Palmer/Eastwood group buys Pebble Beach

A group that includes Arnold Palmer, Clint Eastwood and Peter Ueberroth agreed Thursday to buy the Pebble Beach golf course in California for $820 million, The Associated Press learned.

The group which Ueberroth, a former baseball commissioner, put together also includes former United Airlines chief executive Richard Ferris and General Electric Pensions.

A news conference was expected later Thursday, but details of the agreement were confirmed to the AP by a participant in the negotiations who spoke on the condition he not be identified.

Ueberroth's group becomes the fourth owner of the Pebble Beach Co. this decade. Bank America is providing financing.

Marvin Davis sold it in 1990 to Minoru Isutani for a price estimated at $850 million, and Isutani sold it two years later to The Lone Cypress Co., a Japanese golf resort company, for a price estimated at $500 million.

Bill Perocchi, formerly involved with Ueberroth and Ferris in Doubletree Hotels, will become chief executive officer of Pebble Beach.

The company's properties in the Monterey area include four golf courses -- the Pebble Beach Golf Links, Spyglass Hill Golf Course, The Links at Spanish Bay and Del Monte Golf Course -- along with The Lodge at Pebble Beach and The Inn at Spanish Bay. It also owns the 17-Mile Drive that winds through Pebble Beach and nearby Del Monte Forest and plans to develop a new course and 300 homes.

The 99th U.S. Amateur will be played at Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill on Aug. 16-22.

Pebble Beach was host to the U.S. Open in 1972, 1982 and 1992 and is scheduled to be host to the 100th U.S. Open next summer.

Eastwood is a former mayor of nearby Carmel, Calif.

AP