Even if you've never played Pebble Beach Golf Links, you probably think you've got a pretty good idea of each hole.

Between six U.S. Opens, the PGA TOUR's annual AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the First Tee Open on the PGA TOUR Champions, Pebble Beach has been on TV more than any other course in the world. But even through all that coverage, not every hole makes it on screen.

With the 2023 U.S. Women's Open on tap July 6-9 - the first time the LPGA Tour's best get to take on the historic course - this is the perfect opportunity to dive deep into what makes Pebble Beach tick. After reading the description of each hole, we suggest closing your eyes and envisioning yourself making the swings necessary to make par or birdie.

Watching how the women fare against Pebble Beach's most famous holes should be fun to watch. "It's going to be epic. It's going to be iconic," said Morgan Pressel, a former major champion who will anchor the coverage on NBC.

Visually speaking, the first is the least inspiring hole at Pebble Beach - it's lined by buildings - but strategically, this benign par 4 tends to take advantage of the nerves everybody feels on the first tee of one of golf's hallowed grounds. The hole gently bends right, but the landing area at the dogleg is narrow, pinched by trees on the right and a pair of bunkers on the left. Because it's not a driver for most players, they tend to try to steer the shot, which leads to trouble. Even good drives must be followed by a precise iron shot to a long, skinny green that tilts hard back to front and toward the ocean, which hasn't yet been introduced. Long bunker complexes (one on the left and two on the right) flank either side of the putting surface.

Things open up a bit on the slightly elevated second tee of a reachable par 5. Going for it in two only happens for drives that miss the three stacked fairway bunkers up the right side or the larger one up the left. A narrow chute of trees and a barranca intimidate some amateurs into laying up short, but most pros bang away at another demanding greensite hemmed in by bunkers on either side. Hitting greens will be the challenge all day; Pebble Beach's are the smallest in championship golf.

After a short walk across a main access road to the resort, players are greeted with set of tees pointed at an angular fairway that's tough to hit. Taking on the trees up the left side sets up a simple short-iron approach. Most, however, bail out right, often ending up in the three fairway bunkers up the right side or the penal rough surrounding them. Once players reach their ball, they're staring off into the blue horizon with their first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean. Two bunkers on the right side of the green guard most pin locations. The putting surface slants right to left toward another bunker, making this a harder par than the yardage would imply.

In many ways, Pebble Beach is unique for a classic course in that it plays like target golf. Banging away with driver often won't reward you. The fourth climbs uphill along the oceanfront cliffs on the right to one of the tiniest greens in the game. Most pros will take a hybrid or wood for positioning to avoid five bunkers of varying sizes and shapes along the left side. Three more large, narrow bunkers encircle the green.

The fifth is the newest hole at Pebble Beach. Jack Nicklaus built it in 1998 along the cliffs overlooking Stillwater Cove. The wind sweeping off of the water will dictate what kind of shot the players hit, whether it's a full iron or some sort of linksy punch shot to the front left quadrant of the green that slopes to the ocean. Three bunkers on the right side actually do players a favor, catching shots heading toward the cliffs. The bunker left, though, is a terrifying leave, forcing a deft escape shot to a green sloping away.

The sixth might be the most fascinating hole on the entire course because of its dramatic clifftop terrain. The drive must be threaded between the cliffs on the right and a minefield of five bunkers on the left. Most amateurs struggle to get their second shot up the steep, rough-laden hill that's four stories high, while pros are better equipped for the treacherous blind shot. Five more bunkers lurk up top, waiting to catch any miscalculation. It's rare that a pro walks away from a sub-500-yard par 5 feeling satisfied with par, but that's often the case here.

How well do you trust your game? That's the question asked on the famous seventh. By professional standards, hitting a downhill 107-yard wedge should be automatic, but the pressure of a major championship and the wind off the water are great equalizers. I've played the hole six times, swinging anything from a full sand wedge to a hard 7 iron into the gale. If you miss the green, pray you're in one of the six greenside bunkers. If not, you're probably swimming with the sea lions.

Welcome to meat of the course - both in terms of the scenery and the difficulty of a trio of long par 4s where the cliffs are omnipresent hazards. Nicklaus has called the 8th his favorite par 4 in the world. It's a technical challenge starting with a blind tee shot from a perch adjacent to the 7th green along the water. Finding the right club and line is difficult for even those who have played the course a handful of times. The fairway runs out of room after roughly 240 yards. Jordan Speith's death-defying, edge-of-the-cliff shot required Pebble Beach to grow a larger swath of rough to catch balls. You don't want to be in that bird's nest with a 185-yard carry over a coastal chasm to a landing zone where five bunkers await. The revamped green was enlarged and slopes softened last year for more pin locations.

Well-struck drives on the difficult 9th do have the opportunity to catch a speed slot that funnels the best shots farther down the fairway. A cut shot off of the left-side fairway bunker is the ideal line of play. One of Pebble Beach's deepest bunkers guards the front left side of the green. The worst of shots could end up on Carmel Beach with the tourists and locals walking their dogs.

The widest fairway on the course slopes hard toward Carmel Beach, which could help drives miss the three large fairway bunkers up the left. The hanging, sloping lie is no fun, but at least the green is open in front, allowing for bouncing shots golfers might see on a links. The fear of missing on the cliff side of the green quite often brings the front left bunker into play.

No. 11 starts the march away from the ocean and introduces the inland part of the course that critics like to pan as the major weakness of Pebble Beach. In actuality, all of the holes from 11 through 16 are perfectly compelling and varied in their presentations and challenges. This par 4, for example, climbs uphill, creating a blind shot to a fairway that seems to trick players into missing. This diagonal green was also reshaped recently to take some of the danger out of being above the hole. Four greenside bunkers pose a definite threat.

This hole is one where it will be interesting to see how the women handle hitting longer clubs into such an unforgiving green. Four bunkers create only two entry points - high shots that are hard to control or an accurate approach that sneaks through a tiny front gate that feeds the ball onto the putting surface after which balls fall left toward the ocean. Players who don't navigate this throat will likely be hitting their second from a bunker.

This hole used to be through a narrow chute of trees, but some of those obstacles are gone, revealing an uphill par 4 that plays longer than the yardage. It's a rare tee shot at Pebble Beach where mashing a driver makes perfect sense. A long bunker swings up the left side with three bunkers stacked up the right. Two more greenside bunkers pinch the front portion of a tough-to-read green.

Nobody - not even the longest of the men - reaches the 14th green in two. The hole doglegs hard right, then climbs uphill past a series of neighborhood mansions. The tee shot is blind, leaving inexperienced players vulnerable to swatting their drives into the three bunkers up the left or the two larger sand pits on the right. There's no fairway bunkers beyond that fivesome to fear. Positioning is critical because the pin is often cut on an upper shelf of the green above the deepest bunker on the course. This green has also been tinkered with to make it more receptive, but even hitting it with a wedge is still an accomplishment.

It's probably fair to call the 15th the easiest hole (does that also mean it's the weakest?) on the course, even given its history (where Tiger holed out to start his incredible five-shot comeback at the 2000 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am). The tee shot flies over a bushy barranca to a fairway pinched by rough on the right and a series of five bunkers up the left. Out-of-bounds along another road comes into play for big slices. Three bunkers ring a green that slopes left toward the ocean.

It's back to another tactical short par 4 where a hybrid or wood will likely suffice off the tee. A single cypress tree beyond the fairway is the line on this dogleg right. The fairway gets awfully small and pitched past the two bunkers on the right. Approaches from tricky sidehill lies or the heavy rough can get knocked down by a pair of trees guarding the entry point to a severely tilted, right-to-left green. Deflected balls can sink into a sandy barranca or a front bunker. Favoring the right side of the green will feed the ball left.

Ah, the return to the sea. Players walk across another road near the fourth tee to reveal one of golf's most historic sites. Jack Nicklaus (a 1-iron in 1972) and Tom Watson (a chip-in in 1982 commemorated with a plaque to the left of the green) won U.S. Opens here with heroic shots. The landscape is flat, so players don't really get to enjoy the water or the compelling hourglass-shaped green until they're near it. Hole locations on the front section of the green will give up some birdies, while those in the back corner are so much more difficult to access between all those bunkers (7 in total).

The most famous finishing hole in golf will likely be a three-shotter from the women, taking some of the risk-reward out of the tee shot. A pair of fairway bunkers and that small tree in the fairway complicate shots flared up the right side. Snap-hooks left into Stillwater Cove are a round wrecker. A long fairway bunker runs up the left the entire length of the hole from 150 yards and in. Hitting the green in regulation isn't easy whether the approach shot is coming in high (watch out for the tree branches) or low (the front right bunker acts as a wall of sand). Come Sunday, we will see whose steely nerves feel up to the challenge.

What's your favorite hole at Pebble Beach? Let us know in the comments below.

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