Pebble Beach Golf Links, Pebble Beach, CA

This is not as much a course review as it is an essay discussing the experience that is Pebble Beach. Reviews of the holes and strategy and so forth can be found a dozen times over on websites like Golf Club Atlas and any number of other places with a quick search on Google. These reviews have been written by golfers and golf architects with far more experience than I. There is simply little of real benefit that I could add to the architecture discussion that has not been said before. But I can add to the overall picture by describing my experience here.
As I began to play golf, as most do, I began to think of what courses I most wanted to play. Three courses have really stuck out in my mind over the years. Pinehurst #2, Augusta National, and Pebble Beach. As I started learning more about golf courses, the list grew to include any number of other courses, ones on Long Island, ones in the British Isles and so forth. But, still today, I would choose any of the three listed above over virtually any course in the world. Those three are still the top of the list for me. But other than Pinehurst #2, I wasn't sure if I would ever see any of them. I'm still not certain that I will ever play Augusta National. On April 2, 2011 though, I got to play Pebble Beach.
I found myself in California due to a school for the Coast Guard. I decided that I would try to play Pebble Beach after my mom agreed to pay the fare; many thanks are in order for that. I called on a Thursday with rather low expectations but to my surprise I was able to secure a teetime at about 11:00 am on that Saturday. I left out Saturday morning with my friend Nik who, having nothing better to do that day, decided to ride down with me.
As we pulled into the lot, the whole place really started to unfold. Walking down from the car park through a gap between the shops and the pro shop was unique. Once we got through the walk, the putting green sprawled out in front of us. It was, in no exaggeration, the largest putting green I have ever seen. I took some obligatory pictures on the putting green, by the Rolex clock, and by the wall of champions behind the first tee.
Finally it was my turn to tee off. To me, the first tee was just awesome. It really was electric from my point of view. The entire round was much the same. Any person who can stand around and say that Pebble Beach is anything short of fantastic needs his head examined. The Third hole offers you the first real chance to see the Pacific and it works really well as a teaser for things to come. It would be difficult for anyone to deny that the two highest points of the round, from a scenic point of view, are the 7th and 18th tees. The 7th hole at Pebble Beach really is a magical setting.
It's difficult to put into words how special a place Pebble Beach is. From the first tee to the eighteenth green, the whole place is magical. The setting is incredible. The history and tradition are incredible. There really is nothing else like it in the world. I really wonder if any golf experience that I might have in the future will ever compare to the experience at Pebble Beach. I'll get chance to find out this November when I play Pinehurst #2, see how that compares.
Pebble is a truly special place for golfers. I wait patiently for the day when I can return there to play again. Even though the cost is high, there is no doubt I would pay it. As I said before, it really is difficult to explain the feeling that I felt at Pebble Beach. I've played a fair number of high quality golf courses, I played Pacific Dunes only two weeks earlier, but at no time have I ever felt something like Pebble. It was, perhaps, something akin to Michael Murphy's round with Shivas Irons in "Golf in the Kingdom." At some point I think the round became something more than just a round of golf and went into something else, more fantasy. The day I played Pebble Beach is certainly a day I will never forget.

Destination Golf

What is Destination Golf? Recently it has come to be defined as golf where one has to travel significant distances in order to play a given course. Of the modern courses, one of the more obvious choices is Bandon Dunes Golf Resort. In order to get here a person must either take a small aircraft into a small airport in North Bend, OR or fly into Portland, OR and drive about 4 hours to get to the resort. This is obviously a significant outlay of time and money. Courses in the Nebraska and Colorado Sandhills, Ballyneal, Dismal River, Sand Hills, must be similiar in terms of distance traveled.
It is generally assumed that these courses and clubs requiring significant travel to play are a modern thing. I, however, disagree with this. Consider how long it must have taken golfers in the early 20th Century to get to courses like Pebble Beach and Cypress Point in California or Shinnecock Hills and National Golf Links of America in New York. The same can also be said for resorts such as The Greenbrier in West Virginia and The Homestead in Virginia. The time needed to reach these places when traveling in cars that had top speeds of 20 to 25 miles per hour must have been great, after all, it takes close to three hours to reach Pebble Beach from San Francisco even today.
No, Destination Golf requiring long distance travel has always been around. What seems new about it is the fact that most people who play golf today would have grown up with all of the previously mentioned resorts being only 2-3 hours away from major cities and, in most cases, with a large network of "things" to do around the sites. Bandon Dunes does not yet have that network in place around the Resort. Perhaps in 30 years I will go to Bandon with my son and speak in reverent tones about how the place used to be so small and quiet as opposed to the new, bustling town that might be there. No, these destinations will grow, just as the ones before them did. And eventually Bandon Dunes might not be as much of a "Destination," stuck out somewhere in isolated bliss. But it will be more of a cornerstone of some resort type town such as what one sees in Monterey.

No, Destination Golf is not new. It has always existed. Shinnecock Hills was always several hours travel from New York City. Cypress Point was always several hours from San Francisco. And Augusta National was always several hours from Atlanta. These were the Destination Golf courses of the early 20th Century. Places like Sand Hills, Bandon Dunes and Cabot Links are our Destination Golf courses of the early 21st Century.

Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at Oxmoor Valley (Valley)

The Valley course at Oxmoor Valley starts off with a hole that plays greatly downhill, moves on to a stretch of holes that are dead flat, goes to a set of gently rolling holes, and ends with two significantly uphill holes. The course is more easily walked than it's Ridge neighbor due to being flatter, but some places still have significant distances from one hole to the next. Overall, this is a rather nice course and most certainly one to be enjoyed.

Holes to Note

Hole #1: Par 4, 440 yards

This hole plays significantly downhill off the tee and is certainly not a gentle handshake to begin the round. The safe play would be to take a fairway wood or perhaps a long iron and play towards the bunker on the right. The more aggressive player might attempt to take the tee shot over the bunkers on the left and give himself the shorter shot into the green.

The player who hits towards the right bunker will be left with a longer shot, obviously, but will be rewarded with a flat lie. The player who takes his shot over the left bunkers may get a flat lie, but may get quite a bad lie because the fairway beyond the bunkers is quite narrow with significant fall-offs on either side.

The green, like most at the facility, is rather nondescript, sadly.

Hole 11: Par 4, 361 yards
This hole gives the player a couple of options as well. The fairway is flanked with two bunkers (a feature this writer dislikes, for what it's worth). Playing towards the one on the left will leave the player with a flat lie, playing towards the one on the right might leave the player with an odd stance, and or course the player might try to hit driver over all the trouble and be left with a short shot to the green.

From the fairway, the green is significantly elevated, preventing the player from seeing the entire flagstick.

It occurs to this writer just now as he's writing that the terrain for this hole reminds him quite a bit of what he saw for the 2nd hole at Pine Valley. Which actually makes the quality of this hole seem rather poor...One has to wonder if Rulewich saw the similarity and somehow thought this hole was a nice homage to the 2nd at Pine Valley? In this writer's opinion, it's not. But that notwithstanding, the hole is not bad.

Hole 12: Par 5, 506 yards
This may be the most strategic hole on the course. The tee shot is a Cape style allowing the player to be as aggressive as his heart, mind and ego will allow.

While it would seem that the bunker on the left might be overkill, it's nothing to get worked up over. From the fairway, the player will have to navigate a minefield of bunkers to get to the green. If the player doesn't believe he can reach the green in two shots, he must decide whether to play short, long, or even with the set of fairway bunkers.

For the player who attempts to go for the green in two or is hitting his third shot from the lay-up area, he will be forced to contend with a large bunker fronting the green.

This is likely the best hole on the property and makes as good a use of natural features as this writer has seen in a Rulewich designed course.

Overall, this course is solid. While there aren't a great many special holes, they are all rather solid. The only real issues one might take with the routing come on the stretch of 12 through 17. Each of these holes have rather significant green to tee distances and while being decent holes, the routing takes away any flow the course may have had. Add in a few crossings of public streets and that goes away even more. Sad, really. Could have been much better. 4 of 10.