Spyglass Hill

Spyglass Hill, at Pebble Beach in California, is for many players the toughest course on the resort. It was designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr. and opened in 1966, and most of its holes are named after characters and places from Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island.

The round combines two very different landscapes. The first five holes play through sand dunes next to the Pacific, and from the 6th the course moves into the tall pines of the Del Monte Forest. Narrow fairways and well protected greens make it one of the most technical courses in the area. Highlights include the 4th, Blind Pew, which Jones reportedly considered his favourite par 4 of all his designs, the 8th, Signal Hill, the hardest hole on the course, and the 18th with its tricky two-tier green.

Every year Spyglass Hill co-hosts the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am with Pebble Beach Golf Links. It was also a stroke-play venue for the U.S. Amateur in 1999 and 2018, it will host the U.S. Senior Open in 2030, and Golf Digest ranks it No. 10 among America’s greatest public courses.