It's chic to put down the whole region. The insults are there, in everything from New Yorker cartoons to journalistic sarcasm. The approach is extended to golf, the PGA Tour even. A select group of pampered pros begin each year in luxury at La Costa Resort and Spa near Carlsbad, Calif., home to the PGA Tour's season-opening Mercedes Championships.
People definitely notice the events.
The crowds are big, the scenery is spectacular. The guy with the lowest score still wins. The L.A. Open was where the tour began for many years, a winter fixture when the rest of the country was in ear muffs. If it was good enough for Hogan and Nelson, it should be good enough for the pros of the current era and the skeptics of any era. East is east and West is the best place to hold the PGA Tour in January and February.