Is this worth $2,700? Serious golfers would understand this Pebble Beach pin crawl

How can you possibly justify spending almost $2,700 for a round of golf? Preposterous!

But read on to see how that $2,700 becomes a bargain.

First, you need to be an avid golfer. And if you are, playing Pebble Beach — arguably the most famous golf course in the U.S. — is on your bucket list. Augusta National, home of the Masters, is probably the other course on that list, but unless you are good friends with members such as Condoleezza Rice or Bill Gates, you’re not getting an invitation to one of the world’s most exclusive clubs.

Pebble Beach is public. Anyone can play … for a fee.

No, the greens fee for Pebble is not $2,700. It’s actually $495. The catch is to get a tee time, you need to book at least two nights in the Lodge at Pebble Beach or the nearby Inn at Spanish Bay. ((If you’re not staying in either resort, you can try to make a tee time at Pebble one day ahead. But that can be iffy, particularly during the peak season of August through Thanksgiving. December through March is more open.)

The package price for my buddy Doug and me, for the least-expensive room (as nice as any I’ve stayed in) at Spanish Bay and a round on Pebble and Spyglass Hill, rated the hardest of the four Pebble Beach regulation-length courses, was $1,600 each. (See prices and seasonal specials here.)

We expanded our trip to include five more of the extraordinary courses on the Monterey Peninsula, seven rounds in 3 1/2 days. In order of play:

• Poppy Hills, the home of the Northern California Golf Assn., and part of the PGA Tour’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am from 1991 through 2009. It’s a spectacular layout lined with majestic Monterey pines reminiscent of the statuesque Southern pines that help make Augusta National so memorable.

• Spyglass Hill, a bruiser of a layout that is now part of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, and were it not for Pebble would probably be the star attraction here.

• Pacific Grove, a lovely, low-key municipal course where the locals play, with the back nine hard against the roaring Pacific. The kicker: An afternoon round with all the challenges that winds off the ocean can create cost us $27, plus a cart fee. Great community feeling. And I had the best hot dog of all time at the turn.

• Pebble Beach. There’s a reason Jack Nicklaus said that if he had only one more round of golf to play, he’d choose Pebble Beach: “It’s possibly the best in the world.”

• The Links at Spanish Bay. Nearly as beautiful as Pebble, but slightly less expensive, probably because it doesn’t have the history. Dramatic elevation changes, blind tee shots and no flat spots anywhere demand thoughtful, strategic play. We played this course in the afternoon after playing Pebble at a twilight rate of $155.

• Bayonet and Black Horse. Two recently renovated muscular layouts in nearby Seaside, on the site of the former Ft. Ord Army base. If you can score well on these beautifully manicured monsters overlooking Monterey Bay, you can score well anywhere.

But clearly the main attraction here was Pebble Beach, on one of the country’s most jaw-dropping pieces of real estate. Doug and I had caddies for Pebble and Spyglass, (an extra $80 plus tip, another brilliant investment). They were great company and advisors.

We did save money by staying in a discount motel in Monterey on the third night, before heading to Bayonet/Black Horse — $82 for a clean, functional room. There are many similar spots in the area.

The total bill, including fuel for the drive, was about $2,700 each. That’s $2,700 for making shots on the same Pebble turf where Nicklaus hit his near-perfect one-iron into the wind on No. 17 to help win the 1972 U.S. Open, where Tom Watson chipped in from an impossible lie on the same hole to take the title 10 years later and where Tiger Woods obliterated the U.S. Open field by 15 shots in 2000. It covered the breathtaking views in almost endless succession where golf history had so often been made, and it covered the world’s tastiest turkey burger at Sticks bar at Spanish Bay while watching the bagpiper walk the grounds each evening at 5:30.

Was it worth $2,700? Well, consider this: The lowest-priced game-day ticket for Super Bowl 50 in February was $3,000, to spend 3 1/2 hours squinting to see 350-pound pieces of moving granite smash into each other from the cheap seats. I think we got a steal.

A postscript: On the drive home, we missed our turn from Pacific Coast Highway to the 101 Freeway and ended up taking G-16, a county road from Carmel Valley about 40 miles to Greenfield. Do not miss this trip. It added about 90 minutes to our drive, but the scenery is straight out of “The Sound of Music.” Like the links at Pacific Grove, another Monterey gem that you shouldn’t miss … as long as you’re not in a hurry.

For more info and a map

ALSO:

Best family beaches in the U.S.? Two in the West make top 10 list

Carnival’s largest cruise ship will brew its own on-board craft beers

‘Absolutely insane’ German coaster twists and dives through faux volcano

Follow us on Twitter @latimestravel

Like us on Facebook