So, to follow up a previous post, I did get to play Pebble Beach last week
First, it is hard to concentrate because of all the beauty on the ocean side and the stunning houses on the other side of the fairways. Like any new experience, I learned a lot of things about the course. It is surprisingly forgiving off the tee. I am not a particularly good driver but hit most of the fairways. (Unfortunately, it was very wet especially in the rough where they could not mow so we played lift clean and place in the rough.) Secondly, the back 9 is considerably longer than the front and several of the back 9 holes play uphill. Accordingly I played the gold tees on the front and moved up to the white on the back (which were still almost 200 yards longer than the gold on the front)
Third, if you short side yourself at PB, you are well and truly
SCREWED. I learned this the hard way several times. 2nd hole (par 5) was a prime example - hit my third shot just barely off the green and had no more than about 30 feet to the pin. On a normal course, I would be thinking I could possibly make the chip, but in this instance, the green sloped severely away from me so I flopped my pitch shot
maybe 2 feet only to see it race 25 feet past the hole – and the caddy complimented me on my good touch! 🤣 I probably could have hit twenty shots and never got it inside of 15 feet. Had the same experience on several other holes. Number 8 and 9 are back breaking par 4s. Second shot on 8 is the famous shot across a cliff and shockingly, I did not handle that shot well.
I actually hit a pretty solid drive on 9 and still had 230 to the hole. I at least scraped a bogey on that hole.
No. 14 is ridiculous, we played it at 520 yards and it is the hardest part five of that length I have ever played. In fact PB is the only course I can remember playing that a par 5 (14) is the #1 HCP hole. It plays uphill making it play longer than the yardage, and the green is shaped like a volcano with a huge bunker on the left side and an effective putting surface about the size of your average bathroom on the top of the volcano. Naturally I hit my approach shot long and had absolutely nothing from behind the green. That was another triple bogey.
The houses are unbelievable. Best example was the huge home right behind #10 right overlooking the ocean that used to be owned by Gene Hackman. The caddy told me that it sold in 2006 for $36 million, then they divided the lot where the nanny house was, and turned that into a second residence. Owner of the Golden State Warriors lives on 18, Charles Schwab on #4, etcetera. Quite nice cribs all around. Of course, 17 Mile Drive has dozens of similar homes, overlooking the ocean, Spyglass, Spanish Bay and Cypress Point.
FWIW, all the locals told me Spyglass Hill is the toughest course on the peninsula. Can't wait to go back again to play some of the other courses on Monterey. It is not a cheap round of golf, but it was a bucket list item for me.
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