Spyglass Hill Golf Course, California
Are the first five holes at Spyglass Hill the best opening stretch on an American golf course?
California is the entertainment capital of the world. When it comes to movies, music, and the rest of the arts, there is no better place to be. 39 million residents call the Golden State home, which is more than the number of inhabitants of the 21 least populous states combined. California also has 53 Fortune 500 companies and sports 840 miles of beautiful ocean coastline. The state is littered with lakes, mountains, forests, beaches, deserts, canyons, and more. One could write an entire novel about the state’s changing topography, but I digress.
In September a few years ago, my sister-in-law was invited to play as the amateur partner in a pro-am golf tournament. As a result, the whole family headed out to the Monterey Peninsula for the week to take some golf and scenery in. The peninsula is beautiful and there are many amenities. We flew into San Jose and took an Uber an hour-plus down south.
17 Mile Drive is home to a handful of world class golf courses, among them Pebble Beach, where the tournament was held, Spyglass Hill, 36-hole Monterey Peninsula Country Club, and Cypress Point, the granddaddy of them all. The state of California has many other renowned facilities like Riviera, Los Angeles Country Club, San Francisco Golf Club, Cal Club, The Olympic Club, and Pasatiempo. I do apologize to those I omitted. There are many greats in this state.
Pebble Beach is a special place. I walked the grounds many times that week, but never got to tee it up there. During one of the practice rounds of the tournament, I had a chat with the professional my sister-in-law was paired with. He was a former PGA Tour member of many years, a household name, settling into the senior circuit. Amid our conversation, I asked, “If I had time for a twilight round tonight, what public course in the area should I play?”
Without a second breath, he answered, “Spyglass Hill, unless you can get onto Cypress Point.”
Like any mere mortal, forging an invitation in four hours to get on Cypress Point was impossible. So, I “settled” for Spyglass Hill. I am among a litany of millennials who became familiar with Spyglass on the video game series Tiger Woods PGA Tour. The accolades go on and on for the Robert Trent Jones design. It is ranked the 31st best modern golf course by GolfWeek. Golf Digest currently has it placed 12th in its top 100 public layouts and 67th overall in the United States. GD also has it rated eighth in California behind seven I listed earlier as Golden State notables.
The dunes of Spyglass Hill were the inspiration for Robert Louis Stephenson’s Treasure Island. Most of the golf holes are named after characters and locations from the classic novel. You may have come here for the golf travel blog, but you will leave with a little bit more historical knowledge. Newsletter subscribers of my website got a taste of my best hand at pirate speak in their inboxes this morning.
I’m so glad I heeded to the advice of the professional golfer. The first five holes at Spyglass Hill, which I played at 6500 yards, are world class. The first, a par five, is a downhill, dogleg left through the towering pines of the Del Monte Forest. The ocean reveal at the bottom of the hill is exhilarating and is a fun preview of what the next hour has in store for you. The second is an attractive uphill short par four of 321 yards from the gold tees. A deep bunker guards short and right of the pin and the sandy dunes of the peninsula protect the left. One of the best views in golf is the tee box of the downhill, 147-yard par three third. Just to look down and see that green and the rippling Pacific Ocean waves behind is worth the steep green fee. If you are like me, you will consider yourself lucky to be in such a spot. The fourth has the funky, thin green and will probably be the hole you talk about the most for golf reasons. That is, unless you're like me and three putted. It is just a great all-around short par four, though. The fifth is another fun par three that caps your seaside “links” experience at Spyglass Hill.
Everyone knows the incredible, sweeping ocean vistas of the opening five holes, but what lies beyond the initial offering is outstanding as well. A walk back into the Del Monte Forest on the sixth tee sets the scene for the rest of your round. Though I have never been, the par three 12th hole on Spyglass looks like it might belong at Augusta National; you could say the same about the 16th. That's high praise, but this is a place worthy of flattery. My only complaint about those heavily wooded final thirteen holes is that you don't get another ocean view. That may bum some people, like one of the two men from France I teed it up with, out immensely. Aside from that, they are just well designed, brutally difficult golf holes. You'll see an abundance of wildlife, notably a boatload of black-tail deer who aren't afraid to get smacked by one of your golf balls.
That brings me to expand upon the difficulty. If you’re a high handicapper interested in only carding a low score, do not go to Spyglass Hill. You have been forewarned. If you are interested in anything else—the scenery, the architecture—you are in for a treat. I could foresee below average golfers having a terrible time here.
Even still, don't let a high number on the scorecard hinder your experience at this magnificent property. I’ll put it this way: I wouldn't necessarily run you out of the room if you believed Spyglass Hill to be superior to its more famous neighbor, Pebble Beach. I may not agree with the sentiment, but I’d listen to what you had to say. The land has been inspiring for centuries, and I’m so glad time has paved the way to this wonderful walk in the dunes.