| NAME | MESSAGE |
| Steven Lewis |
posted 03/10/06 01:42 AM Central Time (US)  no email address given
Considering Bing's pioneering role in developing the celebrity pro-am golf tournament and his numerous contributions to golf, there should be a tournament named after Bing. Mrs. Crosby withdrew the Crosby name from the Pebble Beach tournament when AT&T become the principle sponsor. She did continue a more modest clambake in North Carolina sponsored by Sara Lee. But when Sara Lee dropped their sponsorship several years ago due to financial difficulties the tournament died and we were left with no tournament named after Bing. I hope Mrs. Crosby reconsiders offering Bing's name to the Pebble Beach tournament. It would be a great memorial and publicity for Bing even if AT&T is attached to it. If Bing's name could be associated for 3 years with Chesterfield coffin nails I'm sure he wouldn't object to being associated with AT&T. But he does deserve a golf tournament named in his honor. |
| pat bonner |
posted 03/10/06 06:04 AM Central Time (US)  contact the author directly
bravo, steven..."straight down the middle!" |
| Bill Torpey |
posted 03/10/06 06:34 AM Central Time (US) contact the author directly
I've always wondered why the Crosby Clambake lost its name to AT&T, so I have been pleased to learn so much about that subject, and so many others, since I found this site recently. Your comments, Steven, elicited two thoughts in my mind that I thought would be worthy of comment. First, I wonder if a Crosby tournament is entirely up to Mrs. Crosby and family, or do Crosby's many fans have anything to say about it? It occurs to me that this is a particularly good time for Mrs. Crosby to negotiate a deal because we now have a "new AT&T," after all the financial shenanigans with SBC's takeover and the recent re-consolidation following the AT&T breakup of the '80s. Secondly, this makes me wonder: Do we know how many hundreds of thousands, or millions, of fans there are in this country and the rest of the world? Can we find a way to use this "fan power" to help restore Bing's name to the Pebble Beach pro-am? |
| Jon O. |
posted 03/10/06 10:40 AM Central Time (US) contact the author directly
The "old timers" who participate in the AT&T pro-am who remember Bing still speak fondly of him in their recollections to the golf press, but they're getting long in the tooth now and are beginning to retire from golf. Soon there will be no memory of Bing's association with the event among its active participants. Hopefully his name will be officially restored to the tournament before this happens, or else any chance of it may slip by forever. To the general public, Bing's name is pigeonholed with Christmastime; renaming the pro-am -- which is part of his vast legacy -- after him would be a stepping stone toward broader recognition of the many things for which he SHOULD be remembered. |
| Ron Field |
posted 03/10/06 04:31 PM Central Time (US) contact the author directly
At Hofstra I spoke with Kathryn about golf and at Bermagui, Australia, I was trying very hard to have another Lady Professional Golfers tournament to increase the Australian circuit to four. Kathryn seemed keen and I gave her information about what we would offer in return for sponsoring a AUS $100,000.00 tournament (about US $75,000.00). Kathryn asked could we put Bing's name to it and I answered YES. We could call it the BING CROSBY NSW LADIES OPEN. She thought that was nice and also it was suggested that she could also do a Book signing tour as well. I saw Kathryn again at Gonzaga and spoke about it but nothing came of it. I was interviewing Kathryn for my radio show in Australia but had a little trouble with Martin interrupting a fair amount of the time. Bing would have liked Bermagui as it is the deep sea fishing capital as we are only 20 miles from the continental shelf where they fish for marlin, tuna and pick up a shark now and again. Scottish entertainer Sir Harry Lauder was their in the 20's and Zane Grey in the 30's. The golf course is a championship layout with a par of 73 and a rating of 73, for the women. The men is 72/72. |