February 8, 2007 Eight-time ASP Surfing World Champion Kelly Slater will duke it out with different kinds of irons this weekend at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am golf tournament.

Paired with his close friend, Pat Perez, Slater will take on big names in the film and music industries along with veteran PGA champions. Pairings include Jesper Parnevik and George Lopez, Steve Elkington and Chris O’Donnell, Scott Simpson and Bill Murray, and Peter Jacobsen and Huey Lewis.

Teams spent Tuesday and Wednesday playing practice rounds on all three of Pebble Beach’s famed courses, Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill, and Poppy Hills, to mentally prepare for the 72-hole, three-round competition.

“Kelly played in our 3M Celebrity Challenge on Wednesday morning and he has become a tremendous addition to the tournament,” Cathy Scherzer, Publicist for AT&T, told Outside Online.

Slater has allegedly been trying to secure a spot on the roster for a few years now, with no luck.

“This year his number just came up,” Scherzer said, “It is a very popular tournament and we try to have a wide variety of players. Usually they are mostly musicians, or actors, we’ve never had a surfer before.”

Bing Crosby hosted the first Pro Amateur in 1937 and awarded $500 to the winner, golf legend Sam Snead. Pebble Beach has been the home of the tournament since 1947, and in 2007 the purse will amount to $5.5 million, with the winner taking home a share of just under a million.

Picking between his driver and his three-wood may not be the only decision resting on Slater’s mind this week, however. He is slated to attend the 22nd Annual Aikau Big Wave Invitational in Waimea Bay, on the North Shore of Oahu, which could go off at any time.

“It is always one of the biggest honors in the surfing world to get an invite. You feel welcomed by the family and the community,” Slater, who won the event in 2002, told his sponsor’s Web site, quicksilver.com.

Hosted by Quiksilver, and in memory of surf-legend Eddie Aikau, the competition hosts 24 of the world’s gutsiest paddle-in big-wave riders. The waiting period for the event began on December 1 and lasts three months. Until winds are controlled and the swells reach over 25 feet, riders will remain in a holding pattern.

According to Jodi Wilmott, the media contact for all Big Wave events on the North Shore, Slater should be able to attend both events. “On Tuesday we had swells up to 20 feet, but not over,” Wilmott told Outside Online. “We don’t see any sign of big swells for the next seven days, so Kelly should be safe.”

According to Wilcott, Slater has been practicing his game while waiting out the waves in Oahu. “He was here last week playing golf with Cameron [Diaz],” Wilcott told Outside Online.

Surf-permitting, Slater and Perez were slated to tee off along with Jason Gore and Carson Daly at 10:10 a.m. this morning at Pebble Beach Resort’s famous Spyglass Hill.

MORE ON KELLY SLATER
Even Flow
A conversation with Slater and Pearl Jam frontman and surfer Eddie Vedder

Kelly Slater Photo Gallery
See how the eight-time champ locked up number seven.

Adventure Life List
Kelly Slater on how to make a comeback

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