I got to spend the day at the Pebble Beach Pro Am Friday and thought you all would appreciate some impressions from that special place.

-> As great a job as CBS does providing images and footage at Pebble Beach, it still can't capture the true beauty of the place--it is simply put the most gorgious, draw dropping piece of property on earth (and this from a guy who has been to 48 of 50 states and several foreign countries).

--> In particular something happens on TV in that it fails to capture the incredible elevation changes.  TV is very much like a two dimensional representation of reality--even in high def.

--> As a result, the difficulty of this course is not fully captured by TV.  A few samples of what I mean follows:

#5 is a long way downhill where you MUST land the ball precisely on a mound left of the green that you can't even see clearly because of a tree on the left

#6 is a 300 yard poke you must hit precisely (like many holes at Pebble on one side is the Pacific Ocean, on the other is bunkers, but less than 300 yards and you have no chance to reach the green), then you have a blind shot 200 yards out and 150 feet uphill to a tiny, steeply sloped green with bunkers left, right and back.

#7 is only 100 yards to a small green on a penninsula surrounded by ocean--easy birdie or easy double bogey or worse.

#8 Has a blind tee shot that starts close to ocean level to an elevated area 200 feet or more higher that you must hit without going more than 230 yards, else your ball is over the cliff.  Second approach shot will be 170 to 210 yards over the cliff to a small green and an even smaller chut (20 feet wide at most) you must hit to bounce on the green.  Left, right, or back and you are in a bunker.  Short and right and you are in the ocean.

#14 is a 573 yard monster: Dogleg right that makes it longer due to the precison of hitting that elbow (you can't cut it!), tiny sloped green that's almost impossible to hit or hold due to slope and well protected bunkers that preclude you even seeing the green.

#16 is just a 403 yard par 4, except you have to carry a couple of large deep bunkers in the middle of the fairway and place it on the left side of the fairway 230-250 yards out.  Center or right and you are blocked by trees from seeing or reaching the green.  Further than 250 yards and you've got a bad downslope that makes it difficult to hit (much less hold) an elevated postage stamp size green, or worse are in the trees that block half the fairway, or are in a huge finger bunker that covers the entire width of the fairway and yet puts you 50-70 yards out from an elevated (BTW, all this is hidden from the tee).

The most deceiving stat at Pebble Beach is this: It's only 6816 yards.