For two days, one group at the Pro-Am had a flashback experience.

Dave Faries here, suspecting that many in the crowd at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am missed something.

Assuming the weather holds, the tournament comes to an end later today, Feb. 15 with a field of 80 professionals. Amateur participation ended after Friday’s second round. It’s the third year the Pro-Am has been played as a PGA Tour signature event, which attracts the world’s top professionals while limiting amateur participation.

Winter weather often plays a factor, even before the Pro-Am. In this week’s print edition, Senior Staff Writer Pam Marino took a look at how groundskeepers restore courses like Pebble Beach Golf Links and Spyglass Hill Golf Course after storm damage. Freelance writer Ava Homa spoke with an artist who finds landscape beauty in the courses. Spyglass is a course to know, since it has a reputation—my cover story contribution. 

Back to what may have gone unnoticed. I appreciate watching the best golfers on an iconic course. Many people, however, yearn for the old ways. Of course, there was some buzz about the amateurs this year, thanks to Travis Kelce joining the lineup. A few times I heard other members of the media raise the obvious question: Did the recently retired Kansas City Chiefs tight end bring his fiance along? For those who avoid football, social media and tabloids (the latter two being pretty much the same thing), that would be Taylor Swift.

For those who avoid pop music in addition to the other topics, you’re on your own.

Technically, Kelce, Steve Young and a few others in the field are celebrities. But in matters of Pro-Am semantics, the more appropriate status is athletes. True celebrities—Bill Murray, Ray Romano—were displaced when the tournament became a signature event. The celebs slowed play to a six-and-a-half-hour crawl.

So instead, much of the amateur field is made up of corporate executives, who apparently prefer honing their game to 9-to-5 drudgery. Some are decent golfers—although Lee Styslinger III, co-owner of Altec, Inc. but also a philanthropist supporting education, almost drilled me with an errant shot. 

But tournament organizers quietly snuck two celebrities in the field. Country music stars Jake Owen and Charles Kelley were paired with pros Corey Conners and Sam Burns. I asked Burns if it felt like the old days, at least for their group.

“Yeah, a little bit,” he told me. “I think Charles and Jake were both great. We had a blast out there. They’re great to play with.”

It helps that Owen is almost a scratch golfer—a 1 handicap—and Kelley plays with a not too bad 6 handicap. And they were not calling attention to themselves.

“When it’s your time to hit and you’re focused on the shot, you’re kind of engaged with what you’re doing,” Burns says. “After that you’re able to kind of chat with them and talk about what they do and their families—that sort of thing.”

So there was, for one group, a little taste of the old Pro-Am. At least for two days.