films of video set to indie rock tracks (Vampire Weekend!). And did I mention that Bill Murray won at Pebble Beach channeling the karmically profound Carl Spackler and the smart-ass, ghostbusting Dr. Peter Venkman?

The first time I edited a Murray piece, he posed for the cover with flippers on his hands (Rolling Stone). The second time he wore the blue coveralls of a Parisian street sweeper (Smart). He talked a lot of sports in both stories. More recently he told SI (Aug. 2, 2010) that being a caddie, as he was as a teenager, "you learned how to treat people. It was an extraordinary education. You got to really appreciate the game and realize any golfer at any moment can hit a great shot." A shag boy at 10, grown into a, ah, Lincolnesque performance artist, Murray is a promiscuous minor league baseball team owner and relentless Chicago fan—once traveling to Florida during the 2007 Cubs playoff run to "inspire" Aramis Ramírez by telling the slugger that he (Murray) was very ill and needed two home runs to give him the hope to live.

At Pebble, Murray was on the scent of victory like a hound on a bologna sandwich, or perhaps Sisyphus looking uphill. The oldest of timers were reminded of Bob Hope, who did stand-up with his driver but never won at Pebble Beach. Murray has more in common with Mark Twain anyway. Hilarity meets pathos in Bill Murray, and there is no healthier way to think about sports.

All Access Swimsuit

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PHOTO

MEL LEVINE