Pebble Seashore has a ‘forgotten’ golf course. It is as charming as ever

Nostalgia ain’t what it was once. However it’s alive and nicely this week across the Monterey Peninsula.

It at all times is when the AT&T Pebble Seashore Professional-Am rolls round. Discuss to longtime locals, they usually’ll wax wistfully about the best way issues have been, lengthy earlier than the event bloomed with company tents, again when the yearly gathering was known as the Clambake, a celebration of golf and simple residing, hosted by a person who loved his share of each.

The previous is ever-present round these components.

Pebble Seashore itself pays ample tribute to it with plaques and pictures across the property, many documenting moments that predate the Clambake by a number of a long time.

Bing Crosby’s occasion was born within the late Thirties. Pebble Seashore was inbuilt 1918. These have been the times, because the graybeards prefer to say.

It’s good to reminisce. However so long as we’re tripping within the wayback machine, we would as nicely journey a bit farther, simply up the street from Pebble, to the OG of Monterey-area golf. First opened for play in 1897, Del Monte Golf Course isn’t simply the oldest course within the county. It’s the oldest repeatedly working golf facility west of the Mississippi nonetheless on its unique website. 

That’s a good declare to fame. However Del Monte doesn’t draw a whole lot of headline mentions, regardless of being a part of Pebble Seashore Resorts. Or perhaps that’s the explanation. It will get overshadowed. It has been described as Pebble’s “forgotten” structure, which is considerably unusual to say a few course that books its tee sheet stable most days of the 12 months. 

Not like its well-known coastal kin, Del Monte sits inland. However it shares some traits with Pebble. Its greens are tiny and pinched by bunkers. A lot of its taking part in corridors are cosy. There are doglegs to deal with and strategic hassle posed by oaks and pines. And whereas it opens modestly, like Pebble, halfway by means of the entrance 9, it positive factors extra character, gathering momentum because it goes.

At 6,375 yards, Del Monte isn’t lengthy. However it’s nowhere close to as quick because it as soon as was. For its first five-plus years of life, it was a nine-hole course, constructed as an offsite amenity to the Lodge Del Monte, which counted on the time as one of many nation’s grandest luxurious retreats.

The structure was designed by a British-born golf junkie named Charles Maud, who’s believed to have dealt with its 1903 expansions to 18 holes as nicely. One other marked change got here in 1920, when Herbert Fowler (additionally identified in Monterey for having remodeled the 18th gap at Pebble Seashore from a par-4 right into a par-5) renovated the entire shebang. 

By then, Del Monte had a strong status as a event venue. The birthplace of the California Beginner Championship, it staged a slate of different distinguished occasions, together with the Pacific Coast Open and the Western Beginner Championship.

Del Monte nonetheless hosts competitions. The Monterey Open. The Monterey Metropolis Beginner. However largely what it welcomes is resort and native play. When you’re staying at Pebble, greens charges are $125; should you purchase a reduction card generally known as the Duke’s, the speed drops as little as $54.

Early final 12 months, Del Monte reworked its clubhouse restaurant and up to date the menu. However the property itself stays a time-capsule, a portal to a long-gone period. You’ll be able to consider the course as Pebble’s older sibling. However, in a way, it’s extra like Pebble’s mother or father.

To underscore that time, contemplate this historic element: in 1915, when plans have been first introduced for a Scottish-inspired course alongside the Monterey coast, the undertaking wasn’t billed as Pebble Seashore Golf Hyperlinks. That got here later.

The unique title was Del Monte No. 2.

Josh Sens

Golf.com Contributor

A golf, meals and journey author, Josh Sens has been a GOLF Journal contributor since 2004 and now contributes throughout all of GOLF’s platforms. His work has been anthologized in The Greatest American Sportswriting. He’s additionally the co-author, with Sammy Hagar, of Are We Having Any Enjoyable But: the Cooking and Partying Handbook.