When the Pebble Beach Company was planning to create the Links at Spanish Bay to complement Pebble Beach Golf Links, one of the greatest courses in the world, it assembled the perfect design team.
Along with the renowned architect Robert Trent Jones Jr. and Sandy Tatum, former president of the United States Golf Association, Pebble Beach enlisted Tom Watson, who knows his way around a links course as well as any American, having won the Open Championship five times, four in Scotland and one in England.
The result was a spectacular course on the grounds of the Inn at Spanish Bay.
Watson said of the property: “Spanish Bay is so much like Scotland, you can almost hear the bagpipes.”
Well, actually you can, because a kilted Scotsman strides the across the links at sunset to signal the end of the day with his bagpipes.
The classic links course, which wraps around the Inn at Spanish Bay, meanders through the sand dunes and into the Del Monte Forest on the famed 17-mile drive, plays to a par of 72 and measures 6,821 yards.
Spanish Bay is rated at 74.1 with a slope of 146 by the Northern California Golf Association, but it is resort-friendly with five sets of tees.
Spanish Bay is a delight to the golfer right from the start, the 500-yard, par-5 first hole, which plays downhill to a green perched above the breakers on the Pacific Ocean. The green is guarded by two traps on the left and a marsh to the right, and shots that go long might land on the beach.
No. 5 is a 451-yard monster of a par 4, rated as the most difficult hole on the card, with three pot bunkers waiting in the right-center of the fairway. Take the long way around to the left or play risk-reward down the shorter, narrow right side. Second shots, again toward the ocean, will kick toward the green if they hug the right side.
The eighth hole is a gorgeous par 3, 158 yards from an elevated tee, across a large seaside lake to a narrow green. Club selection is key with the wind coming off the ocean to the right.
No. 10 is the first of three par 5s on the back nine, a double dogleg that plays uphill through a chute of trees in the forest with a demanding tee shot required over a protruding sand dune. The left side of the fairway is the riskiest for the second shot but will reward the golfer with a shorter approach to the multi-tiered green.
Perhaps the best hole on the hill above the dunes is No. 12, a narrow 432-yard par 4 that requires a long approach or a prudent layup shot to avoid a deep gully 30 yards short of the green. Be careful even if you have a wedge shot to the wide, shallow green because you don’t want to wind up on the slope above the hole.
The 200-yard 16th is a deceptive par 3 that runs parallel to the beach, where the tee is protected from the offshore breezes that push shots toward three bunkers on the right.
Save something for the big finish, a 547-yard par 5 that plays uphill to a green protected by a large patch of gorse and other native grasses. Try to stay to the right side of the fairway on the first two shots to set up a better angle for the approach to a green guarded by two bunkers on the right.
Get a feel for the speed on the practice green because these greens are slick all the way around, and avoid the temptation to feed the deer that share the course with the golfers.
Pebble Beach owns three other championship golf courses, all remarkable in their own right, in addition to the par-3 Peter Hay Course.
Pebble Beach Golf Links, designed by Jack Neville and Douglas Grant, host course of the PGA Tour’s AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am (still The Crosby to purists), has been recognized as one of the greatest courses in the world since it opened in 1919.
Spyglass Hill Golf Course, which takes its name from a location in Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel “Treasure Island,” is a unique challenge designed by the legendary Robert Trent Jones Sr. that opened in 1966, and also is in the AT&T rotation.
Del Monte Golf Course, located on the grounds of the Hyatt Regency Monterey, was designed by Charles Maud and is the oldest continuously operating course west of the Mississippi River, having challenged golfers since 1897.
There might be more exceptional golf courses in this region on the Central Coast of California than any similar area in the world.
Also nearby are Poppy Hills Golf Course (Robert Trent Jones Jr.) in Pebble Beach; Pacific Grove Golf Links (Chandler Egan and Jack Neville); Bayonet and Black Horse Golf Courses (Major Gen. Robert McClure) in Seaside; Laguna Seca Golf Ranch (Robert Trent Jones Sr. and Jr.) in Monterey; Carmel Valley Ranch Resort (Pete Dye); Quail Lodge Resort (Robert Muir Graves) in Carmel; San Juan Oaks Golf Club in Hollister (Gene Bates and Fred Couples); Pasatiempo Golf Course (Alister MacKenzie) in Santa Cruz; Half Moon Bay Golf Links (Arnold Palmer and Arthur Hills); and DeLaveaga Golf and Lodge (Bert Stamps) in Santa Cruz.
The award-winning Inn at Spanish Bay has 253 guest rooms and 17 suites. Guests can enjoy tennis courts, a health and fitness center with a swimming pool, a weight room, saunas, steam bath, an aerobic studio and massage rooms.
For dinner, don’t miss Roy’s, which specializes in Asian-Pacific cuisine, or try Peppoli at Pebble Beach for Tuscan-style seafood, pasta and country-style grilled meats.
The exclusive Lodge at Pebble Beach began welcoming guests in 1919. There are 161 guest rooms and suites, meeting spaces, four restaurants and lounges, a promenade of shops and boutiques, a post office and a bank.
The Pebble Beach Co. acquired Casa Palmero, a 75-year-old Mediterranean estate, in 1994, and it opened for guests in 1999 after an extensive renovation. The 24 exquisitely appointed rooms, adjacent to the first fairway of Pebble Beach Golf Links, include fireplaces and outdoor patios with hot tubs.
The 22,000-square-foot Spa at Pebble Beach, nestled in the heart of the Del Monte Forest, can be enjoyed by guests at any of the resorts. It offers an array of massages, body scrubs and wraps, water treatments, skin care, nail care and hair care.
There also are plenty of boutique hotels and charming bed-and-breakfasts in the area, including the Monterey Bay Inn, Old Monterey Inn, the Green Gables Inn in Pacific Grove, the Hyatt Carmel Highlands a few miles south of Carmel, the Jabberwock Inn in Monterey, the Tickle Pink Inn in Carmel, the Pacific Grove Inn, the Pine Inn in Carmel and the Seven Gables Inn in Pacific Grove.
ON THE WEB: www.pebblebeach.com/accommodations/the-inn-at-spanish-bay; www.pebblebeach.com/golf/the-links-at-spanish-bay.
–Story courtesy of The Sports Xchange, TSX Golf Editor Tom LaMarre
