Getting on Course With Golf

It was a smashing sunset by the sea. Across the golf links a lone piper came, skirling his stirring tunes.

Small groups of people gathered on the flagstone terrace, raising their drinks in salute.

You would expect to see such a scene in Scotland. Not on the Monterey Peninsula.

Yet, it seems just right at The Links and Inn at Spanish Bay. It is the sister course and hotel to famous Pebble Beach, six miles away.

Opened in November, 1987, Spanish Bay was Golf Digest magazine’s choice this year as the best new resort course in the United States. Golf magazine also judged it among the 32 best in the land.

The bagpipes, which heralded ceremonies on opening day, became an every-evening tradition.

Spanish Bay links are bold, tight, tough, nearly treeless, with brisk winds sweeping in from the Pacific Ocean, thus assuring an adventurous game.

The course was designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr. It is alive with dunes, all of them man-made, that bound and leap throughout, spiked by attractive wildflowers.

If you can stay on the fairways it’s bliss. Jones chose to plant them to fescue, a grass that is common to Scottish courses, but rarely seen in America.

It is not country club lush, nor wall-to-wall velvet, just an honest, bristly, hairbrush-like grass that needs very little water in times of drought.

The grass is proving a shock to many golfers who play it, for balls, when they land, bounce and roll forever, and in the true spirit of Scotland courses, not necessarily forward.

Balls may end up hidden in the scruffy growth surrounding those pesky (but beautiful) dunes. It is Jones’ answer to Scotland’s notorious gorse.

His co-designers for the links were professional golfer Tom Watson and Frank (Sandy) Tatum, a former president of the United States Golf Assn.

Par is 72 for men and women, yardage a deceivingly mild-sounding 5,827 from the forward tees, 6,078 middle, 6,820 back. Ratings are 70.8 middle and forward, 74.7 from the back.

The par-3 eighth, however, provides much entertainment for sightseers. Golfers must cross an enormous marsh there to the applause (or titters) of onlookers.

Never mind should you muff your shot. The salty whiff of the air and the pounding of the surf is calming to the spirit, a tonic to the soul.

One of the most scenic drives in America, the 17-mile Drive through the Del Monte Forest sidles alongside the course for several holes.

If spectators want, they can stroll through the course from beach to hotel along a special path.

There are no fences, no barriers. This, too, is a tradition true to Scotland, where golf courses are open to people just out for a walk.

Another Scottish illusion is the Inn at Spanish Bay. With its many stately chimneys (strictly for show; the guest-room fireplaces are all “instant-on”), it brings to mind that grand old golf hotel, Turnberry. But Turnberry was never like this.

At Spanish Bay, a pianist plays light classics through the day in the lobby lounge; a jazz trio takes over in the evening.

Traps, a cozy dark bar, reminds guests with its name that this is, indeed, a golf hotel. The Dunes and the Bay club, two splendid dining rooms, look out on the Pacific Ocean and links.

It would all boggle the mind of the Spanish explorer for whom Spanish Bay was named. In 1769, Gaspar de Portola camped here--in great sadness, historians say. He had called off his search for Monterey Bay, not realizing it lay just around the bend.

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For guests at The Inn, or The Lodge at Pebble Beach, the greens fee at Spanish Bay is $75, plus $18 per rider for electric cart or $25 for a caddy. (Walking with a caddy is highly recommended to best appreciate the subtleties of the course.)

If you’re not staying at the inn or lodge, the greens fee is from $90 to $95, plus cart or caddy.

Rooms at The Inn are from $200 to $250 per night plus a $15 per-night gratuity that covers bellmen, parking valets and maid service, but not food and beverages.

The toll-free phone is (800) 654-9300. Tee times can (and should be) made at the same time as room reservations.

There is a $5 fee to enter the private Del Monte Forest (also known as the 17-Mile Drive, or just plain Pebble Beach). This is waived if you hold reservations for The Inn or The Links. The forest has four entrances: Spanish Bay is just inside the Pacific Grove gate.

Until recently, the appealing small town of Pacific Grove was primarily known for its migrating butterflies. Now it is golfers who are winging in.