It was a dream beginning to the PGA tour careers of Irish rookie professionals Keith Nolan, who birdied the first and third holes at Poppy Hills Golf Club, and Richard Coughlan, who eagled the second hole on the world renowned Pebble Beach golf links.
They were competing in the rain-delayed first round of the AT&T National Pro-Am which was restricted to nine holes yesterday, the second nine scheduled for today.
Nolan made a bogey six at the fourth, and after shaving the hole on two occasions with birdie attempts he reached the half way point at one under par 35.
Coughlan hung on grimly to his score after the eagle three, completing an arduous day by playing the first nine at Pebble Beach in a two under par 34 which left him two shots behind the leaders in a marathon session which took almost 3 1/2 hours.
The half way leaders on four under par were 1996 Open Champion Tom Lehman, Phil Mickelson and comparative unknown Tom Pernice.
A storm moved in overnight off the Pacific Ocean causing movie stars, politicians, business tycoons and professional golfers alike to kick their heels, simply hoping for an improvement in the weather that would enable them, at least, to get in the nine holes before dusk.
Kevin Costner, Jack Lemmon, Glen Campbell, Joe Pesci and Donald Trump were some of those waiting around.
Tiger Woods has flown here after his dramatic win in Thailand to play in the tournament alongside his father, something that he had hoped to do last year when he partnered Costner.
"I called Kevin and just told him that I was playing with my dad this year," Woods said.
Another father and son partnership at the tournament is Jack Nicklaus and his second son Steve, playing in the same fourball as third son Gary, a newly-qualified member of the European Tour.
Jesper Parnevik, straight from his inaugural victory on the PGA tour in last week's Phoenix Open, is suffering from flu that has afflicted his whole family, his eightmonth-old daughter being confined to hospital for most of last week.
"It was a great feeling to win at last after finishing second five times last year.
