The AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am is now in the record books following Steve Lowery”s overtime win over Vijay Singh. More impressive than Lowery”s surprise win was the beautiful Chamber of Commerce weather that engulfed the Monterey Peninsula last week. After all, the weather is always a crapshoot along the Carmel Coast in early February. Often the tournament will have “Crosby” weather ranging from gale force winds to rain to even snow. This time around it was a very memorable Clambake for many reasons.
It was 40 years ago that professional golfer Johnny Pott had a very memorable Clambake week, winning the Bing Crosby National Pro-Am at Pebble Beach, Cypress Point and the then 2-year-old Spyglass Hill. Pott beat three-time major champion Billy Casper and Australian Bruce Devlin in a sudden-death playoff.
Nowadays, Pott is the newly appointed PGA Director of Golf at the soon-to-be-built Langtry Farms Golf Course just outside Middletown on Butts Canyon Road. Pott, who has spent the last 30 years of his career working in the Palm Springs area for the world-renown Landmark Golf Company, is in the process of closing up the family home in LaQuinta and relocating to Middletown.
Born in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, in 1935, Pott grew up along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. His dad was the local golf professional and Johnny took up the game as a youngster. An accomplished junior player, Pott attended Louisiana State University and played on the golf team. He was the medallist at the 1955 NCAA Championship, the same year LSU won the team title.
He joined the PGA Tour in 1957 and actively followed the sun until 1972. He was a five-time winner on the PGA tour during golf”s golden decade of the 1960s as well as a three-time member of the United States Ryder Cup team.
Pott finished second an amazing 17 times during his PGA Tour career. While some of his tour wins were at the hands of golfers such as Billy Casper at the Crosby and Sam Snead at the 1961 West Palm Beach Open, he also was victimized by some of golf”s biggest names, losing in a playoff to Jack Nicklaus at the 1966 Memphis Open and coming in second at the same tournament two years later to Dave Hill.
Toward the end of his playing career, Pott joined up with fellow tour professionals Ernie Vossler and Joe Wassler Jr. in Unique Golf Concepts, a firm that would later become a part of Landmark Golf. Pott oversaw the formation and the building of the Marsh Island Golf Course in Mississippi, a Pete Dye design. He then served as marketing director for the Oak Tree Golf Club in Oklahoma, site of the 1988 PGA Championship won by Jeff Sluman, and the Cardinal Club in North Carolina.
When Unique Golf, the original company, was purchased by Landmark, Pott found himself involved in a myriad of building projects such as Belle Terre in Louisiana, Carmel Valley Ranch, PGA West, The Golf Club of California, and the Silver Rock Resort over the next 20 years.
Potts” move to Lake County is a big-time addition to the pending 18-hole golf course complex at Langtry. The golf course will be designed by former British Open champion Tom Weiskopf, a friend and contemporary of Pott”s on the PGA Tour as well as co-workers on the Weiskopf Course at PGA West, a six-course Landmark facility in LaQuinta.
According to Pott, the Langtry Farms Golf Course will be located in a gorgeous meadow on the property. Pott told me “the course will be an exciting palate for Tom, combining a beautiful setting along with having no worries about residential concerns.” There will be no houses along the holes. Pott also feels that the property lends itself to some Troon-like features. Royal Troon was the site of Weiskopf”s British Open triumph in 1973.
Although he is making a big move by leaving the desert and moving to Lake County, Pott contends there are some very good reasons for this change of direction at this time in his career.
Johnny told me “that although I grew up in Mississippi, I have a lot of wonderful memories of Northern California.”
Obviously, Pott has great memories of his Crosby win in 1968, but he also was in the Northern California area during the early 1980s, when he supervised Landmark”s golf project at Carmel Valley Ranch, an exciting Monterey-area course designed by Pete Dye.
Potts has children who reside in the Northern California towns of Carmel, Sacramento and San Rafael, and he and his wife are looking forward to being closer to family. “I am excited about being in Lake County,” Potts said. “I know I am taking on quite a commitment, but this is such a beautiful setting for a quality golf course and I am looking forward to all aspects of my new job.”
Potts added that the golf course at Langtry Farms is an added amenity to the winery. While it will be a private facility owned by the winery and available to its clients, Potts envisions that the course will also be opened up for fundraising tournaments and local functions.
Next week”s column will be part two of the Johnny Pott interview, including some interesting commentary about Ryder Cups past and present, caddies, technology, today”s world of golf gurus, and the golden age of American golf.
