Plotting a Change of Course : Golf: Difficult Poppy Hills will replace scenic Cypress Point in the rotation for the Pebble Beach tournament.

Poppy Hills, the new addition to the three-course rotation at the A.T. & T. Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, is not likely to be popular with the players.

A public course, Poppy Hills replaces Cypress Point, which didn’t comply with the PGA Tour’s new guidelines on membership policies. Cypress Point doesn’t have black or female members and isn’t going to revise its waiting list for membership any time soon.

Comedian Bob Hope once joked that that Cypress Point was so exclusive that “it had a membership drive and drove out 40 members.”

So Cypress Point and its par-three 16th hole with a 231-yard carry over the ocean is no longer part of the tournament.

The newcomer, Poppy Hills, is owned by the Northern California Golf Assn. It stretches 6,865 yards and has blind tee shots, severe doglegs and huge, undulating greens.

The greens measure from 7,000 to 7,500 square feet with humps that probably will have the pros muttering when the tournament starts Thursday.

In fact, there already has been grumbling from some players who toured Poppy Hills during an invitational pro-am in mid-December.

“Once the top players have played (Poppy Hills), I predict 30 or more won’t come back,” Gary McCord said.

Said Dave Stockton: “I’m not a great fan of giant greens with giant elephant mounds.”

In defense of the Robert Trent Jones Jr. course, John Zoller, former director of the Northern California Golf Assn., said: “You have to build looking 50 years to the future. Because of the heavy play we anticipated, we knew we’d need large tees and greens. And if you build large greens, you don’t want them flat.”

The recent tournament at Poppy Hills took its toll. There were only 13 sub-par rounds and 18 players shot in the 80s.

A northern California pro, Jim Wiechers, withdrew, saying that he ran out of golf balls.

Besides the large greens, there is cross bunkering on some holes that extends the width of the fairways in the landing areas.

Deane Beman, the PGA Tour commissioner, in a letter to the players, has cautioned them not to be critical of Poppy Hills when talking to reporters.

But it will be difficult for the players to keep quiet, especially if bogeys or double bogeys are prevalent at Poppy.

There will be varying opinions about the course, which opened in 1986. Dan Forsman, for one, won’t miss Cypress. In an interview with Golf World, he said:

“I like Poppy Hills. It’s a demanding course. I definitely won’t miss No. 16 at Cypress, stepping up and wondering if I’ll wind up in the ocean. I’d rather deal with those undulating greens at Poppy Hills.”