Poppy Hills hasn't gotten any respect from PGA players since it replaced Cypress Point on the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am rotation in 1991. But this course, which is a Robert Trent Jones II design that opened in 1986 and is home to the Northern California Golf Association, deserves much better. Just minutes from world-famous Pebble Beach, the 6,800-yard course offers a beautiful walk in the Del Monte Forest, where towering cypress and pines saturate salty breezes from the Pacific Ocean.
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Even among its more famous neighbors, Pacific Grove Municipal Golf Course shines like the beacon in the Point Pinos Lighthouse adjacent to the 16th tee.
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Spyglass Hill Golf Course is only 33 years old -- its history is still being played out. But last year during the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, Head Professional Mark Brenneman witnessed something that will go down in the Spyglass history book. Payne Stewart, leading the tournament on Saturday at Spyglass, also won the tournament here.
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It's almost uncanny that Santa Cruz is known more for its famous Beach Boardwalk or for having been the birthplace of surfing competitions than for its golf links history found at Pasatiempo Golf Course.
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When San Juan Oaks PGA Head Golf Professional Bruce Lewis asked Fred Couples for some trophies to put in a trophy room, the modest Couples, winner of 14 tournaments on the PGA Tour said: "No."
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You would think that a golf course that has five par-5s would make Tiger Woods drool. But like many others who play Poppy Hills Golf Course in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am rotation, Tiger hasn't exactly destroyed this tough layout - yet.
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Back along Snively's Ridge on the eastern boundary of the Santa Lucia Preserve is a spot that is one of the great luxury getaways in the USA. It's called Carmel Valley Ranch, and its Pete Dye par-70 layout is a very playable golf course that was voted one of the Top 100 Women-Friendly Courses in the country by Golf for Women's Magazine.
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Standing on the Spanish Bay Beach, one can almost envision what it was like for Juan Portola in 1769, when he led a land expedition from Baja California to find the Monterey Peninsula.
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In 1954 a young soldier from nearby Fort Ord shot the course record at the Del Monte Golf Course, the oldest course in continuous operation west of the Mississippi River. His name is Ken Venturi and his 62 stood alone until Todd Gjesvold equaled it in 1996.
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Loping across the fairway just 100 yards away was a bobcat. A bobcat in Carmel Valley? Just a short crow's flight from the famed Seventeen-Mile Drive in Pebble Beach? You bet. California may be the most populated state in the USA with more than 32 million folks, but wildlife is still abundant.
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