About Town: Pebble Beach
By Ceri Mobley, PGATOUR.com Associate Site Producer
Editor's note: For the next eight weeks, PGATOUR.com will be running a special series on the best golf destinations presented by Acura. The first installment takes you to Pebble Beach, Calif.
After a record week in crowd attendance and all the 16th-hole madness golf can take, the PGA TOUR leaves the FBR Open behind for another year. And what better way to recover from a frenzied weekend in Scottsdale, Ariz., than a follow-up weekend at California's serene Pebble Beach Golf Links?
For the sixth week of the 2008 season, the TOUR returns to one of the world's favorite courses for the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. Popular with professional golfers and avid fans alike, Pebble Beach not only provides a one-of-a-kind location for a tournament but for a vacation, too.
So let's get you set up with some acceptable accommodations and have you on your way exploring northern California's finest golf destination.
SOMEWHERE TO SNOOZE
Sweet like caramel: The Pebble Beach/Carmel/Monterey area has more hotels to choose from than the mind can be bothered to research. So we did that part for you. The Carmel Valley Ranch, a four-star hotel less than 30 minutes from the tournament, sits along the Carmel Valley Foothills on a 400-acre spread. All rooms are suites with views of the valley, the mountains or the golf course. Guests not only enjoy the oak-and-willow-lined scenery but also the spoil-you-rotten amenities: Tennis courts, pools and a spa will keep you busy on those "lazy" days where you don't want to leave the resort, and if you're a fan of mints on your pillow, rejoice. The Carmel Valley Ranch nightly turndown service includes warm, melty cookies.
Prepare to pay: Surprisingly, all this can be yours for less than you might think. This resort is currently running a winter getaway special starting at $200 a night. This, of course, does go up to around $350 a night depending on your room requirements.
Other options
Casa Palmero Resort: While Carmel Valley is your best bet for a pampered stay close to the course, if you plan to come back next year go ahead and book your stay now at the Casa Palmero Resort on the Pebble Beach complex because there's no way you'd get it on this late notice for this year. You don't want to know the rate this far ahead of time, do you? Just start saving now.
Marina Dunes Resort: This is the area's newest hotel and sits along the edge of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. All the rooms have views of either the ocean or the vast expanse of undulating dunes. You couldn't wake up, look out the window and fall into a bad mood here. Rates start at $120 a night.
SOMETHING TO TELL YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT
California, from San Diego to San Francisco, boasts one of the most beautiful and famous coastlines in the world. From rocky cliffs to golden sand, and from buzzing beach towns to secluded bays, travelers can find exactly what they're looking for here. While staying in the Pebble Beach area, though chilly at this time of year, you have to sign up for a kayaking tour of Monterey Bay. Bundle up and find a good guide, or, if you know what you're doing, plan a trip out sans tourist group and take in the glory of the northern California shore from the other side of the beach. You can find harbor tours, wetland tours, beach tours -- whatever suits your interest, and all of them will give you a taste of the complex marine wildlife that's so important to this region. If you want a real treat, try to book your guide -- or self-planned trip if you have experience and a kayak -- in the early evening and catch a glimpse of that winter sun setting over the cold Pacific blue. Something about being one with the water that swallows the day's light makes the sunset all the more remarkable.
More things to keep you busy
• If you're on a coastal kick and can't get enough of that salty sea air, then check out Old Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey Harbor. Exploration by Spanish voyagers began in this part of the state in the 1600s, and during the following century, the Spaniards started settling in the bay that would eventually become the city of Monterey. The wharf was built in the late 1800s in these historical waters and still stands strong today.
• Of course, northern California has a reputation, and that is one of a wino. All kidding aside, wine country begs to be toured, explored, opened and poured. The Chateau Julien Wine Estate, a little taste of Italy 9,000 miles away, has a winery and several vineyards open to the public -- and, of course, tastings for those of us who love that adult grape juice like kids love, well, kid grape juice.
• Even people who suffer from travel sickness and begrudgingly hop in the car for road trips only with a paper bag at hand should give the coastal California drives a try. The Monterey area has its own version of the Pacific Coast Highway, a private road known as Seventeen Mile Drive, and it's well worth the toll you have to pay to drive it. This serpentine stretch of pavement winds its way along the shoreline past mansions you wish you owned, golf courses you wish you had time to play and the Del Monte Forest you wish you had views of from your own home. Make the time to take this drive.
THE MAIN EVENT
Of course, you can distract yourself (or your family) all you want with the endless list of things to do in the Carmel/Monterey region of California, but you came for one reason and one reason only: Pebble Beach. Beloved as much by TOUR players as by the lucky public who get to swing a club on these fairways, Pebble Beach golf courses will make you tee it up and fall in love. The resort boasts four courses, and while it earns a place in America's golfing heart as one of the most beautiful in the country, it also comes in top of the class for difficulty. As part of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, Pebble Beach is a familiar stop on the PGA TOUR, which consistently lists holes 6, 8 and 16 on the Spyglass Hill course as some of the hardest on TOUR.
Spyglass Hill, a Robert Trent Jones Sr. design, opened in the mid 1960s and -- just like the area's wine -- has only improved with age. Part of the course's draw, and mystique, comes from the combination of fairways that play through beaches and dunes as well fairways that fall in the shadows of tall pines set alongside lakes and bunkers eager to steal your shot. Named from Robert Louis Stevenson's famous Treasure Island, local legend fancies the author once wandered this area looking for his pen's inspiration.
The other of the two more famous courses at this golf resort -- the resort's namesake -- is Pebble Beach Golf Links. Designed by Jack Neville and Douglas Grant, this course delights the eyes but terrifies the tee shot as rolling fairways drop off into cliffy nothingness, and perfect greens lie at the crumbling edges of America's western rim. Older than Spyglass Hill, Pebble Beach Golf Links was built in 1919 -- just think how many years' worth of lost balls lie in the sandy clutches of the Pacific Ocean -- and its rugged beauty reminds you how magnificent landscape can be even before being manicured into a world-class course.
In the rotation for the U.S. Open, this course has been host to some of the world's greatest golfers, including Jack Nicklaus who won here three times and finished as a runner up twice throughout his famed career. It has to be a true natural beauty if a Bear can feel at home here.
STICKING AROUND?
As if you have room in your schedule for anything other than standing, mouth agape, in awe of this course and its rich golf history, but if you do, put these ideas on your to-do list.
Visit Napa: If you liked the Chateau Julien, then keep on touring -- and pouring -- wine country with a day trip to the Napa Valley.
Like Rice-a-Roni? Then head a couple of hours up the road to San Francisco and spend a day in one of America's greatest cities. From Alcatraz to the Anheuser - Busch Consumer Hospitality Center, San Fran will keep you more than occupied. Just watch out for those hills.
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