A hole-by-hole guide to Pasatiempo, Dr. Alister MacKenzie's public masterpiece

Ready to go to the doctor's office for seven straight days?

Not that doctor ... the good doctor, Alister MacKenzie.

Every April, golf fans are treated to a week of architectural brilliance from Dr. Alister MacKenzie on television.

First comes The Masters at Augusta National Thursday through Sunday, followed by the Western Intercollegiate next Monday through Wednesday at Pasatiempo in Santa Cruz, Calif.

Golf Channel will televise the Western Intercollegiate from 7-10 p.m. EST daily at Pasatiempo for all three rounds. Featuring 15 men's golf programs, the 79th Western Intercollegiate is regarded as one of college golf's premier showcases. Nineteen tournament alumni - including headliners Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau - will tee it up at Augusta, representing a total of 119 PGA Tour wins and 20 majors.

Pasatiempo provides these young, elite amateurs an intriguing, rigorous examination of their games. They're going back to school on classical course design where nuance, course knowledge, decision-making, strategy and creativity matter more than brute force. Pasatiempo barely stretches past 6,500 yards, instead requiring pure finesse and shotmaking to score well.

A restoration from 2022-24 by Jim Urbina has returned Pasatiempo to its glory days of prime conditions year-round and the best green surrounds in golf. Urbina and superintendent Justin Mandon, painstakingly stripped the greens to their core - the front nine first in 2023 and the back nine in 2024 - and rebuilt them to MacKenzie's original sizes and shapes from 1929. Poa annua has been replaced by Pure Distinction bentgrass that rolls better.

It is public golf's Augusta, a West Coast cousin to the most famous course in the world. Let's tour every hole as a primer for your viewing experience, or, if you're really lucky, an upcoming round.

Once a par 5, the first hole launches off an elevated tee, playing as a demanding par 4 right from go. On a clear day, the ocean shimmers in the distance from this perch. It's best to approach the green from the left side of the bunkerless fairway as the putting surface slopes hard left off of a front-right bunker. Five is not a bad score for most amateurs.

The second hole also feeds tee shots and approaches down to the left. This works to the player's advantage on the second shot. The smart play is to land the ball short of the green above the front-left bunker and let the ball funnel into a low spot leaving an uphill putt where you can be aggressive.

Like most holes at Pasatiempo, the first par 3 is a half-par hole, meaning it plays a half shot easier or harder than the par on the scorecard. This one's tilted against players: It almost seems like a drivable par 4 in disguise. It plays a club and a half longer than the yardage and misses to either side - in the high-side bunkers or well below the green on the right - can quickly turn into double bogeys.

The fourth hole falls off another elevated tee to a pretty forgiving fairway. Hitting the narrow green that's angled away from players is the challenge. Two right greenside bunkers actually do players a favor by catching shots before they drop into a gnarly lie below the fifth tee.

Five bunkers encircle the tricky fifth green, which is perched above a valley. It's an underrated par 3 considering how memorable the third and 15th are.

I have a love-hate relationship with the sixth. I love the plaque about 75 yards from the green that marks where MacKenzie lived before passing away Jan. 6, 1934. I hate how narrow the fairway corridor plays, pinched by the houses on the left and the towering trees lining the seventh hole on the right. Longer hitters can think about reaching the green in two. Just don't hook it into or over the net protecting the homes.

If there's one hole that plays significantly different from the course's earliest days, it's the seventh. The hole's best defense is a stand of large trees, which would have been saplings nearly a century ago. It's the only tee shot where golfers feel hemmed in. Too many people try to steer their tee shot into the fairway, leading to a poor swing. It's best to be aggressive with your straight club and swing with confidence.

The eighth glides gently downhill to a green that seems too big to miss. The problem with that is any mistake with the shot execution or club choice could leave the ball miles from the hole on a very difficult green.

The ninth is a rare hole at Pasatiempo where fairway bunkers flank either side of the potential landing area, although most long hitters will leave them in the rear-view mirror. This green site, sitting just below the porch on the clubhouse, is one of my favorites. Players who bail out right of the green to avoid the two front greenside bunkers face a tough chip to a green that falls off to the left back toward the fairway. Good luck getting it close from there or even making a medium-length putt for birdie. A par on a sub-500-yard par 5 tends to feel like a lost opportunity.

If the par-5 ninth plays like a par 4 1/2, the par-4 10th definitely swings the opposite way, playing as a 4 1/2+. The barranca off the tee seems to throw off depth perception. It's hard to pick the proper line, leaving some golfers stuck in the heavy rough up the right side or in trouble near the homes on the left. The apron and green kick everything hard left, leaving players to guess what how to approach a wide green, a bump and run that lands short and bounces on or a lofted spinner.

The 11th fools many players into hitting a shorter club off the tee when a driver or three-wood is needed to get as close to the bridge as possible. Anything short or sliced right leaves a menacing carry over a barranca to a nasty green that saw significant alterations during the restoration, recapturing 1,100 square feet in size. I have seen a golfer putt off the green from above the hole and another chip in below it. Any score from 3 to 8 is in play on the no. 1 handicap.

The 12th tee sits high above the green, encouraging players to swing freely. The green tucks in nicely between trees on either side and a valley in front, requiring a well-struck shot to land safely. The putting surface slopes severely right to left, so depending on the pin, it could help or hurt your changes of sticking it close.

Perhaps no hole in the world shows off MacKenzie's flamboyant bunker style better than the 13th, which boomerangs right to left following the terrain. The five greenside bunkers boldly flash as the players crest a slight ridge in the fairway. Two fingers left and right of a back bunker can hold terrifying pin placements. It's worth pointing out that the bathroom facility to the right of the green is part of the incredible waste-water treatment plant the club installed in 2017 to recover from a historic drought that almost killed the course.

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The most mesmerizing feature of the 14th hole is a fascinating trench that bisects the fairway. It's really no big deal to end up in it as long as your ball doesn't end up on a downslope. Despite three bunkers, the green is open in front receptive to the ground game.

The restored 15th green now offers more pin locations, but the odds still feel stacked against you about hitting it in regulation. Both club- and shot-selection are imperative. The way the green is angled against the surrounding bunkers forces players to aim at small quadrants.

The semi-blind tee shot is one of the most challenging at Pasatiempo to a fairway shelf that sweeps from right to left as the hole doglegs toward the green. Anything pulled too far left will kick balls down into a barranca of unplayable lies. Altering anything on the famous 16th green was a delicate operation. The three tiers still exist, as pronounced as ever, although allowing for more hole locations. "Touching that is touching a lot of history, being one of MacKenzie's favorite holes," Pasatiempo Head Golf Professional Ken Woods said. "We were able to expand the back and offer more pin placements in the middle, but looking at it from the fairway, it is still [the intimidating] 16th. It is a sensitive thing."

The 17th appears to be the most benign par 4 on the course. Most will have a mid to short iron into the green, which feeds balls to the right. Balls that get hung up in the left fringe above the hole face an impossible-to-stop putt down the fall line.

If you're still a member of the golfing community who believes a course should never end on a par 3, shame on you. MacKenzie's 18th is pure brilliance. I've ended my rounds with a near ace two inches from the cup and made a 6 after dumping the tee shot into the barranca. The restoration recreated the barranca bunkers short of the green from historical photos and slightly softened the green's ferocious contours. Any tee shot that stays above the hole is almost a guaranteed three putt, even for the most talented of players.

What do you love most about Pasatiempo? Let us know in the comments below.