The Ten Million Dollar Golf HoleThe Ten Million Dollar Golf HoleThe old fifth hole at Pebble Beach was out of place. The course plays with a strong scent of sea breeze from the 3rd green to the 11th tee. You played most of the shots always thinking about how a faded stoke (or worse, a slice) would find it's way onto the sand and rocks by Carmel Bay. Only the fifth hole didn't fit this mold. A par 3, it called for a mid-iron up a hill between trees and houses to a blind green. Any shot pulled or pushed too much would find it's way out-of-bounds. And to add insult to injury, a cart path put in the 1980s interfered with your vision and golf balls if they strayed to the right of the green.
The reason for this aberration was that, reportedly, Samuel F.B. Morse was having cash flow difficulties as he was constructing the links in 1918 with the architectural help of Jack Neville and Douglas Grant. To solve his problem, he sold the area which was to have a par-three along the cliffs to serve as an estate, and had Neville and Grant build the inland deviation.
In 1996, the estate came up for
sale, and the Pebble Beach Company paid in the neighborhood of
$8,000,000 for it. Then they contracted with Jack Nicklaus to
re-build the fifth hole as it was originally conceived. Even though
Jack has stated that Pebble is his favorite course in the world
and has great respect for it, the world wondered what the new
hole would look like. Would it fit in with the rest of the course?
Would it be so difficult that it was unplayable? Would it call
for a high, faded four-iron?
The new hole was opened up in October of 1998 at a cost of $2,000,000, and it should have it's first competitive play in the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in February of 1999. In addition, the course will host the National Amateur in 1999 and the 100th Open in 2000. The players should approve of the new addition.
The championship tee plays from near the fourth green. To get to the regular tees, you cross a bridge over a ravine. The hole should still play as a mid-iron to a small green, 29 yards long by 21 yards wide. Three bunkers come into play, one short, one left, and a small one to the right which should stop a marginally pushed stroke from bounding down the hillside to the beach. A slice will easily find the sands of Stillwater Cove.
The only problem
is that the sixth fairway is directly behind the green. To reach
the tee, the players will have to backtrack well over 100 yards.
That is a small price to play for one more great par three along
the salt water. Pebble has eight holes where it is possible to
find the ocean. The old fifth hole is still there, but it will
probably be used, along with the land where the rest of the estate
stood, to extend the facilities of the Lodge at Pebble Beach.
Now if they would only build an inlet to spice up the 15th . . .
