Peter Jacobsen's Pebble Beach farewell

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – A farewell tour, it isn’t. Peter Jacobsen’s career as a professional golfer has come and gone and you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who has appreciated his lot in this PGA TOUR world more than he.

But when he plays Pebble Beach Friday for the last time in competition, there will be emotions because of what the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am means to him and means to the PGA TOUR.

“It’s a great bookend for me, six decades of playing the PGA TOUR,” said Jacobsen. There was both a smile and a shake of the head, because this year’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am has unfolded in a most unexpected manner.

Truth is, at 67 and heavily committed to his golf TV career with NBC Sports, Jacobsen had no intention of playing. “Then Huey (Lewis) called and said, ‘Want to go one more time?’ And I said, ‘For you, I will.’ ”

In his long career at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Jacobsen had become famous for being partners with high-profile celebrities – “Jack Lemmon for 20 years, another 10-to-12 with Huey,” he said – and it is difficult to imagine anyone who relished the role more than he did.

So, Jacobsen figured the band would be back together for one more time – Lewis as his partner, Mike “Fluff” Cowan, as his caddied. Unfortunately, Lewis, 70, got hurt and had to cancel out, so Jacobsen is paired with Ben Rector, a 35-year-old recording artist.

Though he shot 81 at Spyglass Thursday and doesn’t have any illusions of competing with these elite PGA TOUR pros who are less than half his age, Jacobsen appreciates the nostalgia the rushes forth when he visits Pebble Beach.

He’ll be walking in pulsating sunshine side-by-side with his caddie of many years, Cowan, who was on the bag here for six of Jacobsen’s seven wins, including here in 1995. For sure, he will let the memories flow.

This is where he played the first of his 662 PGA TOUR tournaments. It was 1977 when the rookie out of Oregon got through a Monday qualifier at Del Monte Course. (At another qualifier, up at Fort Ord, Jay Haas got through, so that sort of tells you how long ago we’re talking.)

Jacobsen, who was paired with an amateur named Richard Schutter that year, finished joint 43d on the strength of 72-73-69-75. He did not qualify for the 1978 tournament – it was officially the Bing Crosby National Pro-Am back then – but for the next 29 years (1979-2008) Jacobsen was as much a fixture here as Stillwater Cove.

(He would play in 2018, thinking that was his farewell, but promises that this, his 32nd start, is most certainly his last.)

The win in ’95, when he finished a shot in front of David Duval, resonates, but so do all the times he spent with Lewis and Lemmon, especially that iconic “human chain” day at Cypress Point in 1987.

Standing on the edge of the cliff at the par-3 16th to try and hit a recovery shot, Lemmon needed support from the team. So, Clint Eastwood grabbed hold of Lemmon’s belt, Jacobsen held Eastwood, Greg Norman grabbed Jacobsen, and Pete Bender, Norman’s caddie, grabbed Norman.

To many, it is one of the most iconic images of this special pro-am and Jacobsen cherishes his part in it.

And to think, he laughs, that his first memory of the AT&T Pebble Beach involves crossing paths with Palmer in a most inauspicious way.

“After qualifying (in 1977) at Del Monte, I snuck out on Monday night to play some holes at Monterey Peninsula,” said Jacobsen. He drove out along 17-Mile Drive where the front nine ends and the back nine begins.

Jacobsen said he knew he cut in front of a player, but didn’t think anything of it, till the guy caught up with him. “He walked up, stuck out his hand and said, ‘Hey, I’m Arnold Palmer, can we join you?”

Needless to say, Jacobsen made room for Palmer for an unforgettable memory. The truth is, though, that it was Palmer and it was the PGA TOUR and it was the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am that all made room for Jacobsen and make him feel he belonged.

Which he did, for parts of six decades.