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Why Arizona's Whisper Rock Golf Club was the real winner at Pebble Beach
Phil Mickelson topped Paul Casey and Scott Stallings to win his 44th career PGA Tour title at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. But the Monday finish on the Monterey Peninsula could just as easily have been how the final leader board looks at their club championship.
In a fun twist, all three PGA Tour winners are members at Arizona's Whisper Rock Golf Club. As is Don Colleran, the FedEx executive vice president who teamed with Casey to win the pro-am portion of the event. Sounds like there's going to be a lot of boasting at the club's grill room in the coming months.
Of course, if any club were to pull this off, it would probably be the Scottsdale private club, which in addition to two tracks on Golf Digest's America's Second 100 Greatest Golf Courses and our sixth-ranked locker room that includes "nap rooms" for guests has arguably the deepest collection of tour pro—and member—talent. In fact, last year's Pebble Pro-Am team winner was the Whisper Rock combo of Kevin Streelman and Arizona Cardinals star Larry Fitzgerald.
And another member, Ken Tanigawa, picked up his first PGA Tour Champions title in October. For some reason, Whisper Rock's desert golf seems to translate to Pacific Ocean success for many of its dozens of tour pros, especially Mickelson. The lefty, who designed Whisper Rock's Lower Course, won the AT&T for a record-tying fifth time. Not to mention, Mickelson's coach, Andrew Getson, along with two of the guys calling the action from CBS, Gary McCord and Peter Kostis, are, you guessed it, Whisper Rock members.
By the way, Streelman only finished T-7 at Pebble this year. The poor guy is probably being teased by his fellow club members right now. At a place known as "The Rock," the competition is fierce.