Pebble Beach Resorts®

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.

For a "Pebble Beach" course it was not what we expected. Fairways and greens kept up, but the rest of the course was average.

Peter Hay is a unique 9 hole, traditional pitch & putt course. No hole is much longer than 100 yards but it is a lot of fun. This is where I take my friends who aren't experienced golfers but want the Pebble Beach experience. You can play all day for less than 1/10th the cost at Pebble but you can enjoy all the great views and food.

Pace of play is slow. Cost does not out weigh the benefits.

Great warm up course if playing some of the harder courses in the area. Greens can be tricky but fair. Pretty flat course but overall a nice course in good condition. We love to play this one to get ready for Spyglass or Poppy Hills. You want to feel relatively good about your game either on the front end or before you head home. This course will help.

The first time I played Spyglass Hill in 2003, I was a beginning golfer and the course destroyed me.

I have a new-found appreciation for its challenging and interesting holes after a triumphant return. Cool weather and with a playing partner who hadn't played in six months, I wisely moved up to the whites and had a fabulous time.

With all the uphill holes and plateau greens, the 6,123-yard white tees still play about 6,400-6,500 yards - plenty tough for most of us.

I've not found a better start to a golf course than the first five holes at Spyglass Hill, all roaming through the dunes near the shore. Workers were busy thinning out trees and a few real estate signs have been hung in this corridor, so development of more homes is coming. That's a shame to clutter such a beautiful setting.

The rest of the day is spent battling the Del Monte forest and its collection of ponds and bunkers. If you shoot your handicap, you've had yourself a day.

Very nice coarse. Well laid out, greens were in excellent condition. Bunkers were in great shape.

All the staff were very friendly.

Will definitely go back

The course was in good condition, the pace of play was good until we got on the back nine. The staff was was very friendly, I would go back and play again !

When the rains stop and the sun comes out just before your tee time you know you are blessed. The TV cameras can not reflect the real topography of this course. Simply amazing. Had a couple of birdies that I will cherish! Hubert in the pro shop is super nice. The price is the price - a lot to play for golf and when you add caddy, tip and cart it's way up there, but we agreed the experience was worth the cost. Only improvement is too keep people off the cart path along the right of hole #18. While preparing for approach shot, had a woman come up to me and ask to borrow a club for a photo! Course grounds should be off limits for tourists even if "public" course.

This is actually the second time that I have been here. There were 15 years and a lot of golf vacations in between. This is America's golf course. You know what you are getting-the scenery, a half dozen of the best holes in earth, treated like royalty, etc.

The course itself needs no explanation. The stretch from #5 to #10 is as great as advertised. I will say that it isn't six great holes and 12 bad ones. Strategically, they are all good to great. Small greens so aim at the middle.

Outside of the golf-it is pebble beach so they have everything. They are incredibly nice as well they should be. You have access to the range and putting greens. The putting greens are similar to the course so use them. Your green fee also gets you through 17 mile drive so do this on the same day you play.

I wrote once in a lifetime due to cost/value. If you can afford to play here all the time and get on to the private courses in the neighborhood then the Monterey Peninsula could be the experience of a lifetime. If not, then there is equally great golf for less elsewhere-Bandon, etc. Although you have to get very elite as far as the quality of the courses to do so.

I will encourage you to play here once as a gift to yourself-ignore the price tag and take in the whole experience. If you are a single, you can call 24 hours ahead and hope for an opening. No stay necessarily.

A good test of golf, Del Monte was a decent test at a decent price. Caught a $50 hot deal on a Sunday afternoon. Bunkers were in great shape. Greens small but reasonably quick. Looks and plays like a typical muni. Nothing particularly memorable about the course but nothing poor to note either. Would not pay the normal $100 price tag , but for $50 it was a good deal.

I played Del Monte many, many times when I was a Dukes Club member in the 80s and 90s and loved it. At the time I was between a 1.5 and 5 index and I appreciated the challenges this course brought to bear. It rewarded long drives and punished even slightly errant ones.

However, back then, Del Monte had a lot more trees and the course was more picturesque and more challenging. As the trees came down, the owners never bothered to plant more. They've had thirty years to do this! Now, where there once were beautiful, strategically-placed trees, there are stumps and trunks with few limbs remaining. I saw no staked trees but I confess I was not looking for them. On a number of holes, "Old Del" is looking like an uninteresting, muni course. There was barely a dusting of sand over hardpack dirt in some bunkers and a full complement of Pebble Beach-quality sand in others. The inconsistency was disappointing. The greens were punched so I can't speak to the quality of the putting surface (Del Monte's postage-stamp-sized greens were always great. I assume they still are still true and slick). The rough is full of broadleaf weeds and it was punitively deep and thick. There hasn't been significant rain for two weeks. They couldn't mow?

Frankly, at a Golf Now $51 dollar rate, for a 2:10 tee time (which we had), I would not go back....with or without the punched greens. It is a poor value compared to the courses I can and do play for less or the same amount.

Sad to see how Pebble Beach Company treats this historical track.

Historical golf course, surrounded by homes. This course has holes bunched inside a small area. Walkable since the next tee is just yards from the last green. The key is too keep the ball in the fairway, better short than OB in someones yard. Greens are fast so keep it under the hole if you know where it is. Stay inside the cart as much you can so you dont get hit by wayward balls since it is very tight.

This course does not belong in the pebble beach catagory. Very disappointed with the punched greens. GolfNow should mention this. We would not have played this course. The greens were unplayable. We had to play them as two put max.

Overall there are a lot of nice courses in Monterey. We played four rounds this week. This course was a disappoint as the layout and conditions felt old.