The two trees on # 18 at Pebble Beach

[Kalen Braley]

Looking at HistoricAerials.com its interesting how much coast line eroded between 2009 and 2014, just to the left of those trees, presumably by a few big storms.


The current aerials on Google Maps seems to show where they've built it back up with concrete walls, but i learned my lesson from Jeff not to say for sure!     In 2014 they still had two trees, I wonder if they took one out for "fairness" with reduced real estate in that area.


P.S.  The other interesting thing to see is how much more that giant bunker eats into the fairway at the corner of the dog leg.  The older shots prior to '98 seem to suggest a much less intrusive bunker...

[Erik J. Barzeski]

The trees in the fairway landing area serve one purpose -- to make it more difficult to bail out on the tee shot, because then you might have something in your way on the second shot.  Without them, everyone would take a prudent line off the tee, and only the dumb player would ever bite off more than he could chew.

That I don't really understand. The fairway is only 24 yards left of the tree, and only 42 yards from the sea wall to the bunker. It's only 60 yards across the cart path and presumably OB (right?).




Those "bailing out" are hitting into rough, a bunker, or across a cart path and presumably OB, no? Why narrow a fairway to 24 yards with a tree? Does it "play" differently than my measurements?

Genuinely asking here; I've never played Pebble.

[Matthew Petersen]

Erik, it does play differently, because the tee shot is coming from an angle that makes the fairway feel much wider. When you stand on the tee, everything to the right looks like fairway, even though you know that if you bail out that way you can go through the fairway and get into trouble, whether bunker or OB. But without the tree, the fairway is effectively very wide, because you're playing more of a "cape style" (don't come at me, y'all, I know it's not really a cape hole) tee shot, not one where you're lined up and driving between the ocean and the bunkers. This picture, which shows the old location of the trees, gives you an idea of the visual.


Without the tree, it's actually not a very intimidating drive, if you're a decent driver of the ball. If you take it on a line where the trees are (but assume they're gone), so just left of where the last fairway bunker is, you don't have to even carry very much ocean (around 170 yards, per Google), and the fairway doesn't run out until 295 so you can really bang a drive and have a chance to attack the hole while taking a pretty safe line (you're biggest threat would be that a slight push would find the bunker). Really you can just stand on the tee aim just left of the bunker and if you can make a swing that eliminates a pull, you're golden.


The tree(s) make that a lot more dicey, as you can see. You have to either hit a drive that draws, or take a line that carries a lot more of the coast and has a lot less room for error in terms of a pull.


It's not that anyone plays the hole by deliberately trying to play right of the tree. If you're playing it as a three shot hole, you tend to play a drive that's well shirt of the tree and it's not an issue on the second shot at all (see Phil with an iron off the tee on Monday morning). What the tree really does is ensure that if you're driving to be aggressive, you have to hit a good aggressive drive up the left side to be rewarded with a good chance. If you bail right, you don't get away with it (but you'll styill have a shot and be able to reach the green in 3--maybe even 2 if you're Tiger in 2010).

[Tom_Doak]

The trees in the fairway landing area serve one purpose -- to make it more difficult to bail out on the tee shot, because then you might have something in your way on the second shot.  Without them, everyone would take a prudent line off the tee, and only the dumb player would ever bite off more than he could chew.

That I don't really understand. The fairway is only 24 yards left of the tree, and only 42 yards from the sea wall to the bunker. It's only 60 yards across the cart path and presumably OB (right?).




Those "bailing out" are hitting into rough, a bunker, or across a cart path and presumably OB, no? Why narrow a fairway to 24 yards with a tree? Does it "play" differently than my measurements?

Genuinely asking here; I've never played Pebble.

Eric:


I haven't played Pebble in many years myself.  But your post caused me to go to Google Earth and do my own measurements.


For one thing, that bunker next to the tree never used to be there . . . must have been added by Palmer's company sometime in the last 20 years.  The fairway was a little wider around the tree, and then it was rough to the o.b. line.  Also, it looks like they've lost a big of fairway on the left to erosion, even with and just past the tree.


The o.b. is not as much in play as you'd imagine because of the angle . . . from the back tee, if you play to the right edge of the new bunker (well right of the tree), you've got to carry 260 yards to get to the cart path.


The tree is 270 yards from the back tee.  If you aim right at it, you've got to carry 195 yards to get to the fairway.  If you aim left of it, the carry is 225.  That's a pretty big difference for most players, though obviously not for professionals anymore.


What hasn't changed is that the pros now HAVE TO aim left of the tree, a bit more uncomfortably than they would choose, if they are going to hit driver; while the 10-handicap playing safe risks winding up behind the tree for his second shot.

[Brett Hochstein]

The trees in the fairway landing area serve one purpose -- to make it more difficult to bail out on the tee shot, because then you might have something in your way on the second shot.  Without them, everyone would take a prudent line off the tee, and only the dumb player would ever bite off more than he could chew.

That I don't really understand. The fairway is only 24 yards left of the tree, and only 42 yards from the sea wall to the bunker. It's only 60 yards across the cart path and presumably OB (right?).




Those "bailing out" are hitting into rough, a bunker, or across a cart path and presumably OB, no? Why narrow a fairway to 24 yards with a tree? Does it "play" differently than my measurements?

Genuinely asking here; I've never played Pebble.

Eric:


I haven't played Pebble in many years myself.  But your post caused me to go to Google Earth and do my own measurements.


For one thing, that bunker next to the tree never used to be there . . . must have been added by Palmer's company sometime in the last 20 years.  The fairway was a little wider around the tree, and then it was rough to the o.b. line.  Also, it looks like they've lost a big of fairway on the left to erosion, even with and just past the tree.


The o.b. is not as much in play as you'd imagine because of the angle . . . from the back tee, if you play to the right edge of the new bunker (well right of the tree), you've got to carry 260 yards to get to the cart path.


The tree is 270 yards from the back tee.  If you aim right at it, you've got to carry 195 yards to get to the fairway.  If you aim left of it, the carry is 225.  That's a pretty big difference for most players, though obviously not for professionals anymore.


What hasn't changed is that the pros now HAVE TO aim left of the tree, a bit more uncomfortably than they would choose, if they are going to hit driver; while the 10-handicap playing safe risks winding up behind the tree for his second shot.

By playing with the history scroll on Google Earth, the major changes happened sometime between 1998 and 2005.  The bunker was indeed added, and there is a little bit of coastal erosion that eats into the fairway.  What else is notable however, is that the location of the trees changed as well.  By marking my screen and using the measuring tool, it looks like about a 40 yard difference further down the hole from the original first tree to the later version of the first tree.  The second little tree was lost sometime after summer of 2013.