Max Adler, Golf Digest
Maybe there’s just no use talking to PGA Tour players about pressure. Their skills exist on an entirely different plateau, and their weekly exposure to seven-figure paychecks and audiences has inured them from experiencing anything like what we mortals feel teeing it up in a club championship. Then again, what’s the point of asking cousin Bob—who’s a very nice player—for competitive advice when in the grand scheme he’s just another loser, too. If you want to learn something valuable about tournament golf, there’s really only one place to go: Lake Tahoe in July.
Besides perfect weather, you’ll find the American Century Championship at Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course, now heading into its 28th year. It’s the second leg of what are essentially the three majors of celebrity golf. The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February is the oldest; the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in October finishes on the Old Course at St. Andrews. These two events feature celebs (as well as a few rich guys you’ve never heard of) as an amateur sideshow, the net teammates of pros competing for money and ranking points per usual. What’s unique about Tahoe is, the celebs are the show. Mostly athletes with a few entertainers sprinkled in, everyone competes as an individual without the warm blanket of handicap strokes. The $600,000 purse, rabid galleries, and nosy TV crews are there exclusively for them, these people who don’t play golf for a living.