Northern California Golf Course Reviews
Spyglass Hill Golf Course Review
Pebble Beach, CA
75.3 rating; 148 slope |
Spyglass Hill Scorecard from the longest tees, as of the date of last review
Spyglass Hill Golf Course Overview: Spyglass is an incredibly
difficult golf course from 1st tee to 18th green. The course offers the best of dunes and tree
lined golf holes with water being a factor on a few holes as well. The real challenge, however, lies in the
superb architectural design of the golf holes, especially the bunkering and
lightning fast greens. Any misplayed
drive will leave very little chance at hitting the green, and any missed green
will almost invariably lead to bogey or worse.
The best holes are reviewed below:
Spyglass Hill Hole 1: A grand downhill par 5 starts the round. With sweeping views of the ocean and thick forest on either side for the first two shots, the 3rd shot is the real beauty. If the first two shots are positioned well enough to avoid the large trees on the left side of the fairway, the approach will be wide open to a green dubbed “Treasure Island” as it surrounded left, right and short by sand traps so large and deep it’s scary. The green is two-tiered and slopes away from the player. |
Other Monterey Area
Golf Course Reviews: - Spanish Bay Golf - Pasatiempo Golf - Bayonet Golf - Poppy Hills Golf - Pacific Grove Municipal Golf Course - Monterey Peninsula Country Club - Pebble Beach Golf Links |
Spyglass Hill Hole 2: This short par four is target golf of sorts as the tee shot needs to find the left to right sloping fairway to have a good chance to hit the green. This green is substantially above the player and to the right, angled, and quite small. It rejects shots coming up short and is hard to hold out of the roughs.
Spyglass Hill Hole 3: Tiny, but testy, this downhill par 3 has million dollar views. The hole itself has a very small green surrounded by sand (natural and engineered) and ice plant.
Spyglass Hill Hole 4: The fourth at Spyglass hill is the perfect risk/reward par four. With a daunting field of ice plant and sand dunes down the left of the hole, the golfer is tempted to lay up off the tee for accuracy or stay way to the right. However, this hole has the skinniest green in the entire world with a large tier separating front from back, and running away from the golfer, all the time surrounded by thick, wispy grass, and dunes a little farther away. Thus, approaching the green from far away is very, very dangerous. With the pin cut in the front, hitting a shorter tee shot is acceptable, but it must hug the left side cut some of the distance off, which is frightening. For any pin middle or back, the only real option is to hit a longer drive, which is generally means a tighter landing area, and any preferred miss when then be to the right.
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Spyglass Hill Hole 5: The last dunes hole on the course is a classic one-shotter. The green is fronted by 3 deep bunkers and is devilishly slick and difficult to putt. Any extremely errant shot will find ice plant lurking long, left and short.
Spyglass Hill Hole 6: The first truly forested hole on the course is a pleasant, medium length dogleg right with solid bunkering throughout and yet another small, sloping green.
Spyglass Hill Hole 7: A tight par 5 with a premium on accuracy. As it is on most holes on this course, the forest is so thick that any shot off line a smidge will make hitting the green in regulation very difficult. The 3rd shot must avoid the beautiful lake left of the green.
Spyglass Hill Hole 11 (right): A big, sweeping dog leg right par 5 with a beautiful, but treacherous bunker complex on the right side of the fairway that must be avoided at all costs on the 2nd and/or 3rd shots. The green is very shallow and tremendously wide, so getting the ball close to the pin is difficult.
Spyglass Hill Hole 12 (below): Left is dead on this downhill par three, but the bunkers and hillside to the right are not much more appetizing.
Spyglass Hill Hole 12 (below): Left is dead on this downhill par three, but the bunkers and hillside to the right are not much more appetizing.
Spyglass Hill Hole 14: A double dogleg left downhill par 5 where the 3rd shot (or the 2nd for the adventurous) is great. A beautiful lake and two large bunkers front the green. The 14th is a memorable hole from tee to green, no matter how many shots are taken.
Spyglass Hill Hole 15: The shorter of the two mirror image, short, downhill par threes with lakes fronting the greens. It is shorter, but prettier and has a much more difficult green.
