Shipnuck Discusses Recent Renovations at Pebble Beach

[Nick Church]

http://blogs.golf.com/presstent/2009/08/alan-shipnuck-mailbag-08112009.html

I'm sure half my posts are Monterey related, so what is one more?!?

[Wyatt Halliday]

"By far the coolest change is to No. 6, the gorgeous par-5 that is one of my favorite driving holes anywhere.

In the old days there was a very wide fairway with a big bunker down the left side that was barely in play. Stillwater Cove to the right was also rarely a factor because rough and/or trees would halt most drives headed in that direction. Now the bunkering has been enlarged and shifted to the right, pinching the fairway and forcing players to aim much closer to the water. But that has become more dangerous because all the trees have been removed and the band of rough narrowed to only a couple of paces, so balls that are a little off-line can now tumble into the abyss."

The views have been opened up to provide a magnificent panorama when walking up the sixth. The new bunkering however, is jarring and abysmal.

[Nick Church]

That the bunkering is "jarring" or somehow out of scale probably should not be a surprise.  Anybody have images of the renovations?

Would it have been appropriate in "style" to have employed a bunker craftsmen from the Doak, C&C, or Hanse crews?

[Kevin_Reilly]

See this thread about #6 from a year ago.

http://golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,36710.msg750990.html#msg750990

[Adam Clayman]

The premise that the old bunker was rarely an issue is spurious for most golfers.  I don't doubt that the tree removal is a good thing. The style of the new bunker is the only question mark. Does it fit?

One of the nuances of the old fairway was it's downhill nature for drives inside of 250 yards and in. On that right side, if the ground is flatter, what we have here is another example of making the shot easier when the goal of the re-do was in all likely hood to make the hole tougher for the pros.

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

It is rare to say that I could care less about them changing course. lol Of course i do. I want to read about change in ownership and marketing back to a golf resort rather than nothing more than a retreat forCorporate types and their clients. The changes are great but again slow down pace of play at a resort than sets new standards on ways to slow down play.And this is done with inspite of having one of the best Golf Managements teams in the world. RJ is top notch.

[Tom_Doak]

I have not seen the new bunkering.

The old bunker there was pretty awful.  I believe it dated from 1970 instead of 1920, and it sure looked the part ... plus it was out of play.  But the new alignment sounds pretty awkward, if it forces you out to the right.  I'd love to see a photo of it from the tee.

[DMoriarty]

I have not seen the new bunkering.

The old bunker there was pretty awful.  I believe it dated from 1970 instead of 1920, and it sure looked the part ... plus it was out of play.  But the new alignment sounds pretty awkward, if it forces you out to the right.  I'd love to see a photo of it from the tee.

Photo from thread mentioned by Kevin above:

[Tom_Doak]

David:

Thanks for that.  The positioning of the bunkers is not as I'd thought ... from the description, I had thought they were making you aim to the right of the green off the tee.  Not to say we would have done the same thing, though.  To my eye they line up too precisely with the second set of bunkers up the hill.

[Alex Miller]

I would have loved to see the bunkering come in to make the drive set up like 4 at Bethpage Black.

Can a long hitter just lay back off the tee and still reach the green?

[Mark Alexander]

I was out there in February writing a piece for Golf Punk magazine on the changes to the course
As you would expect, while there I took some shots of the course and as you will hopefully see, the hole looks awesome flirting nicely with the coastline (there are more shots on my website www.markalexanderphotography.co.uk).
That said, I thought the bunkering could have been pushed into the fairway even further. As it stands, there is still a fairly wide target area which admittedly slopes towards the awaiting cliffs.

[Matt_Cohn]

Not the greatest pictures but here is #6 a few months ago. The bunkering does look different from the rest of the course.



Another thing I noticed was how it looks a little weird when you're looking back from the 18th green. You can see the bunkers on #6 in the background below the right edge of the tree.

[Jed Peters]

That hole looks absolutely friggin awesome--except for the bunkering on the left.

They couldn't have done any better than that?

[Kyle Henderson]

The new bunkering on 6 doesn't match those found anywhere elso on the course I agree they should look more "homogenous" and rustic, but the previous version was much worse. Did anyone EVER see a pro in the old bunker (or the islands of grass within... ick)?

[Ian Andrew]

I played the course this spring - they don't match the scale or style of the other bunkers.

They are very disappointing.

[Sean Leary]

Do they match the new bunkers on 15?

[Matt_Cohn]

Umm...sort of, but not that pot bunker on #15 which really doesn't seem to match anything.

[jeffwarne]

I played the course this spring - they don't match the scale or style of the other bunkers.

They are very disappointing.

Are bunkers supposed to match?

[Matt_Cohn]

I played the course this spring - they don't match the scale or style of the other bunkers.

They are very disappointing.

Are bunkers supposed to match?

Yes. From a "natural" point of view, landforms on similar terrain generally will and should be similar in composition. From an aesthetic point of view, matching features are more appealing than disparate features.

[Jon Spaulding]

They should have just put in some church pews on the left side on officially put the place out of its misery.

[Michael Huber]

i played pebble in July.  For what its worth, my ball ended up about 15 feet from the cove, and one of the guys in my group hit his ball into the bunker on the left. 

So while we can bemoan the fact that the bunker don't "fit the course" the bunker is certainly now in play, and so is the water.  If you look at it that way, the modifications were successfull. 

By the way, I'm not well versed in great golf courses, but I do not think I will ever play a par 5 with a cool second shot than the 6th at Pebble Beach.  Without a doubt the most fun shot on the course. 

[Adam Clayman]

Michael, While I agree with your gist that the second shot on 6 is major fun, I'm not sure it's more fun than the second on 8. Blindness being the crucial difference.
This touches on one of the more subtle aspects of Pebble Beach that makes it a great course. I feel those who diss the course for having too many mediocre holes fail to clue into these subtleties, choosing only to grade the whole on some of it's parts.