What an absolute treat! My first time playing Poppy (and hopefully not my last) this morning. I was first off the tee at 7:00 and was paired with a twosome. I ended up breaking off with them to finish... Continue »

What an absolute treat! My first time playing Poppy (and hopefully not my last) this morning. I was first off the tee at 7:00 and was paired with a twosome. I ended up breaking off with them to finish the back nine on my own because I wanted to have ample time to get to my next tee time. Total pace was about 3 hours, which was perfect.

This is such a beautiful, fun and challenging course and the conditions were superb even though it was very foggy that early in the morning (in this case, it kind of just adds to the overall "mystique" of the course with the tall trees and hilly layout). The greens were immaculate and were much bigger than I expected. Some were gigantic and all had plenty of tricky undulation. They were cut tight and rolled smooth. Simply perfect. Fairways and rough were super green and lush. My only minor complaint about the fairways was the grass clippings. With it being so wet, a rolling ball on the fairway would pick up a lot of grass bits. The tee boxes were excellent and so were the sand traps. Damp, but very playable with great soft sand.

If you are planning a trip out to Pebble, do not leave Poppy Hills off your list. Even though it doesn't have the few spectacular ocean view holes like Spyglass, the course overall is every bit as good with a comparable inland layout through the beautiful hills and trees (and much more reasonably priced). If I was an NCGA member with their discounted rates here and lived nearby, I would play this course as often as possible.

Poppy Hills Golf Course Review
Monterey California Golf Course Reviews