Pebble Beach as it once was (with coloured pics)

[Thomas Dai]

Here are some black and white photos of Pebble Beach quite a long time ago now colourised.
Colourising old black and white photos has become rather popular on golfing social media over the last few days. It certainly does seem to add a certain "wow" factor to a scene from the past.
Time for a PB restoration/renovation or whatever 'r' word would be appropriate!?
Enjoy
atb

[Adrian_Stiff]

Looks better then I think. Nice work.

[Kalen Braley]

The most compelling thing of those pictures is the lack of housing/structures.  Good luck trying to get that part restored....

P.S.  The faux sandy areas around 7 and 17 look better in black and white.  Coloring them only reveals it wasn't the best idea to build them like that...

[Ryan Hillenbrand]

Number 7 would be really hard for the average resort player. Still, the look is pretty cool.


I’m impressed that most of the holes don’t look all that different

[Matthew Rose]

#17 green is so much different. It looks like it might be literally double the size it is now.

[Steve Kline]

In all of the old photos of courses, I like that the rough is clumpy grass with some dirt and/or hard pan. Not good lies, but you can play from it. This is much more pleasing to my eye than the wall to wall thick rough at PB this week. And, it is much more playable for the non-PGA Tour golfer.


Perhaps one of the worst things ever for golf in the U.S. was double row irrigation.

[Jay Revell]

Pebble is an incredible place, but the current presentation of the course is many miles from revealing the full potential of the routing. I hope that someday the team at the Pebble Beach Company will see this possibility and begin to invest in changes that would allow for that to happen. The imitation dunes may not be the proper fit, but a the mackenzie/egan bunkering certainly is achievable as a stylistic improvement. And for God's sake please get the golf carts out of there and take up those heinous highway sized paths that cut across the best vistas in golf.


Pebble is always a pleasure to visit, but its hard not to dream of what could be...

[Peter Flory]

#17 green is so much different. It looks like it might be literally double the size it is now.

And it is a hole that could use it.

[Kalen Braley]

Looking at that last pic of 18.  Would that hole even be around anymore if they hadn't build the sea wall and faux rock walls to protect it?


P.S. I wonder how much the Augusta effect is in play here in terms of wall to wall conditioning.  Isn't Pebble the next closest thing to playing an epic course for the average 1%er?

[Alex Miller]

Looking at that last pic of 18.  Would that hole even be around anymore if they hadn't build the sea wall and faux rock walls to protect it?


P.S. I wonder how much the Augusta effect is in play here in terms of wall to wall conditioning.  Isn't Pebble the next closest thing to playing an epic course for the average 1%er?

Great points both of these. Would the sea wall be necessary without sea-level rise? I don't know but that's one of the coolest looking holes I've ever seen without the wall there.


Stylistically the 4th (I think), 7th, and 17th all give off more of a CPC vibe here than I would've ever expected from Pebble. I'd love to see it like this again in some form, but it'll take baby steps to get there. Once a course gets in the USGA's crosshairs I think changes which do not necessarily make the course harder for top pros will not get get done. But the restraint and naturalism in these old photos is something to behold!

[Matthew Petersen]

When did tree(s) first start appearing in the 18th fairway?

[Thomas Dai]

Apparently there's another course nearby that's quite nice.
atb

[Thomas Dai]

Meanwhile back to PB as it once was.
atb

[William_G]

Looking at that last pic of 18.  Would that hole even be around anymore if they hadn't build the sea wall and faux rock walls to protect it?


P.S. I wonder how much the Augusta effect is in play here in terms of wall to wall conditioning.  Isn't Pebble the next closest thing to playing an epic course for the average 1%er?

18 tee, fairway and green would be gone


17 green?

9 green gone

7?

10 green gone

so much beautifully camouflaged retaining wall all along the course, orange fake rock baby

no going back, don't mess with Mother Nature

[Kalen Braley]

These guys are hitting 7 and 8 irons into 18.  I"m sure that was certainly the original architects intent right??

[David_Tepper]

"Would Pebble Benefit From An Egan-Era Restoration?"
https://www.geoffshackelford.com/homepage/2019/6/13/video-would-pebble-beach-benefit-from-an-egan-era-restoration

[William_G]

"Would Pebble Benefit From An Egan-Era Restoration?"
https://www.geoffshackelford.com/homepage/2019/6/13/video-would-pebble-beach-benefit-from-an-egan-era-restoration

LOL


there is no way

[jeffwarne]

These guys are hitting 7 and 8 irons into 18.  I"m sure that was certainly the original architects intent right??

cool video
-architectural intent sailed in about 1995 with oversized faced caving drivers, and left the building completely with the ProV1 and optimization

If you dig in the archives, you'll see the fine print from 1919


"someday they'l be hitting niblicks to this green, so we're going to ask for donations to build a war chest of $$ and do endless turf research and use the research to figure out a way to make these greens bumpy and dead to protect par"


so far no plinko this year though-yet

[Mike Schott]

These guys are hitting 7 and 8 irons into 18.  I"m sure that was certainly the original architects intent right??

Did I miss something? Tiger hit a perfect drive and had a 5 wood second shot. I saw no short iron 2nd shots.

[Thomas Dai]

Two more colourised old photos for posterity.
Firstly, the 17th, and secondly, a view appearing to show only 2 heights of mower cut - putting surface and fairway.

atb

[William_G]

These guys are hitting 7 and 8 irons into 18.  I"m sure that was certainly the original architects intent right??

Did I miss something? Tiger hit a perfect drive and had a 5 wood second shot. I saw no short iron 2nd shots.

5 wood 5 wood

[Mike Schott]

These guys are hitting 7 and 8 irons into 18.  I"m sure that was certainly the original architects intent right??

Did I miss something? Tiger hit a perfect drive and had a 5 wood second shot. I saw no short iron 2nd shots.

5 wood 5 wood

Thanks for the clarification. Do you know how many were hitting short irons into 18 on their second shots? Surprisingly the 14th played marginally easier than 18.

[Kalen Braley]

These guys are hitting 7 and 8 irons into 18.  I"m sure that was certainly the original architects intent right??

Did I miss something? Tiger hit a perfect drive and had a 5 wood second shot. I saw no short iron 2nd shots.

DJ 7 iron, Xander 8 iron....and I only watched for a couple of hours.  Who knows what everyone else hit there.

Thank Gawd they have the tiny greens and artificially narrow fairways or this would be a Sony Open-like slaughter....

[Jeff Schley]

These guys are hitting 7 and 8 irons into 18.  I"m sure that was certainly the original architects intent right??

Did I miss something? Tiger hit a perfect drive and had a 5 wood second shot. I saw no short iron 2nd shots.

DJ 7 iron, Xander 8 iron....and I only watched for a couple of hours.  Who knows what everyone else hit there.

Thank Gawd they have the tiny greens and artificially narrow fairways or this would be a Sony Open-like slaughter....

woah Xander had 8i?  That is crazy for a hole that is 550 yards at sea level with heavy air.

[JReese]

Sounds like Xander caught a huge break......drive hit left off the rocks ending up in middle of fairway about 165 out