Bing Crosby's Croatian Daughter In Law

The following appeared in today's Monterrey Sun and concerns Harry
Crosby, Bing Crosby's son. It notes his recent marriage to a Croatian
cancer researcher Mihaela. I am guessing that this is Mihaela Skobe,
whose work has made the press previously. Dr. Skobe is currently with
the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. John Kraljic


Bing would have liked it, son says


The special feeling never leaves, said Harry Crosby, when he comes back
to the golf gathering his father started.

And he is certain that if Bing Crosby were around today, that he would
like what is going on with the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

"Absolutely, I think he would," Crosby said Thursday after the first
round he has played in the tournament in four years.

"Dad took great care to create the right environment, with people who
care about the community," said Crosby, whose 8 a.m. starting time was
on the back side of Spyglass Hill Golf Course, far removed from the
celebrity field up the road at Poppy Hills. "He was strict about the
people who participate."

The tournament came to the Peninsula in 1947 as the Bing Crosby National
Pro-Am, the first on the PGA Tour to showcase pro golfers and
celebrities together.

Crosby, 44, a managing director for Merrill Lynch in New York, said the
evolution of the event -- from paying the winner $40,000 in 1977, the
year Bing Crosby died, to a $954,000 first prize this year -- was
inevitable.

"There was a time in the '70s that the Tour was organizing in a way like
never before," Crosby said. "We needed a sponsor. The family couldn't
underwrite it."

The backlash from the Crosby name being dropped from the tournament when
AT&T became title sponsor in 1986 still rumbles round the Peninsula a
bit. And for a time, the move to corporate sponsorship put a strain on
the family.

"Change is always a little bit painful," Crosby said.

But he has been on board with the progression since 1986, and still is,
as a member of the board of the Monterey Peninsula Foundation, which
runs the AT&T Pro-Am.

Although Crosby has not played in the event recently -- creating a void
of the Crosby name in the event he and his younger brother, Nathaniel,
have played in the past -- he has been at most events, to attend
Foundation meetings.

And while he hasn't played much golf lately -- "It's a little hard when
it's 20-below in New York" -- Crosby still shot 79 on his own Thursday.

The trip back to the Peninsula is always special to Crosby, who was
married last August. His wife, Mihaela, is a scientist from Croatia who
is working in cancer research.

"It's always a little nostalgic to be here, but I like what Peter
Ueberroth, Clint Eastwood and AT&T have done," Crosby said, noting two
of the four principal owners of the Pebble Beach Co. Eastwood is also
chairman of the Foundation board. "They have taken such pains to ensure
the tradition is still there.

"It's about the people who participate," Crosby said. "They know that.
They got it right."