Pebble Beach Golf Links - Best Golfing Day in My Life

Gunnar Kobin
Dec 11, 2025
8 min read

Updated: Feb 7

Pebble Beach Golf : Playing With My Son Made It Perfect

Pebble Beach Golf Links is more than a golf course. It's a place of legend.

A stretch of coastline where the game feels inseparable from the land and sea around it. Set on the dramatic cliffs of the Monterey Peninsula in California, Pebble Beach is one of those rare courses that lives up to its reputation and then quietly exceeds it.

I had the privilege of playing Pebble Beach in December 2015, together with my son, and it remains one of the most meaningful rounds of golf I've ever experienced.

Not because of how I played. Because of who I was with.

We'd planned this trip for over a year, worked through the booking requirements, played the prerequisite rounds, and finally earned our way onto the first tee.

Standing there that morning, looking out at the Pacific with my son beside me, I realized this was going to be more than just another round of golf.

The Ocean Is Always There

From the first tee, the Pacific Ocean is never far away. Waves crash against the rocks below, seabirds drift on the wind, the light seems to change with every hole. The sound of the surf becomes the soundtrack to your round, a constant reminder of where you are and what this place means.

Pebble Beach isn't a place you rush through. You find yourself slowing down, taking in the view, letting the environment shape the pace of the round. Every tee box offers another perspective, another angle on the coastline, another reason to pause.

My son kept stopping to take photos. At first I thought it was slowing us down, then I realized—this is exactly what you're supposed to do here. This isn't about getting around in under four hours. It's about being present, about absorbing every moment, about understanding why people speak about this place in hushed, reverent tones.

The coastal air is crisp and clean, carrying the salt smell of the ocean. The shifting breeze plays tricks with club selection, and the endless horizon stretches out before you, making you feel both small and incredibly fortunate at the same time. This atmosphere is impossible to replicate anywhere else in golf.

Shaped by Golf's Greatest Minds

Pebble Beach was originally laid out in 1919 by Jack Neville and Douglas Grant, two amateur golfers who had the remarkable vision to route holes directly along the edge of the Pacific—something almost unheard of at the time. They understood that the drama of the coastline itself would provide all the spectacle the course would ever need.

Over the decades, the course has been refined by many of the greatest minds in golf architecture: H. Chandler Egan, Alister MacKenzie, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer. Each left their mark, carefully enhancing strategy while preserving the raw natural drama of the coastline.

What's remarkable is that rather than reinventing the course, these legendary architects respected the land and the original vision. They understood they were custodians of something special, not creators of something new. This careful stewardship allowed Pebble Beach to evolve organically into the masterpiece it is today, with each generation adding refinement without losing the soul of what Neville and Grant originally created.

Walking the course, you can feel this layered history beneath your feet. You're not just playing a golf course—you're walking through more than a century of golfing heritage.

Every Shot Matters

Pebble Beach isn't long by modern standards, but it demands precision and confidence on every shot.

Fairways may appear generous, yet the penalty for being slightly offline is severe—awkward stances, unpredictable bounces, or simply losing sight of the ball as it tumbles toward the ocean.

There are no holes you can treat casually. The course constantly asks you to commit fully, to trust your swing, and to accept the outcome.

I hit a decent drive on the 4th and watched it kick left toward the cliff edge. Just stood there thinking, "Please stop." It did. Barely. My son looked at me and said, "You got lucky." He was right.

The Holes Everyone Knows

Several holes at Pebble Beach define not just this course, but the game itself. They're the images you've seen a thousand times, but nothing prepares you for actually standing there with a club in your hand.

The 7th hole is a tiny par 3 perched on a rocky outcrop, barely 100 yards long. It's short but absolutely terrifying. Even with a wedge in your hands, the combination of wind, ocean spray, and that small exposed green perched above the rocks turns it into one of the most intimidating shots in golf. There's nowhere to miss. Miss short and you're on rocks. Miss long and you're off the back of the green with an impossible recovery. Miss left or right and you might as well grab another ball.

My son hit first, a smooth wedge that landed softly and stayed on the green. I stood there thinking, "Don't embarrass yourself in front of your kid." Somehow hit the green too. We both two-putted for par and walked off feeling like we'd accomplished something significant.

The 8th hole offers perhaps the most spectacular approach shot in the world. After a blind drive over the hill, you walk up to the cliff edge and are confronted with a long carry—sometimes 180 yards or more depending on the tee position—across a deep chasm to a narrow green sitting above the crashing waves below.

I stood on that tee for a full minute before hitting. Didn't want to forget what it looked like. The green seemed impossibly far away, the ocean impossibly close, and the shot impossibly difficult. Hit a 5-iron that somehow found the green. My son looked at me and said, "That's the best shot you've hit all year." He wasn't wrong.

And then there's the 18th hole, the most famous finishing hole in golf. A par 5 that curves along the shoreline, with the Pacific Ocean running the entire length of the left side. The lone cypress tree stands as both landmark and mental obstacle, guarding a dogleg that dares you to cut off as much as you're brave enough to attempt.

The pressure on that tee is immense, even when nothing's at stake except your own memory of the round. You want to finish well. You want to honor the course with a good drive. You want the last full shot you hit at Pebble Beach to be one you remember.

We both parred 18. Hit good drives, solid approaches, two putts each. I'm not sure I've ever been prouder of a par in my life. Walking off that green, my son put his arm around my shoulder and said, "We did it, Dad." Yeah, we did.

You Have to Earn Your Way There

Pebble Beach isn't a course you simply book on a whim, especially the first time. There's a process, and it's designed to make you appreciate what you're about to experience.

To play it as a first-time visitor, you're required to stay at one of the resort properties—Pebble Beach, Spanish Bay, or Casa Palmero—and complete a multi-course experience before you're allowed access to the main course. Typically, this means playing Spanish Bay and Spyglass Hill first, and only then are you granted your Pebble Beach tee time.

Some people complain about this system, calling it elitist or money-grabbing. I disagree completely. It turns the visit into a pilgrimage rather than a single round. You're building anticipation, deepening the journey, earning your place on that first tee. By the time you finally step onto the course, you've been thinking about it, dreaming about it, preparing for it for days.

Spanish Bay is a wonderful links-style course in its own right. Spyglass Hill might be even harder than Pebble Beach, with holes routed through dense forest and dramatic elevation changes. These aren't throwaway rounds—they're quality championship golf that happens to serve as your introduction to the Pebble Beach experience.

When you finally arrive at Pebble Beach on that third day, stepping onto the first tee feels earned. You've worked for it. You've waited for it. And that makes every moment on the course feel more significant, more meaningful, more like the privilege it truly is.

Which is exactly how it should be.

Nicklaus Said It Best

Jack Nicklaus once said that if he could choose a place to play the last round of his life, it would be Pebble Beach.

It's easy to understand why.

There are courses that test you, and courses that impress you—but Pebble Beach does something deeper. It moves you. It makes you feel small in the best possible way, standing between land and sea with nothing but a club in your hands.

More Than Just the Golf

Just minutes south of Pebble Beach lies the charming town of Carmel-by-the-Sea, a place that feels more like a European village than a Californian resort. Art galleries, cafés, storybook cottages line the streets, making it a perfect place to unwind after a round.

Carmel is also famous for having once elected Clint Eastwood as its mayor in the 1980s—wonderfully fitting piece of local history that adds to the area's character.

Connecting Pebble Beach to the wider Monterey Peninsula is the legendary 17-Mile Drive, one of the most scenic coastal roads in the world. Winding past dramatic cliffs, isolated beaches, and the famous Lone Cypress tree, it turns the journey to the course into part of the experience itself.

What Made It Perfect

What made Pebble Beach truly unforgettable for me wasn't the course itself—though it exceeded every expectation. It wasn't the perfect conditions—though

December delivered sunshine, crisp air, and just enough breeze to remind us where we were without making the round impossible.

It was sharing it with my son.

We walked every step together. All 18 holes, every yard, side by side. We shared the tension of difficult shots—watching each other's balls in flight, hoping they'd find the right spot. We shared the relief of good ones—the fist bumps, the quiet "nice shot" acknowledgments, the moments where golf felt easy even though we both knew it wasn't.

And we shared the quiet moments when the scenery simply took over and golf became secondary to just being there together, experiencing something we'd both remember for the rest of our lives.

Standing on the 7th tee, with the ocean crashing on the rocks below and the wind picking up off the Pacific, I looked over at him and had one of those rare moments of absolute clarity. This is what I wanted. Not just to play Pebble Beach—though I'd dreamed about it for decades. Not just to see if the course lived up to its legendary status—though it absolutely does and then some.

What I wanted was to play it with him. To have this memory together. To share something that would matter not just in the moment, but for years to come. To give us both a day we could look back on and say, "Remember when we played Pebble Beach together? Remember that shot you hit on 8? Remember how we both parred 18?"

That day, Pebble Beach gave us far more than a scorecard. It gave us a memory that will always matter. It gave us a shared experience that strengthened something between us that was already strong. It reminded me that golf, at its best, isn't about your score or your handicap or whether you hit fairways and greens.

It's about the people you play with and the places you get to see together. And I got to experience the most famous golf course in America with my son. Not many fathers get to say that. I'm grateful every day that I'm one who can.

Why It's Essential

Pebble Beach blends natural beauty, strategic design, and golfing history in a way no other course quite does.

Every hole feels significant. Every shot seems to carry weight.

For anyone who truly loves the game, Pebble Beach isn't optional. It's a dream, a challenge, and a privilege—and one that, if you ever get the chance, you should never hesitate to embrace.

There are not many courses in the world where I'd remember every hole. This is one of them.

And there are even fewer rounds I'll carry with me forever. This is definitely one of those.