Tiger Woods and his TGR Design team have reached an agreement with officials at Pebble Beach Company to redesign the par-3 Peter Hay Golf Course https://www.pebblebeach.com/golf/short-course that is located on the hill above the fabled Pebble Beach Golf Links.
Woods, of course, has a history at Pebble Beach—having won the 2000 U.S. Open there by a record 15 strokes, in addition to capturing the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am by strokes with a dramatic comeback the same year.
“Pebble Beach and Tiger Woods—it’s a match made in heaven,” Pebble Beach CEO Bill Perocchi said.
The last golf course architect to perform significant work at Pebble Beach was the great Jack Nicklaus, who in 1999 added the new fifth hole on the championship course on the cliffs above Stillwater Cove.
More recent in-house tweaks to Pebble Beach, including like the restoration and expansion of the 13th, 14th and 17th greens, were approved by the late Arnold Palmer, who was one of the Pebble Beach Company’s managing partners.
The reworked Peter Hay course, which is slated to open next October, had fallen behind other noted par-3 courses, and critics claimed it had become a collection of rather mundane layout with mostly with round, pop-up greens lacking in distinction.
Woods’ vision for the course, while still in the planning stage, includes injecting more challenge and fun into the layout, and will take better advantage of its sweeping vistas of the coastline, Stillwater Cove and the Pacific Ocean.
The old Peter Hay Course played counterclockwise, away from the ocean, but Woods has flipped the routing, leading to what will surely become the signature shot on the course at the new second hole, which will be an homage to Pebble Beach’s iconic, 109-yard seventh—the shortest hole in championship golf.
The new No. 2 also will play only 109 yards, with a drop of 40 feet from tee to green, and will include the familiar contours of the green framed in the distance by the Pacific Ocean and Point Lobos.
Woods also plans to create a new that that will measure only 45 yards, and is located some greens to which the tee shots must be navigated over, under or around the trees on the course.
The new putting surfaces will be challenging for serious golfers, while still being playable for beginners—the opposite of the old greens that according to some had become slow and shaggy.
The Peter Hay Course was torn up twice a year as a staging ground for Pebble’s PGA event and corporate entertainment during the Concourse d’Elegance car show in August. Moving forward, however, the course will be maintained with the same care as the championship layout and be off-limits to anything other than golf.
In addition, the Peter Hay Course figures to become a popular gathering spot for resort guests and locals, with a 16,000-square-foot practice green and a new bar and grill that will include a patio with fire pits.
