In a area steeped in golf historical past, no course has deeper roots than a modest format simply up the highway from Pebble Beach Golf Links.
Sherman Chu
Nostalgia ain’t what it was once. But it’s alive and nicely this week across the Monterey Peninsula.
It all the time is when the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am rolls round. Talk to longtime locals, and so they’ll wax wistfully about the way in which issues have been, lengthy earlier than the match bloomed with company tents, again when the yearly gathering was known as the Clambake, a celebration of golf and simple residing, hosted by a man who loved his share of each.
The previous is ever-present round these elements.
Pebble Beach itself pays ample tribute to it with plaques and images across the property, many documenting moments that predate the Clambake by a number of a long time.
Bing Crosby’s occasion was born within the late Nineteen Thirties. Pebble Beach was inbuilt 1918. Those have been the times, as the graybeards wish to say.
It’s good to reminisce. But as lengthy as we’re tripping within the wayback machine, we would as nicely journey a bit farther, simply up the highway from Pebble, to the OG of Monterey-area golf. First opened for play in 1897, Del Monte Golf Course isn’t simply the oldest course within the county. It’s the oldest repeatedly working golf facility west of the Mississippi nonetheless on its unique web site.
That’s a honest declare to fame. But Del Monte doesn’t draw a lot of headline mentions, regardless of being a part of Pebble Beach Resorts. Or perhaps that’s the explanation. It will get overshadowed. It has been described as Pebble’s “forgotten” format, which is considerably unusual to say about a course that books its tee sheet strong most days of the 12 months.
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Unlike its well-known coastal kin, Del Monte sits inland. But it shares some traits with Pebble. Its greens are tiny and pinched by bunkers. Many of its enjoying corridors are comfortable. There are doglegs to cope with and strategic bother posed by oaks and pines. And whereas it opens modestly, like Pebble, halfway via the entrance 9, it good points extra character, gathering momentum as it goes.
At 6,375 yards, Del Monte isn’t lengthy. But it’s nowhere close to as quick as it as soon as was. For its first five-plus years of life, it was a nine-hole course, constructed as an offsite amenity to the Hotel Del Monte, which counted on the time as one of many nation’s grandest luxurious retreats.
The format was designed by a British-born golf junkie named Charles Maud, who’s believed to have dealt with its 1903 expansions to 18 holes as nicely. Another marked change got here in 1920, when Herbert Fowler (additionally recognized in Monterey for having reworked the 18th gap at Pebble Beach from a par-4 into a par-5) renovated the entire shebang.
Courtesy Photo
By then, Del Monte had a sturdy status as a match venue. The birthplace of the California Amateur Championship, it staged a slate of different outstanding occasions, together with the Pacific Coast Open and the Western Amateur Championship.
Del Monte nonetheless hosts competitions. The Monterey Open. The Monterey City Amateur. But largely what it welcomes is resort and native play. If you’re staying at Pebble, greens charges are $125; in the event you purchase a low cost card recognized as the Duke’s, the speed drops as low as $54.
Early final 12 months, Del Monte transformed its clubhouse restaurant and up to date the menu. But the property itself stays a time-capsule, a portal to a long-gone period. You can consider the course as Pebble’s older sibling. But, in a sense, it’s extra like Pebble’s dad or mum.
To underscore that time, contemplate this historic element: in 1915, when plans have been first introduced for a Scottish-inspired course alongside the Monterey coast, the venture wasn’t billed as Pebble Beach Golf Links. That got here later.
The unique title was Del Monte No. 2.
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