The Pebble Beach Experience
Anticipation
Does a course like Pebble Beach live up to its substantial greens fees? Is it worth playing? How does the course and experience match up to the countless accolades that have etched it into golf immortality? I have often wondered, particularly in the more recent years as my interest in the game of golf has steadily increased, if I will ever be fortunate enough to have the opportunity to sit back and answer these questions. Pebble Beach has always been a dream that has never seemed close enough to grasp.
For most traveling in from out of state and flying commercial, the first step to turn a dream into reality starts with a flight into San Francisco. Jump in a car and head directly south where most roads will connect to Highway 1 which leads to Monterrey Peninsula and then onto 17 Mile Drive. Can you feel the anticipation? If it hasn’t been building since your tee time was confirmed with Pebble Beach, then maybe this isn’t your cup of tea or experience to be had. The final road that leads to Pebble Beach also happens to be one of the most spectacular drives leading to a golf course in the world. Coming in from the north, your first views are of The Links at Spanish Bay, one of the three Pebble Beach Resort courses. On our initial drive in it was a damp, misty, foggy day; a true Pebble Beach specialty as we would learn. The first views of 17 Mile Drive were of crashing waves forming a backdrop for a rugged links-style course, a beautiful and dramatic scene confirming we had arrived at a special place.
Afternoon fog seeping in on The Links at Spanish Bay
Back in the car, 17 Mile Drive weaves and winds along the rugged coastline on the drivers right and almost a constant view of golf courses to the left between Spyglass Hill, Monterrey Peninsula Country Club and one of the top and most exclusive golf courses in the country, Cypress Point. Cypress Point looks like a poetic golf dream; a stoic white clubhouse with a small ‘Members Only’ sign on the short road up leaves every golfer gawking. Across the street sits a small driving range and a glimmer of few world class golf holes most will never come any closer to than this road. One dream at a time. Once you pass a house named anticipation you reach the final landmark of the drive the famed Lone Cypress Tree which has been the Pebble Beach Resort logo since opening in 1919. 250 years of sun, wind, fog, and countless storms and this tree could not look in finer form. It’s the final and most fitting stop before arriving at Pebble Beach.
The Lone Cypress on a blue sky Monterrey Peninsula Day; The Pebble Beach experience is about much more than 18 holes of golf.
Our arrival day just had us scoping out this meca. One of the first things I noticed upon stepping foot onto the property is that not everyone comes to Pebble Beach to play golf. The Lodge encompasses the central part of a expansive property and consists of restaurants, bars, guest rooms, and a number of shopping options. The benefit of staying at a Pebble Beach Resort property is you can book tee times up to six months in advance. You also pay a pretty penny to stay on property. For non-resort guests, tee times can be booked up to twenty-four hours in advance. I knew I wanted to play Pebble’s par three course The Hay with my wife, so I called up around two weeks ahead of our trip to book a tee time. After locking in a tee time for The Hay I thought it may not hurt to ask about tee time availability for Pebble Beach Golf Links. Sure enough the Pebble Bach Resort booking agent (I also know her as the angel sent from heaven) had a single spot available on Monday June 24th. Destiny meets opportunity.
Sitting just in front of the first tee box is an incredible mantle profiling all past champions with dedicated slots to future Majors. Pebble Beach has hosted 15 majors including 6 Men’s U.S. Opens. Not a bad resume.
Early Holes and Shaking Knees
As expected, the evening of the 23rd was a fitful night of sleep. We stayed in Carmel and I arrived well before my tee time as you cannot be rushed before a round like this. The morning broke with some hazy fog which quickly burned off making way to an expansive blue sky. The temperatures were rather comfortable and the wind was calm. Is this real? Pebble Beach is known for all kinds of weather conditions in particular heavy wind and fog. The golf weather gods brought a perfect summer day. I had a great warmup session which of course means I was going to have superb round of golf. A massive putting green is the final landing spot to roll puts before the jittery walk to the first tee.
Pebble Beach Golf Links has five sets of tees playing 6,802 from the Blues with a slope rating of 144. I played two tees up at the whites which plays 6,083 yards with a slope rating of 135. Pebble opens with a dog right par four. ‘Good, but not great’ as Jim Nantz describes it. From most tees players should not need more than a mid to long iron to ideally putting your approach shot in the 150 range. While the first hole is open and the golfer is not forced to hit a driver with the first shot of the day, there may not be a nervier first tee shot on the planet with the history of the course along with the general spectators and foot traffic buzzing around the first tee. Pebble eases you in, but also shows itself right away. As I was setting up for my first approach shot of the day and trying to play relaxed golf, I confirmed the stories of Pebble greens being small and tight are fully accurate as I squinted into the sun to see the small markings off a green.
The opening hole at Pebble Beach is not looked at as a difficult golf hole, but is a difficult hole to play golf from.
The second is another fairly open hole and is the first par five of the course. Keep your tee shot left to avoid a long passage of bunkers on the right. The approach and or second shot for long hitters are where things get interesting. If you lay up, there is a narrow passage with large trees on both sides of the fairway and one bunker you never want to be in set directly below the rather thin passageway. It won’t be the last time Pebble provides this approach shot view. I was faced with my first downhill putt of the day on two which was lightning quick. The greens at Pebble Beach are incredibly fast, the way they should be for a championship golf course. As our group learned early on, you want to be putting beneath the hole. Downhill or cross hill puts are quick recipes for three puts.
The tee shot on number two is not a difficult one, but strategy comes into place for every shot there after
I call this bunker, ‘not to be messed with’
Following a relatively short par four that sharply dogs to the left, the first ocean views come into play on number four and you are one hole closer to some of the greatest golf holes on the planet. Four is a great golf hole and is the start of a stretch of seven straight holes along the Pacific Ocean. The primary driver for that consistent ocean stretch is when the fifth hole was moved from a more inland layout to directly along the ocean via a 1998 Jack Nichalus redesign. This precious piece of oceanside land had long since been private property and Pebble Beach was able to re-acquire the piece of land that was originally sold off when the course was being built. Jack’s favorite golf course is Pebble Beach Golf Links so certainly a privilege for him to manage this redesign. Five is a relatively short par three with another small green. The Pacific, now your constant compadre, sits on the right and the green slopes towards the ocean like most holes on the course. Probably with that in mind I pulled this shot to the left and walked away with a double bogey. This was a great double bogey in my mind because finishing the fifth hole meant the start of one of the best three hole stretches in golf.
The 5th is the second hole in string of seven consecutive ocean holes at Pebble Beach Golf Links
What You Came For
The walk from five green to six tee box and accompanying views was one of my favorite moments to the day. Six tee box sits slightly uphill and rises to views of a large fairway surrounded by the Pacific and a beckoning cliff. The tee shot here is a fun one. The play is to the middle-left side of the fairway, but not too far left with bunkers lining that side. The second shot here is as wild as it gets. With a shorter drive (hand raised) you are left to lay up below a massive hill; for the longer hitters it’s a fully blind shot up to the second tier of the hole. I found the middle of those two options and was left with a extremely vertical shot with zero context of where the green was. Once you finally crest that hill, currently, there is a temporary green, which replaced just a few weeks after this round. Once again, this green slopes towards the ocean. Despite the temporary green, this was probably my favorite hole on the golf course. Hole highlight: 30 foot putt to save bogey (yes, bogey). If I thought the walk from five to six was great, it was now to time to head to seven.
One of the great holes in golf, the par 5 6th at Pebble Beach
You always dream of playing a hole like this on a blue-sky day with minimal wind, some crashing waves, and warm temperatures. Something out of a golf storybook. Minus the crashing waves being replaced with calm ocean blue, every box was checked. Seeing a hole like the seventh for the first time almost did not seem real since it is one of the most polarized and photographed holes in golf. Pristine and perfect in every aspect. Blue sky, ocean, and a outcrop of rocks setup against a skinny green surrounded by bunkers. I could spend a day writing about it. From the whites, the hole was playing only 85 yards with a front pin placement. On a windy day, that could turn into playing like 160 yards or more. My dreams of a hole in one were quickly dashed as I left my shot just short of the front bunker. I hit what I thought was a pretty good chip over a bunker that landed around the flag stick and settled on the very back edge of the green leaving me with a long downhill putt. The severity of the slope of this green is one area that pictures or videos cannot capture, like many greens at Pebble.
Catching 7 on the day that we had was dream like
The Amen Corner of Pebble Beach comes to a dramatic end with the par four eighth. The play here from the whites is a shot less than two hundred yards, from the tips it’s probably closer to 230 or 240. Anything long sails over another dramatic cliff and becomes property of the Pacific Ocean. The green is narrow and daunting and is directly surrounded by four sand traps. The hole opens to the left side and is certainly the side to miss as anything right of the green side bunker is likely out of bounds. I hit a decent iron off the tee but was still left with a complexly blind second shot. I had about as much confidence in long irons on this day as Rory does to make short puts to win majors, so I hit a three wood to ease the nerves a bit, staying clear from the pacific but catching the green side bunker on the right. I mark this one down as the best approach shots on the course. Jack Nicholas calls it the best approach shot in golf. Jordan Speith had a pretty wild shot here in 2022 where he was so close to the edge of the cliff he had to shuffle backwards at the end of his swing to avoid possibly going down the edge of the cliff.
Second shot on eight is one of the great approach shots in golf; Jordan Speith knows this cliff well from his shot from the near edge in 2022.
Two par fours round out the first stretch of ocean holes at Pebble Beach. These are two really difficult golf holes following a already very demanding stretch of holes. Number nine is a massive 436-yard par four from the whites and the tenth carries slightly shorter at 408 yards. These holes play long and slope to the right with greens moving towards the ocean. One of my favorite parts of playing these holes is they run along Carmel Beach which was a great spot for morning walks and home to many Carmel dogs. Following the tenth you hit a stretch of inland holes that work back towards the clubhouse and eventually draw you back to ocean. My favorite holes on this stretch were the fourteenth which is a long par five playing as the number one handicap on the course. Additionally, the 16th, which is a solid par four with a very similar approach shot to number three where you are required to carry through the gap of two trees on either side of the fairway.
The 10th provides a large fairway and wonderful views of Carmel Beach
The Famous Finish
As you exit sixteen green, the ocean once again rises as a majestic back drop, this time against the par three seventh. From the whites, the seventeenth plays 176 yards. While not long on paper this is a massive hourglass green that can have a huge yard carry difference depending on pin placement. A big hook left here and you may take a visit to the Pacific. More sand comes into play here surrounding the entire green with the exception of the short grass in the front right of the green. Like so many of the holes at Pebble Beach, 17 is seeping with history. With it’s famous left pin placement, Jack hit a one iron from 219 yards in the 1972 US Open that nailed the pin and landed just inches from the hole, giving him a comfortable three shot lead and sealing the tournament. With a difficult green complex, seventeen is a hole that can quickly turn into a big number if not careful. The final treck of the day, seventeen green to eighteen tee box, it was time to play the best finishing hole in golf.
Following a stretch of inland holes, 17 is a welcome sight
Eighteen tee boxes sits on the back left side of the hole mostly isolated over the ocean. As you look up you see crashing waves against a sea wall and the iconic Cypress Tree sitting in the middle of the fairway. Of course, the Lone Cypress is situated perfectly to cause concern and strategy off the tee. One interesting thing about eighteen is that it is the first time of the day the ocean is on the golfers left side. With the exception of seventeen where the ocean is straight ahead, the ocean is on the golfers right for every other ocean hole. Also, the fairway here is pretty large, larger than I expected. It’s still a intimidating tee shot but the ocean and or rocks against the sea wall should only come into play if you go for an aggressive play to the left side of the fairway. I thought the golf got more intimidating as the hole went on as the cypress that comes into play had a direct effect on my second shot strategy. Additionally, as you draw near to eighteen you once again are greeted with onlookers catching a glimpse or a quick picture of this historic hole. The Bench is the spot to be for post round drinks and food as it sits parallel to eighteen green. It also adds to the crowd watching golfer’s finish. It was a odd yet incredible feeling rolling in the final putt of the day. I had just played Pebble Beach. I had not played it well, but that did not matter. I had played eighteen holes on a golf course to me that always seemed as obtainable as morning mist in a jar. Upon exiting eighteen green, Pebble Beach has a long golf cart that they load up all the golfers on and carry you back to the first tee. Didn’t think you would get that in your $650 green fee did you?
The famous finishing hole at Pebble Beach
Final Takeaways
The age old question with Pebble Beach Golf Links that seems to get thrown around, is it worth the price of admission? The answer here is subjective, but if you are a passionate golfer or even if you are an avid golfer with a great appreciation for the sport and golf history, the answer is a easy one. There will be no regret. You will not forget the views or each of the nine ocean holes. You will have countless nights lying in bed at night thinking about the experience. Cocktails will never taste the same. The course will garner a new respect in your mind will have new meaning for watching tournaments. If you don’t score well, it won’t matter (I keep telling myself this). It is so much more than eighteen holes of golf. Its Pebble Beach.
Learnings Along The Way
There are no sand for divots; per a caddie that was in our foursome, Pebble Bach employees fill in the divots with sand. This was a first.
Pebble Beach ‘Marshalls’ are known as Players Assistants. I thought this was pretty cool.
Slow Rounds are real; we played in a bit over five hours while keeping pace with the group ahead of us. The slow pace did not matter to me, more time soaking in the round and the beauty of the course. Not a round to be rushed.
Pebble Beach marks tee times as guaranteed to finish. So if your tee time is not tagged, the resort cannot guarantee you will get eighteen in.
This is a difficult golf course. I had perfect playing conditions as well. The greens are Championship fast.
I did not get a caddie, there was one in a group and I could tell he was a big help to his player. Getting a caddie is worth it here particularly if it is your first time playing the course.
There is a home that borders the tenth hole that may cost as much as every home on my street combined, multiplied by three. We had a caddie who pointed out that at one point the home was owned by Gene Hackman.