Played Spanish Bay on Tuesday with a 9:40 AM tee time. After having a picture perfect day weather wise at Poppy Hills the prior week, we were treated with wind and rain at Spanish. We did manage to... Continue »

Played Spanish Bay on Tuesday with a 9:40 AM tee time. After having a picture perfect day weather wise at Poppy Hills the prior week, we were treated with wind and rain at Spanish. We did manage to get in 9 holes before the rain came in and it wasn’t too bad for a few holes but 14-18 were downright storm conditions. Two of us through in the towel and the other two were troopers and completed all 18.

Conditions wise the course is was in excellent condition. I say was because a few hours after our round they began Verti cutting and overseeding the fairways. Prior to that the fairways were in excellent shape. Easily a 9 all around with no thin or brown spots. Greens were also in great shape. Greens rolled very smooth. Due to the wind the speed was hard to judge as downwind they were ridiculously fast and upwind they were slow.

Bunkers were in great shape was well. I can’t say what they were like after the rain started, but prior to that the sand was nice and fluffy. POP was normal. Would have been a 4.5+ hour round but once the heavy rain came, people started clearing out so the pace was super quick for the last 4 holes.

Customer service is excellent all around. Very friendly staff.

Monterey Golf Trip: 10/6 to 10/8 Day #1 - Course #1 - Links at Spanish Bay. We played Links at Spanish when we arrived on Thursday 10/6. We were able to take advantage of the practice facility at P... Continue »

Monterey Golf Trip: 10/6 to 10/8 Day #1 - Course #1 - Links at Spanish Bay. We played Links at Spanish when we arrived on Thursday 10/6. We were able to take advantage of the practice facility at Pebble Beach and even stuck in brunch at Stillwater Grill. We had a 1:50 pm tee time. It was the 1st NGTF (Not Guaranteed to Finish) tee time. We were able to snag the tee time even though we did not stay at the resort. Sundown was 6:40 pm. We finished in 4:40 at 6:30 pm with about 30 minutes of sunlight left. Tee boxes in great shape. Fairways were in good shape; I just wished they would put divot mixes in the carts. Our forecaddie said they fill in the fairway divots nightly. Does not make sense to me especially if most groups have caddies. Was able to take carts on the fairway this day. This is my 2nd time playing this course. Views were tremendous and greens were running quick at 10 on my imaginary stimpmeter. Sand traps were well maintained. Customer service was excellent. The price including green fees, cart fees, forecaddie fees was quite steep, but u got to do it. Had drinks and appetizers afterwards at the fire pits outside the hotel lobby. A great start to our golf trip.

I was out at Spanish Bay yesterday with Bob and man things are changing on a weekly basis. The greens were excellent. They rolled smooth at a nice medium fast pace. I thought the practice green ro... Continue »

I was out at Spanish Bay yesterday with Bob and man things are changing on a weekly basis. The greens were excellent. They rolled smooth at a nice medium fast pace. I thought the practice green rolled much slower than the actual greens but that might have just been they still had a bit of morning dew on them.

Fairways: The actual fairways are fine. Mainly lush with only a couple of thin/brown spots throughout the entire course. HOWEVER, a number of the fairways have been reduced to cut down on watering. They started doing this in 2020 and it's even more noticeable now. Holes 10 and 14 need a good poke just to reach the fairway. 17 has also been pushed back some. The last 150 yards of the right side of hole 14 have now been reduced by 30'. This was previously "rough" so the actual fairway is the same but it is now hardpan dirt after that.

Maintenance: About a 1/2 of the tee boxes have been aerated and sanded. Not a big deal as #8 was the only par 3 tee box that I can remember but my guess is they are rotating through all of them. Same thing for the skirt areas right before the green. about 1/3 had been verticut with tiny holes. Didn't effect play much.

POP was right at 4 hours 15 minutes. Customer service was perfect as always and weather was typical pebble peach. overcast in the morning, then sun, then 1 club wind and overcast.

Prices have gone up but the course is still worth it.

Played 7/16. Always a great time here, worth the green fees when your in the area. Customer service outstanding course always well maintained. I’ve never had a bad experience here regardless of the un... Continue »

Played 7/16. Always a great time here, worth the green fees when your in the area. Customer service outstanding course always well maintained. I’ve never had a bad experience here regardless of the unpredictable weather

The heavy constant marine layer for the last several weeks (we never saw the sun all day today l) has really helped bring the fairways us back to life. They are now almost completely green throughout... Continue »

The heavy constant marine layer for the last several weeks (we never saw the sun all day today l) has really helped bring the fairways us back to life. They are now almost completely green throughout the entire course. Still lush will a great combination of offering good roll out and a nice hitting surface. We tee’d off at 10:50 AM and were the 4th group behind a corporate tournament. POP was a bit slow but still close to the 4.5 hour mark. Some of the greens got a little lumpy early on from all the foot steps. They were rolling at a faster pace than the last couple times here Tee boxes were excellent and sand traps were ok on some and great on others Always fun playing here even if my game stunk today.

A quick update on Spanish Bay. Fairways are starting to show signs of the drought. Most fairways now have some brown areas. Per staff water has been cut in half and on top of that we are having an u... Continue »

A quick update on Spanish Bay. Fairways are starting to show signs of the drought. Most fairways now have some brown areas. Per staff water has been cut in half and on top of that we are having an unseasonably warm summer so far with little morning fog/dew to help out

Having said that the fog did come in on the last 2 holes yesterday so maybe help is on the way

Customer service is always excellent and POP was a bit slow as a twosome three groups ahead of us were holding things up but no worries as it delayed us just long enough to catch the bagpiper!

Took advantage of the offered / afforded opportunity to play this gem again Sunday. It was again terrific.
One important note: no driving range at the course. Players are welcome to use Spyglass rang... Continue »

Took advantage of the offered / afforded opportunity to play this gem again Sunday. It was again terrific.
One important note: no driving range at the course. Players are welcome to use Spyglass range or Pebbles a bit farther away. Do this before arriving at SB.
On to the review. Cool sunny and gusty winds of 20+ mph. Kind of day the ball would wiggle on the tee but not fall off a few times. Makes a challenging course play a bit tougher as expected. Immaculate 96% everywhere through the green. Greens rolling nice a bit slow if I was to nit pick. Undulating and very interesting. Tee boxes laser level and lush. Not sure why all courses above $$ level can't be this way. Fairways carpet like smooth.
Links style golf at it's finest. The best ocean views for the most holes where I've ever played. Lunch in the restaurant with panoramic views of the course and ocean. Then continue the 17 mile drive through Marsh Corner (#8) reminded of Todd's birdie there. Past Monterey Pennisula CC, Cypress Point and nearby Spyglass. 11 rating on the 10 scale imo.
Golf nut I am. If I was in a rain-suit all day using an umbrella, I'd probably rate it the same. Can't control the weather.

I needed to get out and take a nice walk around the ocean yesterday, so I grabbed my clubs and called up the pro shop. They got me in with an 11AM tee time joining two other singles who were playing ... Continue »

I needed to get out and take a nice walk around the ocean yesterday, so I grabbed my clubs and called up the pro shop. They got me in with an 11AM tee time joining two other singles who were playing the course for the first time. Weather was nice and sunny with about a 1-2 club wind in the afternoon. I know others don’t care for this place but I love Spanish Bay. Views are over the top with constant (17 of 18 holes) vistas of the ocean with half being right on the water. Conditions still remain in the 9+ range tee to green.

I will say that while the greens rolled smooth, they were on the slower side yesterday. They rolled at a medium-slow pace at best. Probably the slowest, I’ve ever seen them.

One of the players in our group took a cart and he was allowed on the fairways on all but about 4 holes. This course is designed to be walked and anytime there is heavy dew or moisture they will restrict carts to CPO to protect the supreme conditions. POP was a bit on the slower side, finishing in 5 hours but that was fine.

Whereas others may never come back and play Spanish Bay, I highly recommend it, and will keep it on my regular rotation of favorite courses.

Played this morning. Scheduled Starting Time: 11:50AM.  The course was not busy, so we were allowed to go out as a twosome... following another twosome of big hitters, a father and a son. Pace of pl... Continue »

Played this morning. Scheduled Starting Time: 11:50AM.  The course was not busy, so we were allowed to go out as a twosome... following another twosome of big hitters, a father and a son. Pace of play was really great. The starter told us that he expected people to finish in 4 and a 1/2 hours. But he said most people take 4 hours and 40 minutes. Our round was 4 hours and 40 minutes on the nose.  The only time we had to wait was on two of the four par-3's... This was my first time playing any of the Pebble Beach Golf Resort courses. The price was right through a club my friend belongs to so...   Was it worth the greens fees? Yes. Just to say that I played Spanish Bay. I'll cover three areas. The Good, the Bad ... and the Ugly. The Good: Iconic golf course. Classic links style. Up-and-down the coast of Monterey. Incredibly nice conditions in the fairways and on the greens. The Bad: Not my cup of tea. The front side was more wide open, the back side was simply too much golf course for me. Too much carry to get to some of the fairways. It really wasn't very much fun. The greens were either diabolically huge and undulating...  or the size of a postage stamp. The fairways were like roller coasters. Not a flat lie out there. Again... Just not my cup of tea. The Ugly. It was "cart path only"   And for no good reason as far as I could tell. I probably walked more than if I had just walked the course with a caddy. No GPS on the cart. Sprinkler heads were not all marked. Walking out into the fairway with 3 or 4 clubs each time was a pain in the ass. It started to rain on the 12th hole and that was about as close to getting hypothermia as I've ever come . Soaked. Foggy. The wet fairway turf made for little roll and again, the course was just too long and too much for me even on even on a day where we chose to play from the white tees I'm coming back to the area in May to play Poppy Hills, Black Horse Bayonet and Del Monte. More reviews to come. That's all I got. As for Spanish Bay? Been there. Done that. I will not repeat, even for free.