Several years ago, California-based writer John Sammon scored an interview with Clint Eastwood for the now-defunct Monterey County Post in which the iconic star discussed his passion for golf and his investments and business in the Carmel, California area. The interview is reprinted here courtesy of John Sammon.
Q: Let’s begin with
some background. What was your childhood like?
CE: I
was born in San Francisco, but raised mostly in Oakland. My family moved
a lot, and I lived in places like Redding and Spokane in Washington and
Sacramento, and Pacific Palisades in California. During the
World War II years, my dad worked for Bethlehem Steel in Oakland. I attended Glenview Grammar School.
As a kid, I earned a little money selling Liberty
and Colliers magazines. Both of these are out of print now. Every magazine I
ever worked for went out of print. Then I took a job with the Oakland Tribune,
a paper route. After the war, my father went to work for California Container,
a corrugated box company. Later on, Dad was transferred to Seattle, where he became a plant manager. I
graduated from high school and joined my parents up there for a while. I was
trying to get into Seattle
University on a music
program, but I applied too late. I was drafted into the U.S. Army at the time
of the Korean War, 1951. I came to Fort
Ord. That’s how I got
used to the Carmel
area. I got to spend time in Monterey, Carmel, Pebble Beach and Salinas.
I even used to come to Mission Ranch when I was a soldier earning $75 a month.
Q: Did you dream that
one day you would own Mission Ranch?
CE: No. Back then, I didn’t plan on owning too
much of anything. After I got out of the service, I went to Los
Angeles where I attended Los
Angeles City College, studying business
administration. I started taking acting classes in the evening. After I landed
a steady job on Rawhide , I came up
to the Monterey Peninsula and bought a little house
across from the Monterey Peninsula Country Club. A tiny house with all the
furniture inside. I’d been coming up periodically at that time, and stayed
wherever I could. I loved that house. It was the first home I ever owned. I
paid $20,000, and later sold it for $25,000.
Q: When was the first
time you played golf at Pebble
Beach?
CE: I used to play
over in Pacific Grove
where there was a nine hole course. When a friend returned from Korea we
celebrated by playing Pebble. It was overwhelming, a much more difficult course
than Pacific Grove,
much longer. But Pebble was such a beautiful layout. You knew you were playing
on a first-class course. I was 21 years old and I wasn’t very good. My friend
and I just went out and tried to hit the ball as hard as we could. The ball
would go in a lot of different directions. But we had a good time.
Later, I traipsed over
the courses during the Bing Crosby Pro-Am, so I knew what they looked like. I
didn’t play too much after that. A lot of years, I’d play once a year, or not
at all, because I was busy trying to get a career going. It never gave me much
of a chance to be a player.
Q: You bought the
Mission Ranch in 1986. One of the proposals at the time was to turn the site
into condominiums?
CE: Yes. The Ranch was
approved to be torn down in order to put in sixty-six condos. There were a bunch
of owners at the time, guys and their ex-wives, their girlfriends…you name it.
In fact, fourteen people had to sign off when I bought this place. They had to
meet a lot of conditions to put up these condos, so I offered them some dough.
They agreed on a price, and I had to go and get these fourteen signatures, and
sort them all out. Mission Ranch had once been a farm and a dairy. One of the
buildings, the bunkhouse, dates back to 1852. The floors had to be replaced. We
just went thought the place piece by piece, redoing everything. Like the barn
for instance. They used to joke that the only thing holding it up were termites
holding hands. The site has also been an auto court (motel), and during World
War II, an officer’s club for all branches of the service. When I bought the property, the big
barn had a low ceiling. I took the ceiling out and saw that all the windows
were painted black. I asked Maggie Denault, who had been the owner, how come
the windows were black? She said that during the war years, they used to have
dances in there. They were worried about Japanese submarines off the coast so
they painted the windows to block the light from showing.
Q: Did you get the
site on the historical register?
CE:. No. I didn’t put
it on the Historical Register. We wanted to keep the site historically
accurate, however, so I went ahead restoring from what I knew about the place.
Maggie was my source of information. She’d owned the property for many years.
We took this false ceiling out and scraped the paint off the windows. The roofs
have all been replaced. We went from a shake roof to fire-proof roofing
materials. We moved some units out, five little cottages that were built in the
1950s. They looked like agricultural buildings, and they’re out in the (Carmel) Valley now.
They’ve been painted and fixed up pretty nicely, I think. We used the space to
build a four-plex that looks like it goes with the area. The tennis club had a
1950s type building sort of flat and low. I took that out and replaced it with
a building that looks like it belongs here, an early American style farm.
There used to be a
swimming pool there. We’ve got pictures of gals sitting around the pool during
the 1930s, and they had a big polo field farther out. We’ve preserved those
areas as wetlands. That way it can’t be built on. I’d like to see it stay like
it is, forever.
Q: When did you start
the Hog’s Breath Inn in Carmel?
CE: That would be in
1972. Malcolm Moran owned the building, and one day he was showing it to me,
and he said. “Wouldn’t this make a great place for a saloon?†One thing led to
another. Walter Becker and I started the business as sort of a lark.
Q: Didn’t you buy the
building housing the Hog’s Breath Inn during the 1980s?
CE: Yes. Malcolm was moving (to Port Townsend),
so he sold me the building.
Q: You done some things with other properties
that a lot of people aren’t familiar with. I believe you owned a piece of land
with James Garner. Is it true you gave that land away?
CE: James Garner and I
had 360 acres up in Carmel
Valley. We owned that for
some time. He loved the area, and I think he thought about moving here. We had
donated some money to save Jack’s Peak from development. Finally, we decided to
give the property to the County Housing Authority for a senior housing program.
Pacific Meadows they’ve named it. A beautiful property. Very pristine. I owned
that and another piece called Canada Woods. There’s also more than 200 acres
down the coast that’s been permanently preserved, Odello East too with all the
artichoke fields. The Big Sur Land Trust holds a big portion, and the county
has some. It’s agricultural use only.
Q: Outside of
preserving a lot of property, the only thing you’re really developed is Tehama
Golf Course (mid-Carmel Valley)? And Tehama is an 18-hole golf course, with 34
units?
CE:. It was contiguous to a piece of property
in Canada Hills that I had in the Valley. The property was approved by the
people who owned it, for 139 units, which I thought was rather dense. My
business manager, who doesn’t play golf, asked, “What about a golf course?†I
said, “yeah, that sounds interesting.†We checked out the feasibility, bought
the property from my neighbors, extinguished plans for the 139 units, and put
up the golf course.
Q:. So Canada Woods now
has a modest development density?
CE: Yeah. Forever.
Q: Even though you had
the right to build more than 200 units?
CE: We reduced that
number considerably. That property is interesting. Years ago, they talked about
a county road through there. They thought the road would take heat off Highway
1 for people coming from Monterey,
but then they got rid of that idea. When I was mayor of Carmel, we offered the county the property to
build a holding reservoir for water. At that time, everybody was concerned
about the water issue, as they are today. But water is such a tricky issue. The
objections to improving water situations are usually based on trying to
suppress development, and they sometimes get off track and don’t stay on the
track of preserving water for everybody who needs it. Everybody worried about
increasing the amount of water for more development in the area, so water
became a political football. I thought the reservoir was a good idea, and we
offered to give the property to the county for that purpose. They studied and
surveyed it a little bit and said, “yeah, you could put a dam across there, and
pull water in.†But nobody bit. The pro-dam people didn’t want it because they
thought it might discourage building a big dam, and the anti-dam people didn’t
want it because they didn’t want to improve the water supply…period. The
proposal got meshed in there with desalinization and all the other things that
went down the tube. Since the, the
county has spent a horrendous amount of money, and we’re back where we started.
I guess I’m naïve. I just thought it would be interesting to have a better
quality water supply, not just more.
Q: How did you come to purchase the Pebble
Beach Company?
CE: The company was owned by the Sumitomo
Company of Japan,
and had been through quite a few different owners and situations. I always
expressed an interest. There were rumors they were going to sell, but nobody
had much faith in the rumors. Peter Uberroth (former baseball commissioner) and
I discussed the situation. Peter called and asked if I could stop by and visit.
We sat and talked. He said there’s a little bit of interest on the part of the
Japanese owners. He said it’s probably a long shot, probably won’t happen. But
he said he wanted me to be part of the deal if I was interested. I said I
was. Our philosophy was that we
didn’t want to get into a bidding war, but just to put together a proposal. One
day Peter came and said, “it looks like it’s coming together.†I said fine,
tell me where and when. He did a splendid job, and had the idea of getting
together a group who really like Pebble
Beach, and who were in a
position not to have to roll the company over and take the first offer that
came flying along. Everybody understood this would be a long-term deal, maybe
somebody’s great granddaughter or son would see some profit some day, but all
the other people would enjoy taking part anyway. They’re people who love the
area. We could of built up to 890 housing units there. The former owners
presented a plan that would have had 315 lots, and put in a golf course. Our
compromise eliminates the 315 lots, and has us staying in the visitor service
business. The plan will include an 18-hole golf course, approximately 60
additional hotel rooms (at the 161-room lodge at Pebble Beach), and another 80
rooms at the 270-room Inn at Spanish Bay, and 38 residential lots averaging two
acres each, to be sold to private buyers in the Pebble Beach, Poppy Hills and
Pescadero Canyon areas. In addition, the project would install a golf cottage
of 24 suites, 60 housing units for employees of the lodges, and 425 acres of
permanent open space. Approximately 54 units deemed as more affordable will be
located in Pajaro.I believe this is better for the county. It increases the tax
base, diminishes traffic, and uses less water. One politician who heard the
proposal said, “are you crazy? You’re giving up 898 lots at the prices they’re
going for today?â€
Q: You played Pebble Beach
at 23 years old, and you had to scrape together some cash just to get on the
course. And here you are, one of the owners. How did you do it?
CE: You hang around
and a lot of stuff happens. You just outlive everybody.
Q: In 1916, Pebble Beach
was known as the icon of American golf. At that time, the Big Four in San Francisco were
gentlemen named Huntington, Stanford, Crocker, and Hopkins. Today, the Big Four
are Richard Ferris, Clint Eastwood, Peter Uberroth and Arnold Palmer. Your
careers were all different, but you all made it to the top, right?
CE: We made it each in
our own odd ways. Ferris is a Bay Area self-made guy. Uberroth went to San Jose State. Palmer is self-made. I went to Los Angeles City College.
Who knows where you will end up in life. I think this must be fate driven.
Q: What changes have you noticed over the
years?
CE: In 1991, they changed the rough to rye
grass. Some complain about how hard it is to get out of the rough, don’t they?
I’ve played the course, and when you get in the rough, you might as well hit
the ball out in this (Mission Ranch Hotel) empty field. The guy who can keep
the ball in the fairway does the best. The fairways and the greens are great.
But the rough. That’s tough.
Q: What would you
consider the best part of your game?
CE: The best part of
my game is realizing that nothing comes easy. When I’m on my game, chipping is
the best part. But that’s a very fleeting romance. It can leave you quick.
Q: What are your final
thoughts on the U.S. Open?
CE: It’s gotten to be
really big. The enthusiasm is there. It’s a much bigger business than it once
was. It was a nice tournament, sort of sedate. But golf has increased in
popularity because of Payne Stewart and his involvement, and Tiger Woods.
There’s a lot of interest among people in Central
California. This means a lot to our economy. I’m glad to be a part
of it.
Copyright 2007
Sammonsays.