Pebble Beach Resorts®

Went out with some friends to enjoy a nice winter day on a nice course. Course conditions are excellent right now with perfect greens that roll at a medium fast pace but are soft and hold approach shots. Sand traps and fairways are great as well but the tee boxes stole the show. It was like teeing up on perfectly flat smooth carpet.

We walked the course and there are a couple of long transfers between a few of the holes. Hand carts are allowed but you have to provide your own. Remember, the course is cart path only.

Being right on top of the ocean for most of the course you have spectacular scenic views of the surrounding Pacific Ocean and across the bay to Santa Cruz. In fact only three holes don't have views of the ocean.

Customer service is top notch. For some reason customer service is better here than Pebble Beach. At Pebble you get the sense that they HAVE to treat you well (and darn right they do for that price) but at Spanish Bay you get the feeling that they WANT to treat you well.

Spanish Bay also has the best clubhouse of the three. Spyglass is purely about the golf. It has an old building that seems like an afterthought more than anything else. Pebble has fantastic amenities, but you have to share them with every tourist who just came off the bus.

Spanish Bay has separated their facility so the non golfing tourists are over at the hotel 500 yards away, yet it has a fantastic restaurant / bar with outdoor seating overlooking the ocean and first hole just for the golfers.

Course is in excellent condition right now with smooth greens that easily hold approach shots. Greens here are small. Actually they are tiny! But roll smooth at a medium fast pace.

Fairways are lush as is the rough which was a little thicker than usual. Considering the course was packed POP was decent at right at 4 hrs. This is an old course and is designed to be walked. Transfers are very short which is good for walking but bad etiquette as several times groups on another hole are talking or hootin and hollering during your swing/putt. It's not that they mean to be disrespectful it's just that you are so close to the other group it's easy to disrupt a player during his/her swing/putt without realizing it. There's no driving range at Del Monte but Monterey Pines is a 3 minute drive up the road and has a range. I still would like to see a couple of lakes on this course to add to the excitement and aesthetics of the course. Having said that there are (distant) views of the ocean from holes 8,9,10,11,13, and 16.

Customer service is excellent. Rack rates are waaaaay too high in my opinion but this is a great course for the price of admission for the Duke member rate.

Please have the greens keeper turn all the sand in the fairway and green side bunkers. All the sand had a very hard surface. Need to turn and rake the sand or remove and replace with new, fresh sand. Very poor conditions.

This is my second time playing Pebble. I played in January and somehow managed to shoot a very respectable score (for me) managing 7 pars but no birdies. Going into this round I pre-focused on wanting to better my score which was a big mistake. This is a course you need to just relax and enjoy the journey, If the score comes then so be it.

The course plays a lot harder than the yardage suggests. Greens are small and fast. Make that very fast on downhill putts. I had a 15 footer that I hit like a one foot tap in and the ball ran 12-15' past the hole!!

If you're coming into the peninsula for a golf trip head out to nearby Bayonet/Blackhorse for some putting practice. The greens there are just as fast and challanging and will help get you used to the greens at Pebble.

Course conditions were great as expected for a top notch course. I will say that the sand in the bunkers was average with a few of them being a little thin. I was in 8 bunkers during the round (it was one of those days) so I got to test a lot of them.

My caddie and I weren't on the same page all day which began to frustrate me. Whereas my first time here, my caddy Matt treated every putt like it was the one needed to win the AT&T PB Pro-Am and every shot was treated like I was trying to qualify for the Open. This time, my caddie was more interested in talking surfing to us or walked off down the fairway ahead of us before we teed off. Not quite the service I expect and have had in the past. The caddy at Spanish Bay was absolutely a delight and that was when I had my worst round of the year

Overall it was still an absolutely wonderful day at an absolutely spectacular golf course. I didn't have as many pars, but I did get my birdie!

I'll definitely go back again!

I had heard that the condition of the course was like a dust bowl but,maybe because of recent rains, the course was in much better condition than I expected. Grass is growing in areas. The greens were beautiful and very fast. Watch out!

The most amazing course I’ve ever played. This was my 8th time playing there and it still provides the butterflies on the first tee, the excitement of being there for the first time.

For anyone who truly loves golf and has not been there I can only ask, why? Yes, it’s expensive but it is worth every penny.

As soon as you get to the 2nd fairway and look right and see the ocean you know you’re in heaven.

Holes 3-5 are so underrated. Hole 4 is short but one of the smallest greens you will see and the view is amazing. 5 is a great par 3.

A must is to.take a caddie. They will save you many stokes on the greens plus the experience of walking is tremendous.

When booking the trip, make sure you find out annual aeration schedule. They typically do so 4 times per year and you do not want to spend all that $ plan a trip and show up to putt on punched greens.

Don’t listen to the negative talk about 5 hr rounds. Who cares with those vistas!!!!

The drive through 17 mile drive and all the other things to do make it a bucket list trip.

The course is quite short and is very much intertwined. The challenge is playing the course which is up and down hills with extremely small greens. Your chipping and putting will be put to the test. Nice course and quite challenging in that it will let you beat yourself.

I suggest that this course is harmed by its association with Pebble Beach. It's not a resort style course, there's no sweeping ocean views, and you don't get resort amenities. That said, it's a really nice course in pretty good shape, and I'd love to play it again.

I enjoyed playing Del Monte today. I got a hot deal on Golfnow and for $55 this was pretty good. The layout is challenging and fairways are fairly tight. Great walking course actually - not a lot of elevation changes and tees are near the greens that precede it. It's a very classic design. I especially liked the Oakmont-style sand trap on 10 (you don't want to be in there). I don't agree with an earlier review about 17 - there's adequate room (probably about 8 yards) to miss the green without hitting a hotel guest, but I suppose with a bad shot, it's doable.

Fairways were pretty well kept, tees and greens and traps were great, rough needed a little water. Course conditions were generally good, and we played 18 in 4 hours and 10 minutes. There's no driving range (hence just 2 stars for off course amenities), and restroom/locker room were similar to what you'd get at a muni instead of a resort.

Staff was very friendly. Looking forward to returning. Think $55 is the right price - I understand their rack rate is $100, but at that number there are many better options.

I got a hot deal($56) at GolfNow. Fair for the price I paid but not sure if it is worth the regular rate of $100. The condition of the course maintenance is not that of Pebble Beach. I played at Spanish Bay before where the fair way is really beautiful and the green is silky as velvet but this is more like a local municipal course. Hole to hole is too close - two greens are close to each other at some point of the course.

Having said that, it was pretty good to play with my little son. He liked it very much.

The staffs are very friendly but they don't give you the Pebble Beach medallion after you play like others - Spanish Bay, SpyGlass Hill and Pebble Beach Links.

Can I give it 6 stars? This is golf heaven for anyone who loves the game. Unlike the experience on other ocean/bay side courses, playing out into the peninsula and back is extraordinary. The greens are small and beautifully sloped. The bunkers are deep. The layout is superb. Some criticize the inland holes, but I think that is silly criticism. The inland holes on the back 9 still give amazing elevated views of the bay, and you are playing along some stunning mansions. Among the inland holes, 14 and 16 are terrific, and 3 is very good. The others are all sound, enjoyable holes. the 4-10 stretch along the water, especially 6-9, are mind blowing. The only negative is the pace of play. Lots of waiting to hit your shots. The caddies were great, and this is one of the most incredible golf experiences you can have.

Del Monte has always been one of my favorites because I remember riding in the cart with my dad when I was about six years old. 53 years ago. We played the day after the Mecum auto auction was held on the 18th fairway. So the 18th was pretty wet but they warned us ahead of time on that. The greens and fairways had been aerated fairly recently so it wasn't in perfect condition but still a pleasure.

Gopher holes everywhere. Some of the greens are extremely small, well bunkered with little sand in them. Have to be crazy to pay $100 for this place. Much better value at Ft Ord. Nice views and ok layout but many greens way to small. White line demarcating gopher damage throughout. 17th hole very difficult with people eating just behind the green. Could break some windows or hurt someone very easily. Won't go back. Good lunch at the course though.

I cannot understand why some people characterize Spyglass as five good seaside holes. True, the remainder of the course lies inland amongst hardwoods, but in my opinion, it is there where the best aspect of it lies.

Make no mistake, the opening stretch is fantastic. I found my round to be marked by survival mode on the opening five holes. Doubles are lurking. But, the inland holes are equally, if not a bit more memorable. The back nine, in particular, may be the best nine among the Pebble Beach Resort's collection. Short irons may be in your hands for the two par 3s on the back, but they demand your attention. Par 4s like the 10th and 16th require long-iron approaches. And the par-5 14th is as lovely a hole as there is on the peninsula.

Deer are abundant here, just as at Spanish Bay. It can be a bit distracting because they are so acclimated to having people in close proximity. But it is an interesting experience and makes for a memorable photo op.

I, like previous reviewers, think all but 3-handicappers and better should play it forward. The white tees are plenty of golf course, as the course plays ~300 yards longer than the scorecard.

The rough should be avoided at all costs, as it is thick and wet, and can make getting getting the Club face on the ball a challenge.

Spanish Bay's more famous sister courses up the 17-Mile Drive receive more attention, but I found this to be perhaps the most fun to play of the three. Pebble has the history. Spyglass has the teeth. Spanish Bay offers a wealth of strategic plays, wind-judging club choices and tricky green complexes.

Though many courses in the U.S. bill themselves as "links golf," Spyglass offers a true authentic links experience. The turf, wind, proximity to the ocean and variety of shot-making ability solidifies this.

I thoroughly enjoy any course that does not blindly require players to pull driver off virtually every non-par 3 tee. Spanish Bay is certainly a great example. I hit a bevy of 4- and 5-irons off the tee and remarkably two 8-irons! This was critical to not only being in the right spots off the tee, but to avoiding the many environmentally-sensitive areas that are predominate throughout the layout. If your ball finds one of these areas, you must drop and not try to retrieve it.

A few greens featured dramatic complexes, but I found the majority of the greens to offer more subtle breaks. You must be aware of where the Pacific Ocean is in relation to your ball on virtually every putt.

Bump-and-run chip shots will be a valuable skill here. Closely mown areas make this a good option, while thicker rough does collar the borders of greens. Your bunker game will be put to the test as well.

Perhaps my favorite feature of Spanish Bay is the post-round experience. There is a fantastic 19th hole that offers outdoor seating with fire pits that lie alongside the first tee and provide remarkable views of the first hole and Pacific Ocean. At 5:45 pm a bagpiper closes out the day beginning on the first tee, and walks the first fairway toward the Inn. It is a fantastic, goosebumps-raising experience not to be missed.

Bottom line: Taking into consideration that I've played Chambers Bay, but have yet to visit Bandon Dunes or Whistling Straits, Spanish Bay and Kiawah's Ocean Course offer the best American links golf experiences that I have encountered thus far, and is highly underrated in my opinion.

Paid $55 and it was just about worth it. Despite a comp. going out just before us the pace of play was good and the staff were great in getting us out. The course was disappointing for a pebble mill course with waste ground around fairways.

Paid $50.00 on Golf Now. Worth that price. Don't know if I would pay more than $75.00 to play. Pace of play was fine. Played in under 4 hours. Finished at 515, Bar was closed.