Spyglass Hill
By David R. Holland
PEBBLE BEACH, CA – Spyglass Hill Golf Course can be one frustrating round of golf for some guys with an admirable handicap. This golfer has a caddy, he’s eager and antsy with dreams of glory, but man, that first tee shot of the day is long and crooked.
For the rest of the day, it did not get any better for this member of my foursome.
But ask David Duval about Spyglass Hill. His first competitive round after scoring a 59 in the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic was an even-par 72.
“Spyglass has got my number,” Duval said. “I’m going to shoot 72 every time and it’s frustrating. I’m tired of shooting 72 here.”
On the other hand in the 1967 Crosby Pro-Am, the first year Spyglass was in the rotation, Bing Crosby felt confident the tough new layout would baffle the greatest golfers. Bing bet Jack Nicklaus he would not break par on his first try at the layout. Bing lost. Jack shot a 1-under-par 71.
Perhaps legendary Los Angeles Times columnist Jim Murray said it best after seeing Spyglass Hill during the 1967 Bring Crosby National Pro-Am:
“Spyglass Hill is a 300-acre unplayable lie,” Murray wrote. “If it were human, Spyglass would have a knife in its teeth, a patch on its eye, a ring in its ear, tobacco in its beard, and a blunderbuss in its hand. But I love every unplayable inch of it. Every golf course in the world is Spyglass Hill to me.”
Yep, but you gotta tee it up here. It is a must-play adventure that the Pebble Beach Company exclaims: If Pebble Beach is the Greatest Meeting of Land and Sea, then perhaps Spyglass Hill should be dubbed the Greatest Meeting of Sand and Trees.
After that first hole, a gentle walk toward Monterey Bay, one enters a dunescape — off in the distance is Cypress Point Club, Monterey Peninsula Country Club, and Bird Rock — and ahead this round of golf is an adventure a true scallywag would relish.
The Black Spot, hole No. 3, is 172 yards downhill into a seaside breeze that makes your distance control tricky. Putts race toward the Pacific, but just wait, No. 4, Blind Pew is even more fun.
Robert Trent Jones Sr. said it is his favorite par four he ever designed. It is only 370 yards, but the crazy green is comma-shaped with the truly narrow part up front. It is sunken in between sand dunes, 10 yards wide at its most unforgiving and 55 yards deep.
Two-time AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am champ Brandt Snedeker said: “I’ve seen so many disasters there. I’m just trying to hit an iron on the fairway, an iron onto the green, and get out of there with a par.”
Since its inception in 1966 as the co-host of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, as well as a stroke-play venue for a pair of U.S. Amateur Championships (1999 and 2018), Spyglass Hill’s championship pedigree has been validated by the game’s very best.
“The golf course was designed with the first five holes like Pine Valley in New Jersey in mind and the final holes with Augusta National in mind,” said former head pro-Mark Brenneman. “The start is so demanding that it throws your game off for the rest of the day. Most get off to a bad start and then there is no place to catch up — it is grueling.”
In 1999 Brennerman witnessed history. For the third time in four years, rain kept the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am from going the distance.
“The weather reports pretty much told us it was going to be washed out on Sunday,” Brenneman said. “Payne Stewart came to the 16th, a 464-yard, par-4, hit a drive and 3-iron over the flag to within 20 feet and then drained the putt for a birdie. On the next hole, only 322 yards, he spun the ball off the green and made bogey, dropping back in a tie for the lead.”
But as Brenneman watched from the rear of the finishing hole in the cold, rain, and wind, Stewart drilled his drive on the 407-yard hole, knocked his 5-iron approach to within a foot, and made the birdie. That put him at 10-under 206 and gave him a one-stroke lead over Frank Lickliter.
That was it. Sunday was washed out and Stewart won the tournament. Another “Puddle Beach” tournament was in the record books.
“I’ve been on the short end of the 54-hole stick,” Stewart said. “I can’t do anything about that.”
“Who knows what kind of confidence that gave Stewart,” Brenneman said. “He went on to win the U.S. Open that summer at Pinehurst.” And, of course, four months later Stewart died in a Learjet crash.
Where to stay: Monterey Plaza Hotel & Spa
In 2018 President Barack Obama arrived for a leadership conference. He brought his golf clubs and spent the night at the Monterey Plaza Hotel & Spa. In 2023 I arrived for my second visit and the prez couldn’t have had a better view than I did. Can you say Monterey Bay panorama?
This awesome hotel was built in 1986 on the site of the Tevis-Murray Estate of 1901 (named Casa de Las Olas), which stretched 1,000 feet along Monterey Bay. The opulent escape had indoor plumbing and electric lights. That site transitioned into a 1944 sardine cannery — after all, that’s where the money was being made at that time in history.
Today’s hotel, complete with crashing surf, continues the practice of warm hospitality with luxury and fine dining. Its chef-driven oceanfront Schooners Monterey and award-winning rooftop luxury spa meld perfectly with this prime location steps from historic Cannery Row.
