Pebble Beach Golf Links

Overview: Pebble Beach Golf Links follows Monterey Bay in a figure-eight routing that combines exposed coastal holes with inland corridors through the Del Monte Forest. Jack Neville and Douglas Grant used the cliffs, coves, headlands and existing terrain to bring as many holes as possible toward the water. The course changes scale constantly, from intimate forest corridors to wide views across the Pacific, while the coastline remains an active strategic boundary rather than a distant backdrop.

History: Samuel F. B. Morse engaged Neville and Grant to design the course, which officially opened for play on 22 February 1919. Early refinements by Arthur Vincent, William Herbert Fowler and H. Chandler Egan reshaped greens, extended holes and created the modern character of the 18th. Decades later, Jack Nicklaus designed a new fifth hole on oceanfront land that Pebble Beach Company had spent many years trying to reclaim, completing Morse’s original ambition for a more continuous run of waterfront golf.

Did You Know? Pebble Beach was one of the first championship courses built with underground irrigation running from tee to green. The system was developed to protect the course through the long dry periods between Monterey Peninsula rains, a practical challenge that was as important to the project’s success as the dramatic coastline. The technology helped make a seaside course playable at a level its natural climate would not otherwise guarantee.