Look beyond the crashing waves, golden sands and dolphins playing in the surf, and you’ll find some daftly difficult holes Everybody loves Pebble Beach. Phil loves it. Tiger loves it. Westie loves it. Poults loves it. Best course in the world. Right? Well, best-looking course in the world, perhaps, (although members at the New South Wales club in Australia, may beg to differ). Pebble, to use the vernacular, photographs better than any course in the world – the crashing waves, the golden sands, the dolphins playing in the surf, the prehistoric rock formations, the ludicrously overpriced and oversized homes dotted around the place – and this week viewers will be treated to some stunning television pictures, especially if the sun is shining. But the best course in the world? Really? Better than Royal County Down, or Royal Melbourne, or Muirfield, or Augusta National, or the Old Course at St Andrews, or Pasatiempo, an Alister MacKenzie-designed masterpiece 40 miles north of this week’s US Open venue, or Pacific Grove Municipal (the poor man’s Pebble, as it’s known locally), a $30-a-round track just a couple of miles along the coastline? OK, Pebble Beach may just shade Pacific Grove because it is in better condition (it had better be at 15 times the price for 18 holes), but as for the rest – no chance. Pebble isn’t the best course in the world. It isn’t even in the top 30 and here is why; the 1st hole, the 2nd, the 3rd, the 11th, the 12th, the 13th, the 14th, 15th and the 16th. Of those nine, five are eminently forgettable, three are instantly forgettable and one – the par-five 14th – is just daft, as became clear at this year’s AT&T Pro-Am, when two highly skilled professional golfers took nine shots to complete the hole. That is the bad news. The good news is that Pebble has some terrific holes, such as the 109-yard 7th, which this week may become the first hole in modern major championship history play under 100 yards (the USGA’s Mike Davis is thinking about pushing up the tee box at the weekend, apparently). The 8th is other beauty, although personally I’m not a big fan of holes, such as this one, that demand the same tee shot of every player in the field; three-iron to the top of the hill. But the second shot is a beauty – over the rocks and the waves to the distant green. The 18th, a longish par-five that arches its way along the coastline, offering options for the players and excitement for the fans, is another cracker. And then there is the issue of personality. Pebble has two; the parkland personality of the inland holes, and the links personality of the holes that run along the Pacific coast. It’s like playing nine holes at St Andrews and then talking the train to Wentworth and playing another nine there. It’s like reading nine chapters of Philip Roth and following it up with nine chapters of Jeffrey Archer. It’s like driving from Glasgow to Inverness listening to The Ronettes for the first half of the journey and the Cheeky Girls for the next. Good, bad, great, awful, magnificent; there is nothing wrong with mixing things up a little in life and in golf, especially when there are other things to capture the imagination and the widen the gaze, as there are at Pebble Beach. But the best golf course in the world? Don’t make me laugh. US Open Golf Lawrence Donegan guardian.co.uk
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US Open: The best course in the world? Pebble Beach doesn’t come close | Lawrence Donegan
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