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Course Review: Pacific Grove Municipal Golf Course
By Tom LaMarre,
TravelGolf.com Staff Writer
July 19, 1999
PACIFIC GROVE, CA - 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.
Once the best-kept secret on the Monterey Peninsula, Pacific
Grove is a bit of serendipity not that much unlike the Pebble
Beach Golf Links, Cypress
Point Club, the Links
at Spanish Bay and those other famed courses only minutes
down the coast.
For a fraction of the cost.
"It's one of those
sleeper courses," said Howard Kihune, Director of Golf
at Makena Resort on Maui, who has played all of the fabled courses
in the Pebble Beach area. "You don't hear a lot of talk
about it, and even a lot of golf people don't know about it.”
"Everyone talks about Pebble
Beach, Spyglass,
Cypress
Point and Spanish
Bay, and they are some of the greatest courses in the world.
But Pacific Grove has some of the elements of all those courses.
It's city-owned and it's well-maintained.”
"It's one of the best municipal courses around."
Pacific Grove is actually two nine-hole courses, the front designed
by former U.S. Amateur champion Chandler Egan, which opened
in 1932.
Due to a re-routing caused by the opening of the back nine in
1960, the course has a quirky start with two par-three holes,
followed by two par fours and then two par fives.
The first nine holes wind through the edge of the Del
Monte Forest and are designed in the old English rural style.
The back nine, a classic seaside links layout, was designed
by Jack Neville, whose claim to fame is perhaps the greatest
golf course of them all: Pebble Beach, and it is believed Neville
also assisted Egan in his work on the front side.
In all, Pacific Grove is a journey to a time when par fours
did not have to measure 300 yards and the greens were the size
of a throw-rug.
The course measures only 5,732 yards from the back tees. All
the better says Mike Leach, Superintendent and Course Manager
at Pacific Grove.
"It's a course that really
lends itself to walking," Leach said. "It's not a
long course and there is not a great distance between the greens
and the next tee. We have 90,000 rounds played a year, just
about equally split between locals and visitors. A high percentage
of them walk the course.”
"Even the front
nine, up the hill through the trees and some homes, is an easy
walk. The back nine is truly a links course, with the sand dunes
and the elements, with only a few old buildings, including the
lighthouse, which is our landmark."
The Point Pinos Lighthouse, which gives Pacific Grove a touch
of the great Turnberry Course in Scotland, opened on Sept. 28,
1855, and is the longest continuously operating lighthouse on
the West Coast.
The beacon, which still has much of its original workings, is
of 50,000-candlepower strength and can be seen 15 miles out
on the Pacific Ocean. It has been powered by electricity since
1915.
"This is really a piece of history and people
come from all over to see it," Leach said. "I think
the best time to see it is on a foggy or overcast day.”
"People come from all over, not just golfers,
to take pictures from all angles. The 16th hole has always been
the most picturesque hole, especially in the days when there
were elk, as well as the deer and the migratory birds that are
still here. The hole plays downhill to the ocean and at the
bottom is Crespi Pond, a freshwater pond right across the street
from the ocean."
Don't get caught looking at the view on the 355-yard hole.
Even though you probably will have a short iron to the green,
it's not an easy approach because of three bunkers surrounding
the putting surface and several other elements to factor in.
"It's a downhill shot, probably from a downhill
lie, with the wind to consider and the pond on the right,"
Leach said. "It's an hourglass-shaped green, very narrow
in the front and opening up deep. It takes a very accurate approach
shot."
All that said about No. 16, the 17th hole is probably the most
picturesque on the course.
The 153-yard par three, with the ocean on the left, plays across
Crespi Pond (named for Fr. Juan Crespi, Chief Subordinate to
Fr. Junipero Serra, founder of the California missions) to a
green surrounded by a grove of Monterey Cypress.
"We
have had quite a few commercials filmed there," Leach said.
"It has all the elements with the ocean, the trees and
the migratory birds around the pond.”
"The
tee shot is almost all carry and you have to deal with a crosswind."
Perhaps the best golf hole at Pacific
Grove is the dogleg right, 513 yard par-five 12th, which
plays right along the ocean.
It's pure links golf, reminiscent of St. Andrews and other golfing
treasures in Scotland and Ireland. You drive over the dunes
to cut the corner and play through the ice plant, with the native
grasses blowing in the wind.
"Your chance to get
home in two depends on which way the wind is blowing,"
Leach said. "Into the wind, you probably have no chance.
On that hole, you definitely get back to the elements."
The sixth hole, a 533-yard dogleg right through the trees, is
a three-shot par five that follows the 520-yard fifth hole,
which can be reached in two.
No. 6 is rated the most difficult hole on the course, but a
Pacific
Grove regular named Bob, who lives in Monterey, begs to
differ. He rates the dogleg right, 424-yard par-four eighth
as the toughest.
"I like both of them, but on
the par five, you can hit a bad shot and still get there in
three, or even four, and have a chance to make par," he
said. "On No. 8, you have no margin for error. You have
to hit two good shots, and even then you might not reach the
green.”
"When I first moved here, I was
really excited about the golf and I played all the courses.
But now, this is just about the only place I play. It has everything
all those other courses have."
With the lighthouse, even more, and for less.
Pacific
Grove Municipal Golf Course
77 Asilomar Blvd.
Pacific Grove, CA 93950 |
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