[John_McMillan]

I was recently reading "The Great Golf Courses of America," by John Gordon, who wrote of Mackenzie's design at Cypress, "he was blessed with a tremendous piece of property upon which to work his magic.  Although this site did not have the awe-inspiring dunes and cliffs of nearby Pebble Beach Golf Links, it did marry just enough of the savage Northern Californian coastline with ancient forest and rolling heathland."

That quote inspired the question of the thread - between Cypress and Pebble, which has the better land?  Or, stated differently, if you had a chance to start a course on the land of one or the other, which would you choose?

[Joel_Stewart]

Interesting question, tough to answer.  I would probably choose Pebble since the shoreline from the 18th green to the 10th green must be 2miles.  Then again the sand dunes at CP are inviting.

[Chris Kane]

Pebble is probably the better site for a run-of-the-mill architect, as whatever you do, there will be some wonderful holes.  It'd take real skill to stuff up a site like that.

All that an architect needs to do is put as many holes along the cliffs as possible.  They'll be considered great holes whether they have architectural merit or not.

Cypress needed to be used properly, and I doubt there's anyone who believes it wasn't.  

Cypress has the more interesting non-ocean holes....

I'd probably choose Pebble, simply becuase I'd have less chance to stuff it up.  Every ocean hole could be a bunkerless, flat par 4 and still be inspirational.

[John_D._Bernhardt]

The land at Cypress is second to none. You have those tremendous dunes the forest and those stretches on the ocean which are unforgetable. People is a great and unforgetable too, but it is not cypress and is only 2 miles away.

[TEPaul]

Good Question!

EEny, Meeny, Miiny, Mo, catch a---Cypress!

[A_Clay_Man]

I must call everyone's attention to the fact that the actual soil that comprises this land, is HORRIBLE.  My first impression of the courses in the kingdom, Save for Pg and Fort Ord, was 'why didn't they drain better?' Being so close to the ocean, one would think everything would just flow away...NOT. The soil has so much Clay in it that most courses take weeks to dry after even an inch of rain. recent changes to Spy & PH may be helpful, in spots, but I highly doubt they can build enough of the biggest french drains I have ever seen to cover the entire course.  
As for the terrain, Both courses have wonderful slants slopes and undulations. So I guess it breaks down to your personal opinion of whether you prefer the Dunes or cliffs. At Spy there is both at Pg there are dunes and at Fort Ord & PH there is neither.

[John_D._Bernhardt]

Adam, great post for you are correct. I remember pulling my ball out of cup full of water when it had not rained in a week on the 5th hole at cypress.

[Tags:]

Tags:

[Tags:]

Tags:

Call to undefined function theme_linktree()