Spyglass-Course Update

[Bob_Huntley]

The course was in superb condition. Drainage problems seem to have been sorted out. The driving area on the left side of No. 16 has received extensive work and has been resodded. I doubt that it will ever become a bog in El Nino storms. However the biggest surprise on the hole is that the tall pine that dictated play off the tee is gone, kaput. The tree was dying, Fazio suggested removing it some time ago but was ignored. Pine bark cancer did the trick and it had to come down.

A change with which I disagree, is that the scraggly waste area on the front of No.2 green has been replaced with a quite unimaginative bunker.

The pond in front of No.11 has been gone for a long time but in replaying the hole, I find it much improved. Long knockers can get on in two but the bunkering can punish the wayward shot.

As we all acknowlege, the first five holes are a veritable feast of stunning vistas and beautiful dunes but the rest of the course grew on me as we played on a a glorious sunny day. The fact that when you are a guest of a Spyglass member the greens fee is but $30.00, it is tough to find fault with anything at that price.

[GeoffreyC]

Bob

Its a real shame that they are messing with the superb 2nd hole. Those first 5 holes were meant to be rugged and untidy.  Who was responsibe for removing the waste area and installing the new bunker?

I really didn't mind that tree on 16 so much. If I recall, it almost reminds me of the 12th at Stanford.  I suspect ChipOat is really responsible for the death of that tree   .  He's been very quiet lately so he could be traveling the country with his bag of copper nails.

[Ted Willis]

Bob,

Pictures! Let's get some pictures of the course on here if you have or can?!

[wdaspin]

The past two times I have played Spyglass (2 & 3 years ago) the fairways were very thin and muddy and this was in Sept or Oct.  We didn't even play there last year because the Pebble caddies told us it was in such poor shape.  Went to Pasa instead which was pristine.  

How are the fairways?  

[Mike Benham]

Geoffry,

Wouldn't a better comparison be the tree on the approach to the 9th green at Poppy Hills?  If you are behind, that tree, you have the option of shaping the ball to go around or under.

The large oak at Stanford's 12th consumes 60% of the fairway and greatly effects your aiming point off the tee.   If you are behind that one, you have few options and none of them are good.

I wonder how that tree at Stanford is doing.  I know that they have been very careful with it and the surrounding turf to try a preserve it ...

[THuckaby2]

Mike Benham:  I played Stanford a few months ago and the tree on 12 was doing just fine.

I've played Poppy Hills numerous times though and I don't know what tree you're talking about... there is a LINE of trees to the right, but no one in particular that stands out...

TH

[Mike Benham]

Tom,

Oops, I meant the 18th ... (the last time I played there I started on the 10th and that threw me off).

[GeoffreyC]

Gosh that tree on 12 at Stanford must have grown quite a bit since I left the farm in fall of 1980!  Thats the problem with trees- they grow and then they die.  The strategies change with time.

I see your point about #18 at Poppy Hills.  It might be a bit closer to the shot formerly required at Spyglass.

[THuckaby2]

The tree on 12 Stanford is indeed huge now.  1980 is a long time ago, GC!  Damn this whole growth thing...

And Mike B - ok, 18, gotcha.  Now that is a single tree that has a huge effect.

TH

[Mike Benham]

Tom,

Oops, I meant the 18th ... (the last time I played there I started on the 10th and that threw me off).

[A_Clay_Man]

Sad news in deed about both the tree on 16 and the wastebunker on two. It was such a natural scruffy hazard that to be replaced by some cookie cutter rendition of a bunker is blasphemous or better put, sacrelig.

The tree on 16 wasn't the first one to go. For the longest time I remembered two trees that gaurded the green and how intimadating and sureal they looked on my virgin visit. They were taken away when the green was lowered and all the drainage work was done in 96'.

[Eric Johnson]

A Clayman,

Number two bunker was a long time coming.  I remember ideas tossed around in 1998 to improve the waste area.  I was always hesitant to change the greenside edge and the fairway edge.  Something needed to be done about the right side.  Sand continually ended up on the cart path, a maintenance nuisance.  I would like to see pictures of the finished product.

Truth be told, the pine trees on the left of Spyglass 16 were removed in 1995, one cut down (pitch canker) and the other blown down during a storm.  If you need any other information re: Spy, just ask.

[A_Clay_Man]

EJ- Pics would be great. I just know that that hazard was a thing of natural beauty and a little sand on the cart path  doesn't seem like enough justification to alter it. I can't imagine the view from the tee, now. It used to be, because of that bunker(really dune), an awesome look that what was what made Billy bones, so perfect.

also,

 I can easily understand how that look, to a corporate manager, would be less than desirable. And that is the sadest part of it all. Because the Golf is what brought the people in the first place, not the faux 4 star treatment.

[Mike_Cirba]

EJ;

Let me get this straight?!

The sandy waste area in front of the 2nd green at Spyglass Hill was "formalized" and cleaned up because.....because....

BECAUSE SAND WAS GETTING ON THE CART PATH??!!??!!!

If this isn't a sign of the impending apocalypse, I don't know what is?  I'm going to church.  

I've now heard everything....and now have heard the flat-out STUPIDEST thing I've ever heard.  

[Eric Johnson]

First: when sand got onto the path, it was never a little.  It was a pain in the ass but, basically a tolerable nuisance while setting up the course and trying to stay ahead of the first group.

Second: the change(s) did not occur during my watch.  Suggestions were made but no remedy was agreed upon.  The only change to the waste area while I was there (1995-2000) was our lowering of the mowing height around the green down to the top of the "bunker lip."

Third: the golf course is owned by Pebble Beach Company.  They can, and will, do what they want to their golf courses.  We may or may not agree but.......

Fourth: during 1996 we looked into rerouting the path above the golf hole or routing to the right of the dune that the path currently intersects.  The route to the right would have gotten the path out of play and out of sight.  Being we were running out of time we stayed with the original route.

[Bob_Huntley]

Correction. The greens fee for a guest of a member is $15.00 not $30.00

[ed_getka]

That guest fee is quite attractive, although I would still prefer to just play the first 5 holes over and over than to head up into the trees. The guest fee at Cypress a few years ago was similarly mind boggling at only $35 when with a member. A small price to pay for a slice of heaven (no pun intended ).

[scott anderson]

That guest fee is quite attractive, although I would still prefer to just play the first 5 holes over and over than to head up into the trees. The guest fee at Cypress a few years ago was similarly mind boggling at only $35 when with a member. A small price to pay for a slice of heaven (no pun intended ).

[A_Clay_Man]

Ed- I know how you feel about the first five. But the truth is the rest of the course is a worthy adversary. Holes like 8 and nine are wonderful brutish par 4's. I personally love the 10th and its options. 13 is a special hole, with just a hint of fog and when one of the Spanish Bay Bagpiper's is practicing in his/her fairway adjacent home.  14 is awe inspiring and cleverly deceptive. What I'm getting at is while some believe that the course doesn't have any elegance or grace about it, I appreciate it's brutal harsh elegance and after a battle, I feel as though the land gave a good fight.

[Bob_Huntley]

Adam:

Amen. I have never failed to enjoy a game at the 'Glass' even though I felt I had gone a few rounds with Joe Frazier.

[Paul Richards]

My personal opinion is that if you put the first five holes of Spyglass Hill and substituted them for the first five holes of Pebble Beach, you'd really be onto something!

[ed_getka]

Paul,
 What an awesome idea, that would be an amazing "composite" course.

Adam,

Don't get me wrong, Spyglass is an excellent test of golf. My main problem with the course is I am a very shaky driver of the ball and courses like Spyglass just aren't very fun for me. I enjoyed playing there years ago with my brother and I enjoyed Olympic last year, but they are not courses I want to play regularly, because I would have a migraine from working so hard. That is why I would just play the first five holes over and over, not due to a lack of good holes.

[A_Clay_Man]

One of the magical things about the course is the likleyhood of having the opposite game on the different type holes. I know it doesn't make too much sense but often when a good start is had a bad finish is almost gauranteed. And visa versa.

Bob- I am happy to hear that he courses condition was excellent. Last I had heard (several months) it was approaching dog track conditons.

Does anyone know who they hired for the super's job? Frank left a few months back.

[Peter Galea]

Does anyone know who they hired for the super's job?

The new superintendent at Spyglass is Chris Dahlhammer from Troon Golf's Carmel Valley Ranch. He was formerly the assistant at Pebble Beach under Mark Michaud.