Can Spanish Bay rise to Pebble Beach and Spyglass’s level? That’s the goal

On the day Spanish Bay opened in 1987, Tom Watson shot a 67 and declared the links so authentically Scottish, he could practically hear the bagpipers. Pebble Beach Resorts took him literally. For nearly 40 years, a lone piper has played at sunset by Spanish Bay’s first tee, creating an air of romance that the course itself has struggled to match, at least compared to its sibling layouts, Pebble Beach Golf Links and Spyglass Hill.

The tee sheet tells the tale. Of the three resort courses along 17-Mile Drive, Spanish Bay has long logged the fewest rounds.

Ownership would like that to change. A little more than a year ago, Pebble’s brass announced plans for a renovation led by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner, aimed at elevating Spanish Bay to “the pedigree of the other championship courses in the Del Monte Forest.” The question at the time was as natural as the nearby Monterey coastline: What exactly could be done at a course hemmed in by environmental restrictions?

Now the answer has arrived.

On Tuesday, Pebble unveiled details of the project, which will shut down the course for 13 months starting on March 18. Under Hanse and Wagner’s plans, Spanish Bay’s footprint will remain the same but its grounds will be transformed in a manner meant to make them more fun and playable for resort guests without dulling the challenge for elite golfers. That’s a fine line to walk, especially on a course where rerouting turned out not to be an option.

“The corridors are pretty well set,” Hanse told GOLF.com, adding that he and Wagner considered altering them only to determine that the existing routing was “more than acceptable” given the strictly safeguarded site.

“By trying to deviate,” Hanse said, “we realized that we were creating awkward crossovers and risking that the project would ever be approved.”

Instead, the architects took other creative measures, including expanding greens and fairways, repositioning tees and relocating several green sites — a move that will make room for an entirely new par 3.

“Through our lens, the idea is to create something a little more forgiving and more plugged into the landscape,” Hanse said.

To appreciate Hanse and Wagner’s goals, it helps to have some background about Spanish Bay and the context in which the course was born. Designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr., with Watson and Sandy Tatum collaborating, the course was in many ways ahead of its time. An environmentally sensitive layout that involved the restoration of native dunes and was threaded through with public walking trails, it reflected an ethos and aesthetic more common to links golf in the British Isles than to American resort golf of the 1980s.

In other respects, though, Spanish Bay was also a product of its era — an age of hero golf, replete with forced carries and earth-moved mounding and fairways pinched hard by out-of-bounds. Like TPC Sawgrass, the Stadium Course at PGA West and other prominent courses of its vintage, it emblematized a time when a sleeve of lost balls was accepted stoically as a kind of badge of honor.

As architectural tastes evolved, Spanish Bay remained itself, set on a stunning coastal site but also in a highly competitive neighborhood.

Other local courses cast long shadows from which Spanish Bay has never quite emerged. According to Pebble Beach CEO David Stivers, 100 percent of golfers staying at the resort play Pebble Beach Golf Links. Just over 90 percent play Spyglass Hill. Spanish Bay, by comparison, draws just over 80 percent.

The thought that Spanish Bay could use a refresh had been in the air for a while. The timing was partly pragmatic. With the course approaching its 40th birthday, it was already due for upgrades to its irrigation and drainage. As long as ownership was going to tackle infrastructure, it made sense to look at the architecture, too.

“We always felt we had this beautiful canvas with 16 ocean-view holes,” Stivers said. “People liked the course. It’s a good course. We felt we could make it a great course.”

Pebble has never shut down one of its courses for this length of time. Stivers said the resort considered doing the work in phases, closing only a few holes at a time, but decided it made more sense to “bite the bullet” and complete the project in one continuous stretch.

The most consequential changes will come in the middle and closing portions of the round. The current 13th hole, a short par-3 that plays over a ravine, will be eliminated. In its place, the routing will move from the 12th directly to what is now the 14th, a par-5 that will be reimagined as two holes: a par-4 followed by a new par-3.

The new par-3 will feature a tee near the current 18th green site and will play straight toward the coast, bringing the ocean directly into the player’s eyeline.

Another notable change will come at the 8th hole, which will be shifted closer to the line of play from the 7th green. The intent, Hanse said, is to make the hole feel more naturally situated in its environment. Instead of looking out over a parking lot and passing cars, players will be treated to views of the Pacific.

The 18th hole will also be reworked. Currently a par-5 with a hard-left dogleg near the finish, it will play straight away and finish closer to the pro shop.

Those are the headline moves. But the day-to-day experience of the course will also change in subtler ways.

Hanse and Wagner plan to expand greens by roughly 40 percent and widen fairways by about 30 percent, while repositioning bunkers and adjusting contours and corridors to create more options off the tee. Around the greens, players will see less rough and more tight-mown turf, opening up inventive recovery shots.

The scorecard will reflect the broader shift in philosophy, too. From the forward tees, Spanish Bay will play roughly 500 yards shorter, dropping to 4,705 yards. From the tips, it will stretch 375 yards longer, to 7,115 yards, with par changing from 72 to 71.

With more leeway off the tee and into greens, shots will be less likely to go missing in environmentally sensitive native areas. But there will also be more of those areas to protect. By eliminating the existing 13th, Pebble will be able to return three acres of protected native areas.

The renovation will also influence how people move around the course. Currently, carts are allowed on the fairways. Under the redesign, the course will become cart-path only, with a new path system designed to blend more seamlessly into the environment. Hanse and Wagner are also aiming to tighten several walks between greens and tees, all in the hope of encouraging more players to hoof it.

From a maintenance standpoint, the project will reduce irrigated turf by 12 percent while also installing upgraded drainage and irrigation systems.

The changes may go further still. Even as the course undergoes renovation, other elements of Spanish Bay are also under review, including the logo and even the name itself.

By any moniker, the aim, Stivers said, is to make Spanish Bay a “must-play” that stands shoulder to shoulder with its celebrated companions. That ambition will be reflected in the pricing. When Spanish Bay reopens on April 17 of next year, in advance of Pebble Beach’s hosting of the 2027 U.S. Open, green fees will rise from $365 to $550, matching Spyglass Hill’s current rate. Tee times are already available through the resort’s website.

For Hanse, the project represents not just a challenge but a rare opportunity.

“It’s a dream,” he said, noting that chances to work on a coastal California site are vanishingly few.

Of course, with that privilege comes the pressure of expectations

A Spanish Bay that finally feels on par with Pebble and Spyglass?

“I like our chances,” Hanse said.