Spyglass Hill

One of four famous 18-hole layouts operated by the Pebble Beach Company, Spyglass Hill Golf Course has been on the rota for the PGA Tour’s AT & T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am since 1967, the year after it was first unveiled. Designed by Robert Trent Jones Snr, it’s well known as a tough track and at least one commentator has termed it one of the best courses to have never staged a major.

It was originally called Pebble Beach Pines Golf Club but was renamed very soon after it opened by Samuel Morse, founder of the Pebble Beach Company, and he labelled all the holes on the course after characters and places from the 1883 novel Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, who spent time in the Monterey area before the book was first published.

Occupying a fabulous tract of coastal land between Cypress Point and Monterey Peninsula Country Club, Spyglass Hill is regarded by many as a more demanding test than its more celebrated near neighbours, with it bearing more than a passing resemblance to another couple of iconic world-class American courses, as intimated by its esteemed designer.

“The first five holes, starting from deep in the woods and heading immediately to the sea, demand target golf through sandy wastes, deliberately reminiscent of Pine Valley, but with water in the background and buffeted by ocean winds,” commented Robert Trent Jones Snr. “The rest of the course winds through towering Monterey Pines and Cypress in the Del Monte Forest, and is deliberately reminiscent of Augusta National.”

Feature holes include the 370-yard 4th (“Blind Pew”), where the 55-yard long green is surrounded by ice plant vegetation, the 399-yard uphill 8th (“Signal Hill”), with a reverse cambered fairway, and both the two par threes on the back nine; the 178-yard 12th (“Skeleton Island”) which plays downhill to a pond-protected green and the 130-yard 15th (“Jim Hawkins”) with its putting surface bounded by water, sand and a falloff to the left.

Since its inception in 1966, Spyglass Hill has of course been modified, indeed ahead of the 2020 AT&T Pebble Beach ProAm the par fives at #7 and #11 were lengthened, the 17th green renovated and 25 yards added to the 18th to give the home hole extra teeth.