When Celebs Vanish And Egos Soar, Golf Finds A New Rhythm

What happens when a beloved pro-am trades its soul for a signature purse? We unpack Pebble Beach’s $20M pivot—fewer celebrity swings, more surgical golf—and the ripple effects on how fans connect with the sport. The charm of mis-hits and Bill Murray lore gives way to Sunday fireworks as Scotty Scheffler drops three eagles and Colin Morikawa turns a 20‑minute fairway wait into a stone-cold birdie to win. It’s elite theater, but at a cost: the human texture that once made Pebble feel like a shared secret.

From there we head to the WM Phoenix Open, where golf’s loudest hole thrives on vision, not accident. We break down how WM’s rebrand, zero‑waste engineering, and stadium swagger converted a Tiger‑sparked moment into a sustainability lab with half a million attendees as co‑authors. Love the noise or loathe it, the model blends purpose and party in a way the rest of sports keeps trying to copy.

We also zoom out to the stories TV tries to force and the ones that earn the frame: Koepka’s shadow versus Scheffler’s grind, Hideki’s late wobble, and why cameras should follow form over fame. Then it’s Super Bowl ad psychology, a CGI bear that sticks in your head, halftime culture flashpoints, and the media incentives that keep outrage on a loop. Finally, we look at Olympic calculus through Eileen Gu’s choice and celebrate the universal rhythm of fall, rehab, return—the reason moguls, downhill, and even curling keep pulling us back.

If you love golf’s edge, sports as spectacle, and the real decisions behind the headlines, you’ll feel right at home here. Tap play, subscribe for more sharp takes across golf and culture, and tell us: do you miss the pro‑am magic, or is the new Pebble exactly what you want on Sundays?

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Transcript

Setting The Stage: West Coast Swing

SPEAKER_09 0:06

Thanks for finding our podcast. I'm your host, Tellin Tales, expanding on the truth, questioning just about everything, and lacing in my take on golf, golfers, and anything else that catches my eye. And if you agree with my take on life, that's great. And if you don't, that's good. Just not great. The 2026 ATT Pebble Beach Pro Am, or should I say Pro Am less.

SPEAKER_03 0:44

Where did they all go? Like summer two used to snow. We were big as these. Now drifting like leaves. Where did they all go? Oh, where did they all go?

Why Celebs Made Pebble Special

The Pro-Am Becomes Pro-Am Less

Star Power Shrinks To One: Kelsey

Pebble’s Electric Finish And Records

SPEAKER_09 1:05

I've been watching the Pebble Beach Pro Am for decades. It's part of the Hawaii slash West Coast swing that signals that the PGA tour is back in action and the FedEx Cup race has begun. Now, just out of blind luck, I've had a chance to play all of the courses in Hawaii and on the West Coast swing, and Pebble Beach stands out as my favorite venue carved out of the Monterey Peninsula, one of my favorite places on earth ever. I've played some good and mostly challenging, let's say bad rounds on a peninsula, but always had a memorable experience. How can you help it? The views of the Pacific, sea life on the shores, and the scent of Cypress leaves to convince you that this place is special. Planning to watch the ATT Pro Am each February is always on my radar. I plan that particular weekend so that I watch at least two of the four rounds. Now half the fun is watching the ams or the celebs hit some good or bad shots. When they hit bad shots, it's like, yeah, that's the difference between an am and a pro. I mean, it just humanized the sport. Golf is hard. God, I remember watching Bill Murray or Murricane, as Dan Aykroyd refers to him. He usually broke every etiquette rule um just to entertain the viewing public. And by the way, he's a pretty good golfer. When I lived in Charleston, there were always stories about somebody playing with Bill and watching him shoot in the 70s. He's got a good swing, he's a good golfer, but it seems like for him, and particularly at this event, entertaining people, getting people to laugh and see that it's not that serious was what he did best. And he was fun to watch. I look forward to it. And there are always other stories of other celebs that were pretty good golfers or trying to improve as golfers, wanting to make the cut. Guys like Jack Lemon, and that goes way back for you kids. Ray Romano, Kevin James, Joe Pesci. But all of that came to a screeching halt when the ATT Pro Am this year became a$20 million signature event. And what did that do? Well, if you're a pro on the PGA and you make the cut and you get into Sunday and you're in the top ten, cha-ching. Your payday is a lot greater. And if you're a celeb, they cut the celebrity list and reduce the amateur participants to only playing on Thursday and Friday. Now I didn't know this. And I was kind of talking this event up with Susan, saying, you gotta see this, it's really entertaining. Great golf, pebble beach, a lot of great stories. She probably was hating the fact that I was gonna tell her what I scored on each hole when I watched it on TV. But we get there and Thursday and Friday, it's hard to find celebs. I mean, I think I went into ESPN Plus or Paramount Plus, something. I don't remember what streaming service I went into, but you can only see feature groups, and every once in a while you'd see one cutoff to a celeb. And I think the only celeb worth mentioning this year was Travis Kelsey. And I think he it's because he did so well on that 16th hole part three at the WM Open in Phoenix the previous weekend that they invited him to play in Pebble. And also, I think people were hoping to see Taylor Swift. There might have been rumors, he might have started them just to get people to watch and show up. But all these other celebs, the comedians, the actors, the musicians and athletes were gone. What happened? What happened is this year the ATT Pro Am at Pebble Beach became one of the eight signature events where the total purse went up to twenty million dollars. Thank you, Live Tour, for influencing that change. But that changed the entire complexion of the event. No more cameos on Saturday, and more pros grinding to make the top ten by Sunday afternoon. I love Pebble Beach and have fond memories of staying there, playing there, and watching the Pro Am this weekend. But it really was pro-am less, and it's become another PGA pro event. Don't get me wrong, I like watching the PGA, it has the greatest production value of any golf. Great announcers on weekends, great television crews, the shot tracker, fantastic. And then tuning in on Sunday, to be pleasantly surprised that Scotty Shuffler, after a slow start on Thursday, is on top of the leaderboard again. And after five birdies, a few bogeys, and get this, three Eagles. He ties the lead on the 18th hole. Three Eagles, people. That's never been done before during the final round of any PGA event. But even with that spectacular finish, he couldn't beat Colin Morikawa, who, after a 20-minute delay, birties the 18th hole to win his next PGA event. And the reason it took 20 minutes is Jacob Bridgman in the group in front of him hits his approach shot to 18 on the beach, can't figure out what club to hit off the rocks on the beach, hits it back in the ocean, has to take a drop, and then makes the most incredible bogey of the day. Now imagine you're Colin, you're in the fairway, you know you're tied for the lead, and you've got to birdie the hole. Now you gotta wait 20 minutes. What does he do? He does what I would do. He stands at the edge of the fairway looking out at the Pacific Ocean and appreciates that this is a magnificent place. Then he turns around and hits three great career shots to win the tournament. You're just not gonna see any AMS. And if you want to see amateur celebrities and um professional athletes who like to play golf, then you're just gonna have to wait for the weekend of July 8th through 12th to watch the American Century Golf event at Edgewood Tahoe, where you could find pro football, baseball, basketball, and hockey players duking it out for the trophy. And the rest of the field, well, some of them with higher than realistic hopes of improving their games and really not throwing up on themselves when the cameras are pointed in their general direction. The WM Open. There's no other tournament like it.

SPEAKER_01 9:25

The WM Phoenix Open. I feel like it's the uh the golfers' Super Bowl. It's what we live for out here. The environment, the chaos, the energy that you feel when you walk in through those gates. It's unmatched, I guarantee you.

SPEAKER_05 9:38

The atmosphere is it's the best. I mean, you go out there, you got all these people yelling and talking the whole time. I mean it's not a tip. It is the best. You gotta think about this.

SPEAKER_04 9:48

Yeah, full 16 is the greatest experience I think I've ever been a burden. We even get a bunch of Super Bowls and tell you who leaving the messy super bowls. It is funny.

SPEAKER_07 10:10

Everyone gets the money.

SPEAKER_06 10:19

Jimmy Sam. Um Jimmy with some sixteen T box women with bleachers there. And tiger holes in the mouth. I remember it was it was uh I remember I threw a cane and I was like, damn, am I gonna be in trouble? I was some 97, somebody throws a cannon at seven. No, I was eight. He was eight.

Where To Find Celeb Golf Now

WM Phoenix Open: Chaos And Genius

Branding, Zero Waste, And WM’s Vision

TV Narratives: Koepka vs Scheffler

Matsuyama’s Slide And Playoff Drama

SPEAKER_09 10:48

So how does a company focused on collecting and disposing of garbage host the most uniquely successful PGA tournament of the year? Well, like most change, it starts with a vision, the ability to ask a lot of questions about what led the company to the place it's at, and whether this is a place you want to stay, or do you see a brighter future? And once you see that vision, how do you get buy-in? Well, that's what Jim Fish, CEO of WM did over the past 10 years since he's been there. I mean, the company name change or rebranding came seven years into Jim's leadership, aligned with a new initiative of reclaiming landfill gas to create RNG to power their fleet of trucks, enhanced recycling capacity, and a renewed interest in using the Phoenix Open PGA tournament to boost brand visibility, sustainability, leadership, and new client acquisition. 500,000 golf fans attend each year. And when I say golf fans, it's more like party fans attend each year, creating a lab for zero-waste innovations that parlay into other golf events and 20 other pro sports stadiums. And the pro event, or I should say, their realization that they could capitalize on this pro event all really started with a shot heard round the world during the third round of the Phoenix Open in 1997, before Jim got there. That's when a 21-year-old Tiger Woods hits a hole in one on the 16th hole in front of 16,000 fans while they're on their feet and yelling. And that sets the tone for Jim Frisch's team to capitalize on the phenomenon and build a zero-way stadium around the 16th hole, add more corporate sponsor stands that attract more patrons and more sponsors. Now, some viewers or maybe haters that watch the four-day tournament and think, what a shit show. They might be the same people that hated the Super Bowl halftime show. Or they're just curmudgeons that hate to see change. And I'll admit this. I might have aged out of the profile that we see in the stands on the 16th hole. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy watching it, particularly sitting in the comfort of my own home, but I'm probably not the target market that they're looking for to sit around waiting for that one hole in one so that everybody can throw whatever beverage or stack of cups showing how many beverages they drank that day down onto the green. Now, the production value of the tournament, fans aside, although you really can't decouple them, it was tight. It was a tight competition all four days. Now the network had a field day featuring Kepka on his second PGA tournament since he returned to the tour from the four-year hiatus with the Live Tour. CBS must have sent out a survey before the event to gauge the golf viewing public on their level of interest in seeing Kepka play on the PGA tour again. They didn't call my house. They didn't send me an email. And if they would have, I would not have been as favorable in wanting to focus on him until he hit the leaderboard. The previous week, they did the same thing, and I think he was, he made the cut and he was maybe two or three, maybe four under par. Ten strokes away from the leaders. And so now at the WM Open, they're focusing on him and then the rest of the field that's on the leaderboard. And they keep showing him and the rest of the leaders. And what a difference in golf. His putter is just not ready yet. And I would suggest to whatever network that's following him, let's wait for him to get his game back in order. Let's wait for him to start showing up on the top 10 in the leaderboard. Then I'd be glad to watch him play. But just because he was the Kepka that won so many majors, and the Kepka that played really well at the WM Open, I think he won twice, he's not that guy today. And until he proves himself, I don't need to see him on every shot. Now, the juxtaposition of that is that I want to see Scotty. Scotty had a horrible first day. But after watching Scotty for so many years just find his game, I was willing to watch him when he was not at his best because you knew it just took one or two holes for him to make that turn in his head and all of a sudden get that confidence back, get that stroke for his butting back, which he did, which was fun to watch. And if you watch the event, you watched Hideki Matsuyama play impeccable golf for the first three days, and even Sunday until the 17th hole. It looks like he was going to win the tournament. Nothing was going to get in his way. He's got that powerful stroke where he almost hesitates up top. Great short game, and he was on his game. And as he gets to the last few holes, Chris Godderup had already finished. So he's sitting on the side, and he's over either chipping or putting, waiting, or he's on his phone doing his social media because all he's got to do now is to wait. Hideki is already a stroke ahead of him. Hideki's got to make a mistake. So we're watching Hadeki on the 17th hole, not a good drive. He backs up. Then he gets to 18 and hits the ball wayward left. And you're thinking, how is he going to get up and down? And he doesn't. And so now there's a playoff. You think he's going to win. And he probably thought he was going to win. But in golf, sometimes shit just happens. Sometimes you take that club back, and as you're going after the ball, something happens in your mind, or something happens in your body, and you just hit the ball where you don't intend on it to go. Anyway, I'm surprised because all of a sudden they get in a playoff. I had to leave the room for a second when they're both going to drive the ball. I think there was a delay where they had to go back to the first T, and there was another delay, and I think I was going back and forth to the Olympics. Anyway, I come back and there's Hideki Matsuyama with a driver in his hand, but he is way out past the fairway to the left of this water area. Well, just a hint here. When you see a golfer and they're not on the T-Box and they have a driver in their hands, and they're somewhere on the perimeter of the golf course, that's not a good thing. Because that means they hit their ball in a place where they now have to take a penalty stroke, and they get to use the size of the driver to determine where they could place their ball. So I see him with a driver in his hand by the water, and I'm like, holy shit, he hit his drive in the water. And then as the cameras are kind of facing from behind him while he's measuring, way up on the fairway, you could see Godterup and his caddy. So Godterup smashed a drive. And typically when that happens, it is like death to that player in a playoff. But he makes an incredible shot, gets it up on the green, and if he makes the putt, he could par the hole. Now Godarup hits it up and he's got a long birdie putt. He sinks it, he wins, takes Hideki out of his misery. Hideki must have been sideways because whenever that happens to you on the golf course where things are going great, your confidence is up, and it looks like everything is just going your way. And then a mistake happens. If you've listened to my podcast before, you'd know last year I was high on Chris Godderup. This guy has ice in his veins, and he could blast his drives, and he's got a good short game. So let's see how long he can surf this wave. Who thought there'd be that much conflict off the field? Once a year, the U.S. stands still to watch the hoopla leading up to the Super Bowl where the best gladiators f face off to prove who's best. Who's best? No, not the advertising community, although it's like a dick on the bar exercise where the deepest pockets hire their creative agents to tell a story about their brands that they hope to inform, entertain, and again, hopefully influence customer engagement. In my previous work life, I had the pleasure, or at least the amusement, of participating with ad agencies throwing their best ideas against the wall, hoping that one would stick. We've all heard the expression, there's no such thing as a bad idea. Well, I think that's a credo to encourage the brilliant introverts to try and contribute. But what really happens is the extroverts have a field day, and the bad ideas way outnumber the good ones. That brings me to my favorite of the commercials that I can even remember. It's the Pepsi Challenge. It's the ad using a CGI polar bear to blind test Coke and Pepsi, and Pepsi wins. The polar bear has been Coca-Cola's iconic mascot for years. So, did the Pepsi company walk the legal line to produce this ad? Yeah, you bet they did. But so far, no lawsuits been filed by Coca-Cola for trademark infringement. Likely because a CGI bear's been used for other brands like Charmin and Snuggles. And it's it's is it really worth the time and effort and marketing funds to go after Pepsi? Not likely. Mostly because it's a CGI rendering of an animal that likes sugary drinks. And anyway, isn't Coke getting free airtime despite the fact that they lost the fake test? I am a Coke drinker and I'm still like it, and everybody says you gotta get off the sugary drinks. But when it comes time for an afternoon pick-me-up, I happen to like Coke. So no CGI rendering of a polar bear is gonna get me to change my mind. Anyway, the best gladiators weren't the ad companies. They were the two best NFL teams to compete in the Super Bowl. And I say that kind of tongue in cheek because I love New England. I'm from New York, but I watched a team create a dynasty for years. And Tom Brady, one of my favorite athletes of all time. But I think if Bo Knicks didn't get injured in his in the playoffs, and when Denver play New England, I think Denver wins. And I think Denver goes into the Super Bowl, and it's a lot closer. Now, with that being said, this was a game of defenses, and the Seahawks defenses were assassins. You know, they say offense wins games and defense wins championships, and that was certainly on display Super Bowl Sunday. The dark side, Seattle's defense, delivered a dominant performance, making New England look, like I said, like Denver should have represented the AFC on Sunday. And if you were a New England fan, it was tough. And if you were a MAGA, the halftime show must have driven a stake through your heart.

SPEAKER_07 24:32

The National Football League welcomes you to the Apple Music Super Bowl 60 halftime show.

Super Bowl Ads, Polar Bears, And Hype

Halftime Culture Wars And Media Fuel

A Defensive Game And Mixed Reactions

Eileen Gu, Sponsorship, And Choice

SPEAKER_09 24:52

Benito Antonio Martinez Okecio, or Bad Bunny, did something most other performers could not have pulled off as well. He led generations, both millennial and Z's, and I would even suspect a lot of boomers, to appreciate the changing color of the world, led by the growth of the Hispanic community. This happens to come at the apex of US Ice Agents stormtrooping in Minneapolis and other US cities to capture, imprison, and extradite record numbers of Hispanic speaking illegal aliens. Benito didn't speak hate or divisiveness. He enlisted an army of dancing shrubbery, hip-hop dancers, even Easter eggs of celebs, and ignited ascending generations to just do better. Just do better. Okay, an alternative to NFL's production. A production that happens only once a year and tends to appeal to more than a hundred and thirty million viewers worldwide. Well, first of all, I don't believe the 25 million streaming number for turning point. And if it's accurate, I don't believe that 25 million people streamed it into their devices. I think it's more likely that bots were creating twenty-four million nine hundred and ninety-three thousand hits. And the remaining hits were probably from the White House. I mean, don't you think there are enough important issues to address as leader of the free world and weighing in on the absurdity or lack of patriotism during the Super Bowl halftime show is not one of them. And is is actually a dog whistle to those that follow blindly. Now, I think the media is mostly at fault to have any of these sound bites come from truth so social or anywhere else. I mean, somebody is stoking the fire just to get the divisiveness hot in the United States. Now, overall, I thought the Super Bowl as a game was not as exciting as in previous years. When you have a defensive battle, you don't get to see some of those great offensive plays. So for me, it was okay, if you're a Seahawks fan, you feel great. And if you loved or hated the halftime show, good for you. This year at Milano Cortina, Eileen Gu, freestyle skier, elected to compete for China instead of the United States because of the massive sponsorship upsides exceeding, get this, the equivalent of 23 million US dollars. As a U.S. citizen by birth, born in San Francisco to a Chinese mother and American father, Eileen skied for Team USA in the 2018-19 Freestyle World Cup, but switched to China in 2019 via a nationality change because it was approved by the International Ski Federation. She cited a desire to inspire youth in China and leverage her heritage. I mean, her legal staff must have an awesome PR department. Good for her. Hey, look, she's got the goods all around and she's getting paid. Changing the subject. Now there seems to be a recurring theme in most all Olympians. Their lives consist of overcoming adversity to succeed in something, and then fail again to be faced with another hill to climb, and they climb it with a purpose. They get up from the ice or the slopes after a bad fall, do damage control, and re-engage to get better. All of these Olympians have slipped, fallen, broken something, and have come back for more. This is who we are watching. To illustrate what is possible. You know, and most of us have a favorite event or athlete that we want to watch. I personally look forward to all downhill skiing, particularly the mogul competitions, where I dipped my toe in the water in my 20s, which explains the recurring aches and pains I feel years later. I actually found myself rooting for the American curling team, which is a sport most of us forget for four years and are reintroduced in the beginning of every Winter Olympics because it's usually the first sport to watch. Probably the only sport for a day or so. So we watch it. You know, another sophomoric thought. I always think about what would the Olympic village be like for a young athlete in the best condition of their life, particularly after they finish their event and they have some time to kill. It's gotta be the most target-rich environment in the world for someone looking to hook up. And folks, the fact that that thought even crossed my mind was even more evidence of where my head was at in my twenties and adds to the long list of reasons I would have never been an Olympian. Telling tales from the snowfallen Shenandoah Valley. Talk to you soon.