Spyglass Hill Golf Course

Coordinates: 36°34′55″N 121°57′25″W / 36.582°N 121.957°W / 36.582; -121.957
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Spyglass Hill Golf Course
Spyglass Hill Golf Course
Club information
Spyglass Hill Golf Course is located in the United States
Spyglass Hill Golf Course
Location in the United States
Spyglass Hill Golf Course is located in California
Spyglass Hill Golf Course
Location in California
LocationPebble Beach, California,
Elevation100 feet (30 m)
Established1966, 58 years ago
TypePublic
Owned byPebble Beach Company
Operated byPebble Beach Company
Total holes18
Events hostedAT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am
(1967–present)
WebsitePebble Beach Resorts
Spyglass Hill Golf Course
Designed byRobert Trent Jones Sr.
Par72
Length7,026 yards (6,425 m)
Course rating75.4
Slope rating145 [1]
Course record62 – Phil Mickelson (2005)
and Luke Donald (2006)[2][3]

Spyglass Hill Golf Course is a links golf course on the west coast of the United States, located on the Monterey Peninsula in California.[4] The course is part of the Pebble Beach Company, which also owns the Pebble Beach Golf Links, The Links at Spanish Bay, and the Del Monte Golf Course. The PGA golf head pro at Spyglass Hill is Patrick Gannon.

Golf Digest has ranked Spyglass Hill as high as fifth on its list of "America's 100 Greatest Public Courses".[5] It has also featured in the popular Tiger Woods PGA Tour series of video games, along with the sister course Pebble Beach.

History[edit]

Spyglass Hill was designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr., and opened 58 years ago on March 11, 1966, after six years of planning, design, and construction. Since 1967, it has been in the rotation of the multi-course AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, a February tournament on the West Coast Swing of the PGA Tour.[6][7]

Originally called Pebble Beach Pines Golf Club, it was renamed to Spyglass Hill by Samuel F. B. Morse (1885–1969), the founder of Pebble Beach Company,[8] after the place in the 1883 novel Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894), who had spent time in the Monterey area in 1879.[9] All the holes at Spyglass Hill were named by Bob Hanna, executive director of the Northern California Golf Association, after characters and places from the novel.[10][11]

Its par-72 layout measures 6,960 yards (6,364 m) from the championship (blue) tees, with a course rating of 75.4 and a slope rating of 145.[1] The first five holes all have views of the Pacific Ocean, and the other thirteen wind through the Del Monte Forest.

The course record of 62 (–10) was set by Phil Mickelson in 2005 and equaled by Luke Donald the next year; both were carded on Thursday of the AT&T under calm conditions.[2][3]

The back tees at Spyglass Hill were called "Tiger tees" when it opened,[7] long before the birth of Tiger Woods.

Layout[edit]

The first hole is called Treasure Island, and is a downhill 597-yard (546 m) par 5, which doglegs almost 90 degrees to the left. One of the more renowned holes is the fourth, a 376-yard (344 m) par 4 named Blind Pew, which Robert Trent Jones called his favorite par 4. The green is the most photographed on the course, and is surrounded by ice plant. Other hole names include The Black Spot (3rd), Captain Flint (10th), and Long John Silver (14th).

Hole Name Yards Par Hole Name Yards Par
1 Treasure Island 597 5 10 Captain Flint 409 4
2 Billy Bones 349 4 11 Admiral Benbow 562 5
3 The Black Spot 171 3 12 Skeleton Island 177 3
4 Blind Pew 376 4 13 Tom Morgan 458 4
5 Bird Rock 203 3 14 Long John Silver 558 5
6 Israel Hands 441 4 15 Jim Hawkins 132 3
7 Indian Village 545 5 16 Black Dog 469 4
8 Signal Hill 398 4 17 Ben Gunn 324 4
9 Captain Smollett 430 4 18 Spyglass 427 4
Out 3,510 36 In 3,516 36
Total 7,026 72

Scorecard[edit]

Spyglass Hill Golf Course
Tee Rating/Slope 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Out 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 In Total
Blue 75.4 / 145 597 349 171 376 203 441 545 398 430 3510 409 562 177 458 558 132 469 324 427 3516 7026
Gold 73.3 / 140 565 321 147 370 173 408 520 372 414 3290 376 490 159 430 525 122 447 316 404 3269 6559
White 71.8 / 133 533 300 128 360 138 372 479 356 393 3059 366 459 143 393 514 101 433 304 378 3091 6150
Green 70.0 / 128 523 292 124 353 126 324 469 310 353 2874 319 451 123 353 487 95 404 295 360 2887 5761
Red 67.4 / 122 488 241 83 302 94 320 462 300 349 2639 315 420 95 322 481 83 286 266 332 2600 5239
SI Men's 3 13 17 9 15 7 11 1 5 12 10 16 4 6 18 2 14 8
Par 5 4 3 4 3 4 5 4 4 36 4 5 3 4 5 3 4 4 4 36 72
SI Women's 5 13 17 9 15 1 7 11 3 6 12 16 8 2 18 10 14 4
Source:[1][12]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c "Course Rating and Slope Database™ - Spyglass Hill GC". USGA. Retrieved January 16, 2021.
  2. ^ a b "'Long' Mickelson goes low again". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Associated Press. February 11, 2005. p. C4.
  3. ^ a b "Donald goes way under at Spyglass". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). Associated Press. February 10, 2006. p. D4.
  4. ^ "Spyglass Hill Golf Course". MontereyPeninsulaGolf.com.
  5. ^ "The Pirates Of Pebble Beach: Spyglass Hill Golf Course". Golf Adventures. August 8, 2007. Archived from the original on January 7, 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-06.
  6. ^ Stevenson, Jack (January 19, 1967). "Jack wins bet from Crosby by taking 'Spyglass Hill'". Florence Times. (Alabama). Associated Press. p. 10.
  7. ^ a b "Bing enthused over links, but some golf pros aren't". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). Associated Press. January 22, 1967. p. 6.
  8. ^ Stewart, Jerry (June 13, 2010). "Birth of an Icon: The story of Pebble Beach Golf Links". Monterey herald. California. Retrieved February 11, 2016.
  9. ^ Barkow, Al (May 2006). "Spyglass Hill Golf Course". LINKS. Retrieved February 11, 2016.
  10. ^ Stevenson, Jack (January 15, 1967). "Golf course holes named for fighters". Park City Daily News. Bowling Green, Kentucky. Associated Press. p. 18.
  11. ^ Stewart, Jerry (April 2, 2009). "Bob Hanna dies". The Monterey County Herald. Retrieved February 11, 2016.
  12. ^ https://www.pebblebeach.com/content/uploads/Spyglass-Hill-Scorecard.pdf[bare URL PDF]

External links[edit]

36°34′55″N 121°57′25″W / 36.582°N 121.957°W / 36.582; -121.957