Pros join amateurs at Pebble Beach Invitational

PEBBLE BEACH, CALIF. (AP) - D.A. Points, Scott Stallings, Harrison Frazar and Bryce Molder, all winners on the PGA Tour this year, will join defending champion John Mallinger when the 40th edition of the Callaway Golf Pebble Beach Invitational tees off Thursday.

The 72-hole tournament, the only head-to-head competition featuring PGA, LPGA, Champions and Nationwide Tour professionals, will be played at Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill and Del Monte.

A field of 83 pros, each playing with three amateur partners, will play simultaneously on the three courses for the first three rounds.

The low 40 pro scores and ties, and the 10 amateur teams and ties will advance to Sunday’s final round at Pebble Beach.

Olin Browne, the reigning U.S. Senior Open Champion, Russ Cochran, the 2011 British Senior Open Championship winner, and two-time LPGA winner Katherine Hull are in the field.

Former Pebble Beach Invitational winners Rocco Mediate (1999), Mark Brooks (1992, 2002 and 2009) and Kevin Sutherland (2000) also are entered.

Mallinger, who split the 2011 season between the PGA Tour and the Nationwide Tour, shot a 15-under 273, good for a two-stroke win last year at the Pebble Beach Invitational over runner-up Jason Gore.

A 10-year professional, Mallinger finished 195th on the 2011 PGA Tour money list ($179,498). A tie for 12th at the Wyndham Championship was his only top-25 finish in 16 tournaments.

Mallinger also had two runner-up finishes and six straight top-10 efforts in nine Nationwide Tour events in 2011 and regained his PGA Tour card for 2012 after finishing 14th on the Nationwide money list ($237,779).

Points, who claimed his first PGA Tour win in February at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and also won the pro-am with amateur partner Bill Murray, earned a career-best $2,034,156 this season and finished 37th on the PGA money list.

Frazar joined Points, Molder and Stallings among 12 first-time PGA Tour winners this year. Frazar, who had considered retirement, claimed his debut PGA Tour title in a playoff at the FedEx St. Jude Classic in June in his 355th career start.

Stallings was a first-time winner in July at the Greenbrier Classic, while Molder was victorious in October at the Frys.com Open.

In addition to Hull, who won her last LPGA title in 2010 at the Navistar Classic, nine other LPGA players are entered. Ten Champions Tour and 14 Nationwide Tour players, as well as mini-tour and club pros are in the field.

Juli Inkster is the only woman to win the event, in 1990.

Distance advantages are given on tee shots to compensate for various tour players’ average driving yardage.

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