The Human Chain of Monterey While Jack Lemmon was an Academy Awardwinning actor and a Hollywood legend, his golf was almost completely forgettable, apart from one famous moment at the Crosby Clambake when Clint Eastwood took him over the edge… By Art Spander
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n the screen, he was special, an actor One time, in 1998, when he seemed destined to who could make us weep or laugh, an succeed, it wasn’t his golf or that of his pro partner, Peter eight-time Academy Award nominee with Jacobsen, which kept him from breaking the barrier, it was two wins. On the course, Jack Lemmon scornful Mother Nature. was an “Everyman,” a 15 to 17-handicapper That was when yet another storm pounded who loved golf and yet, as most of us, he played it with the a tournament infamous for wretched weather and the constant fear that the next shot would bring not joy or relief decision was made after two soggy rounds—during the but disappointment. usual February dates—to return in August. Yes, nearly Bing Crosby once made a hole-in-one at Cypress six months later, following the PGA up in Washington Point’s famed 16th, the 219-yard par three on a bluff set State—the third round was played at Pebble… without any among the crashing waves of Monterey Bay. Whereas on amateurs. Sad, so sad. the same hole Jack Lemmon once had to be kept from “We made the cut; we just didn’t play Sunday,” said falling over the cliff in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the Jacobsen, now a commentator for Golf Channel, who won tournament created by Bing as the Crosby Pro-Am. the pro division in the 1995 AT&T. Jacobsen still refers to Many remember Lemmon from his roles in more than Lemmon, who died at 76 in June 2001, as “a golfing hero.” the 60 films including “China Syndrome,” “Save the Tiger”— He certainly was a poster boy, literally. This most for which he earned the 1973 Oscar as best actor—“Some recent AT&T was the 30th anniversary of the so-called Like It Hot” or the “Odd Couple.” “human chain at Cypress” and artist Geoff Cunningham, Others think of Lemmon as the embodiment of links working from a photo as uplifting as it is worrying, turned frustration, a forlorn contestant in no less than 25 Crosbys, the scene into the AT&T’s official poster for 2017. who never made the official 54-hole cut and so never enjoyed That Day in 1987, Lemmon nearly whiffed his tee shot the added kudos of competing on a Clambake Sunday. at 16 and the ball bounced into the succulent ice plant, which
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