Top 10 Golf Courses in The Monterey Peninsula
The Monterey Peninsula is American golf's most revered address. Within twenty miles of coastline, five of the finest golf courses in the world occupy cliffs, coves, and cypress groves above the Pacific Ocean, and the combination of scenery, history, and architectural quality is without parallel in the United States. Pebble Beach has hosted more US Open Championships than any other venue in the country. Cypress Point is so private and so perfect that many architects consider it the best course ever built. Spyglass Hill provides the most demanding test in the area. Together with Monterey Peninsula Country Club and The Links at Spanish Bay, these courses constitute a concentration of excellence available nowhere else on the continent. The climate is cool and often foggy — the marine layer rolling in off Monterey Bay is the defining weather feature — and the courses play firm and quick when the sun breaks through, making the experience genuinely links-like despite the American parkland setting.
1. Pebble Beach Golf Links, Pebble Beach
Pebble Beach occupies a place in American golf mythology that transcends any single ranking. Designed by Jack Neville and Douglas Grant in 1919, with subsequent modifications by Herbert Fowler, H. Chandler Egan, and Jack Nicklaus, it plays 6,828 yards at par 72 along the cliffs of Stillwater Cove with eight seaside holes that represent the most dramatic ocean golf in the country. It has hosted six US Open Championships — won by Jack Nicklaus (1972), Tom Watson (1982), Tom Kite (1992), Tiger Woods (2000), Graeme McDowell (2010), and Gary Woodland (2019) — and the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am annually. The 7th hole, a par three played from a clifftop tee to a green surrounded by the Pacific, is the most photographed hole in American golf; the 18th, bending left along the bay with the Del Monte Forest behind, is among the most dramatic closing holes anywhere. Pebble Beach is public, accessible by booking through the resort; green fees are among the highest in the country.
2. Cypress Point Club, Pebble Beach
Alister MacKenzie designed Cypress Point in 1928 and produced what many architects, including Pete Dye and Tom Fazio, consider the greatest course ever built. The routing threads through Monterey cypress and coastal scrub before emerging on the oceanfront headland for three holes — the 15th, 16th and 17th — that may constitute the finest consecutive stretch of oceanside golf in the world. The 16th hole, a par three of approximately 230 yards played across the Pacific to a green perched on a rocky promontory, has no equal in American golf. Cypress Point is intensely private, with a small membership that jealously guards the exclusivity that makes the club what it is. Access is by member introduction only; even prominent golf professionals are not routinely invited. No amount of money spent at the lodge next door guarantees a round.
3. Spyglass Hill Golf Course, Pebble Beach
Designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr. and opened in 1966, Spyglass Hill is consistently rated the most difficult public course on the Monterey Peninsula and among the hardest resort courses in the United States. The layout begins in the Del Monte Forest with five holes of genuine woodland challenge before dropping through the cypress and ice plant toward the ocean for a spectacular middle section, then climbing back into the forest for a tough closing stretch. At par 72 measuring just under 6,900 yards, the slope rating routinely reaches 148 or above from the championship tees — among the highest for any regularly played course in California. The 4th, a long par four where the ocean is visible beyond the fairway's edge, is the course's most celebrated hole. Open to the public through the Pebble Beach Resorts booking system.
4. Monterey Peninsula Country Club — Shore Course, Pebble Beach
The Shore Course at Monterey Peninsula Country Club (MPCC) occupies sea-cliff land between Pebble Beach and Pacific Grove and was designed by Seth Raynor in 1919. For decades it ranked as something of a local secret — private, understated, and played only by members and their guests — but it earned global recognition when it began hosting the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am as a rotation venue alongside Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill. PGA Tour players have routinely cited the Shore Course as their favourite of the three AT&T venues; its elevated clifftop holes, particularly the run from the 4th through the 10th, combine views and challenge in a way that Pebble Beach itself cannot match on every hole. MPCC is private; access is through member invitation only.
5. The Links at Spanish Bay, Pebble Beach
Spanish Bay was designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr., Tom Watson and Sandy Tatum and opened in 1987 as the first course on the Monterey Peninsula to be intentionally built in the links style. The layout runs along a stretch of restored coastal dune habitat between Asilomar and the Pebble Beach estate, with the Pacific visible from nearly every hole and wind a constant factor that changes the playing character of the course from morning to afternoon. At par 72 measuring around 6,800 yards, Spanish Bay is not Cypress Point, but it provides a genuine links-style experience in a climate and landscape ideally suited to it. Open to the public through the Pebble Beach Resorts system, with priority to guests at the Inn at Spanish Bay.
6. Poppy Hills Golf Course, Pebble Beach
Poppy Hills was the original home of the USGA within the Del Monte Forest, designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr. in 1986 as a public course supplementing the resort circuit. It operated for two decades as the third venue in the AT&T Pro-Am rotation before being replaced by MPCC's Dunes Course. The woodland layout at par 72 plays through the Del Monte Forest with tight tree-lined corridors that penalise the wayward drive; the greens are elevated and bunkered in Jones's characteristic style. Poppy Hills has undergone renovation and continues to operate as a public course accessible through the Pebble Beach area's tee-time system at more accessible green fees than the Resort courses.
7. Pacific Grove Golf Links, Pacific Grove
On the Point Pinos headland at the northern tip of the Peninsula, Pacific Grove Golf Links is a municipally owned course with some of the finest real estate of any public-access layout in California. The back nine runs along the Monterey Bay dunes with ocean views comparable to anything available on the premium resort circuits. At par 70 and around 5,700 yards, it is modest in length but conditions are good and the setting is sensational. Widely known as the 'Poor Man's Pebble Beach', Pacific Grove represents the best value golf on the Peninsula by a considerable margin. Fully public; tee times available online.
8. Bayonet Golf Course, Seaside
Bayonet and Black Horse are a pair of courses on the former Fort Ord military reservation at the northern end of Monterey Bay. Bayonet was designed by General Robert McClure in 1954 and has hosted numerous military and civilian championships; its par-72 layout at over 7,000 yards is one of the longer challenges in the region. The course plays through former military training terrain with wide fairways and large greens in a style distinct from the cypress-and-cliff courses of the Peninsula proper. Fully public; green fees are affordable by local standards.
9. Black Horse Golf Course, Seaside
Black Horse is the companion to Bayonet on the former Fort Ord land, designed in a more modern style with water features and significant bunkering complementing Bayonet's more traditional design. The pair is often played on consecutive days as a 36-hole experience, and the combination provides excellent value for visiting golfers looking to maximise their play time around the Peninsula without the reservation requirements of the resort courses. Fully public; open year-round.
10. Rancho Cañada Golf Club, Carmel Valley
Inland from the Peninsula along the Carmel Valley corridor, Rancho Cañada offers 36 holes of parkland golf on the Carmel River floor. The two 18-hole layouts — East and West — lack the ocean drama of the Peninsula proper but provide a more sheltered, often sunnier alternative when the marine layer pins in over the coast. The East Course is the more challenging of the two at par 71, while the West Course at par 71 is marginally shorter and more forgiving. Both are public, well-maintained, and considerably more affordable than the Pebble Beach resort courses.
Practical Notes
The Monterey Peninsula is playable year-round, with the clearest conditions most common in late summer and early autumn when the marine fog retreats. Spring and early summer bring the characteristic fog and lower temperatures that give the courses their links-like character. The must-play public courses are Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill; Pacific Grove is the value option. Access to Cypress Point and MPCC requires member introductions and cannot be booked commercially. Green fees at Pebble Beach are currently over $600 per round; Spyglass is substantially less. Monterey Regional Airport provides direct connections from Los Angeles and San Francisco, and the courses are all within 20 minutes of the town of Carmel-by-the-Sea. For the complete map of every course on and around the Peninsula, open the map.