When did Pebble abandon Egan's artificial dunes?

[Pete Lavallee]

Geoff has had some wonderful before and after pictures of Pebble Beach, highlighting the artificial dunes Chandler Egan constructed for the US Am. Does anyone know when these dunes were turned into formal bunkers? Also, who was responsible for creating them? I suspect the artificial dunes were difficult to maintain due to high winds, or were they deemed unfair since they were essentially unraked? Thoughts?

[Tom_Doak]

Pete:

I have never seen another course which looked like that, so I suspect it's a pretty hard look to maintain.

For one thing, at Pebble, that look was anything but natural ... Pebble Beach is not sandy by nature ... so once the imported sand blows away, you're back to ground zero.  On top of that, big expanses of open sand are hard to keep open if you're in a climate where grass spreads and weeds grow.

[TEPaul]

Pete:

I'm out here all week with a USGA committee basically in the Media Center and we see and talk to the PB historian all the time; I don't think PB consciously abandoned the "imitation dunes" bunkers as much as they probably just evolved out of existence over time----and perhaps not even over that much time. But I will try to find some photos in like the mid to late 30s or early 40s to confirm it.

[Pete Lavallee]

TEPaul,

I'd be very interested in their possibly brief history. Specifically, how long they did survive and why exactly they were abandoned. We all know Neville and Grant did the orignal layout, Fowler was responsible for 18th, the Good Dr. did the 8th and 13th greens and Egan redid it all, but who is responsible for the bunkers that we know so well today.

[Adam Clayman]

Tom, I would suggest finding out when the irrigation systems were upgraded. That may give a time frame for when the grass could've grown over.

[Ian Larson]

Adam you just beat me to it, I would also say it's a relationship with when it went from dry and windswept to lush and growing more.

[Bill_McBride]

TEPaul,

I'd be very interested in their possibly brief history. Specifically, how long they did survive and why exactly they were abandoned. We all know Neville and Grant did the orignal layout, Fowler was responsible for 18th, the Good Dr. did the 8th and 13th greens and Egan redid it all, but who is responsible for the bunkers that we know so well today.

Pete, when did Fowler do whatever he did to the 18th, what did he do, and what was there before?

[Tom_Doak]

Bill:

The eighteenth at Pebble Beach was a par-4 until about 1920.  I don't think the tee was out on the rocks, and I am sure the green was not so far around the corner.

[Bill_McBride]

Bill:

The eighteenth at Pebble Beach was a par-4 until about 1920.  I don't think the tee was out on the rocks, and I am sure the green was not so far around the corner.

That hole is a monument to engineering and the ability to generate the money to maintain the product!

[TEPaul]

According to the PB history (records) Fowler extended the 18th hole by moving the Neville/Grant green about 170 yards down the coast towards the clubhouse or Lodge.

PB's history claims both the Del Monte course and PB were the first courses in the world that had comprehensive piped irrigation systems (including fairways). They claim they used 1.5 million gallons per week during the dry season.

Egan wrote that he redid (reshaped, returfed or moved) 16 greens in 1928. I think the only ones he did not change were MacKenzie's 1925-26 #8 and #13. The PB historian believes the same.

[Pete Lavallee]

TEPaul,

Did you get any information on when and why the artificial dunes were abandoned?