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Tuesday, February 10, 2009

AT&T Viewers: Thank Steve Wynn

Over the years the AT&T has grown from a modest clambake in Rancho Sante Fe to its current format on the Monterey Peninsula, where 180 Tour pros are held at gunpoint and forced to endure six hour rounds of bad golf before one lucky player walks away with a check for $1,080,000 (and a much needed break from their amateur playing partners).

Many pros skip the AT&T because of the lengthy rounds, but this year the field is surprisingly strong with four of the world's top ten golfers (Padraig Harrington, Vijay Singh, Phil Mickelson and Kenny Perry) teeing it up. Also on hand are Jim Furyk, Davis Love III, Fred Couples and '09 winners, Nick Watney, Kenny Perry and Pat Perez.

Of course the AT&T is really all about the celebrities, and CBS' Saturday telecast is sure to keep the cameras trained on (Kenny G aside) their lackluster golf swings and the crowd-pleasing shenanigans of Bill Murray, Kevin James and George Lopez, etc.

The real golf comes on Sunday.

One notably absent celeb this year is Las Vegas impersonator Danny Gans, who, for the past two years, monopolized much of the Saturday telecasts with recycled SNL impersonations. We're not sure why CBS devoted so much airtime to Gans, possibly they're sadists, maybe they just really dug his imitation of Dana Carvey imitations. Whatever their motivation, watching Gans' ham it up taught us how to use our TiVo and guaranteed that the next time we're in Vegas we'll take in the American Superstars show before we'd see Gans.

Then again, we're not the high-rolling, Picasso-poking Steve Wynn, who, according to the Las Vegas Sun, lured Gans to his newest Vegas property, Encore, when his contract at the Mirage expired last April.

...Wynn has seen Gans' show 20 times.

Wynn drew up a list of favorite bits he wanted to see in the new show, but told Gans: "You can do new stuff too, whatever you want to do, but make sure you do this." Gans looked at the list and realized there wasn't any room for new material. "Steve, this is like an hour and a half of material. I can't do it."

So...expect to see more of the same if you see Gans' "new" show. Look on the bright side, at least it'll be in Las Vegas and not at this year's AT&T.


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