Pebble/Monterey Buddies Trip - October 2020

Hey all, took a break from the WRX for the past year or so to catch up on life, but it's good to be back!

Anyways, looking for input - comments, criticism, whatever - on our agenda for a buddies trip to Monterey this fall. Here's the skinny:

Thursday 10/8 1pm - Spanish BayFriday 10/9 8am - PebbleSaturday 10/10 8am - SpyglassAccommodations at Spanish Bay. We already have a deposit on the lodging, but I have heard that we may benefit from joining the Duke's Club, if that is still a thing? If our tee times are already booked, is it too late for that?

Since we began looking for flights we've decided to go out a day early and fly into SFO, then hit Pasatiempo on the way down. We'll have to figure out lodging somewhere in Santa Cruz that night or somewhere between there and Monterey so definitely looking for recommendations on that front. One of our guys has an in at Olympic but we would be limited to a single group (see below) and the cost is $400 vs. $150 at Pasa, and honestly from everything I've seen on here and otherwise it looks like Pasa is a better experience anyways.

That said, there's 8 of us in all, with handicaps ranging from low single-digit to mid-20's (generous); any ideas on games would be great as well.

Thanks!

Pasatiempo on the way down is absolutely a great call. I don't have any private connections whatsoever so Olympic wouldn't have been anywhere near possible for me, but I loved Pasa. It's an awesome track. My one comment about your itinerary is that I would switch the ordering of your rounds if possible to 1. Spanish 2. Spyglass 3. Pebble. Spyglass is a tremendous course and a lot of fun, but I would want to save Pebble for last so Spyglass didn't feel like a letdown coming off Pebble. I don't know if the marine layer is as big a deal around October as it is more in the summertime, but when I went in late June early July I tried to schedule all my rounds for late morning/early afternoon once the marine layer/fog burned off. Someone more familiar with Monterey at that time of year might chime in. It's an awesome trip and Spanish Bay is an extremely nice place to stay. Best of luck!

Thanks for the quick reply!

I'm not sure how the rounds were setup, as another member of the group did that, but I do like the fact that both the Pebble and Spyglass days do allow time for afternoon replays. Do you know if we could replay PB on the Saturday after Spyglass and get the replay cost?

Also, I am worried about the marine layer as well. A friend of mine went last September and said it was an issue until late morning... I'm doubtful it will have significantly abated by mid-October.

Unless the weather is a disaster there will be no chance of a replay on Pebble that will let you finish before dark assuming there is even any space on the tee sheet. I would expect them to be fully booked though.

I was there in September 2018 and we teed off just before 2PM and holed out on 18 about 5 minutes after sunset. I had the last "guaranteed to finish" tee time. We teed off on 18 just before sunset, see the picture below.

The marine layer can be an issue, but just make sure you have layers. We started out in a light marine layer, then the sun came out, and once the sun started to go down it cooled off again.

Some of my most memorable rounds at Pebble include the marine layer. I go in early November and 90% of the time the weather is perfect. lows in the high 40's highs in the 60's with sun and little wind. Rather than fight the weather there it is best to roll with whatever you have that day. It makes it a fun experience. Only once in 10 or so trips (nearly 20 rounds at PB) have I had marine layer that affected more than 9 holes. It was one of my my most memorable rounds. Pebble second in the lineup IMO is ideal. Lets be frank. Most (especially 20 HCPs) dont typically play golf every day, especially walking. By day 3 some of your group will be quite fatigued. It affects the round. I would much rather have that fatigued round be on spyglass or SB than PB. Just my opinion.

pasatiemp/spanish bay/pb/spyglass with tee times & flights booked ...

pretty good trip there ...

not sure what golfwrx can add to that ... except you should take a year off and catch up on life more often ...

See my post I just made on the same trip (similar): https://forums.golfwrx.com/discussion/1806932/monterey-trip-completed-with-some-la-thrown-in

would highly recommend you throwing in Bayonet and Blackhorse. Poppy Hills is also great, didnt play it this time

jvincent - good to know on the timeline; I was afraid it might be too tight on daylight that time of year. Also, my concern with the marine layer was visibility as opposed to temperature. Sounds like it shouldn't be that big of a deal though... I've definitely played rounds on courses in the Appalachian valley where you start out in pretty dense fog that eventually burns off after a couple hours or so.

tiderider - thanks for the affirmation. Also, yes it is nice to unplug from the e-community every so often!

Eddy - nice read, wow what a great trip! I'll take a look at Bayonet Black Horse in case the group is looking for a replay on Th/Fri. Looks like travel time from PB is about 30min?

Only thing I'd like to add is that it is quite a bit drive from SFO to Santa Cruz. You'll drive through the heart of Silicon Valley, which means major traffic during commute hours.

If still possible, fly to SJC.

On my trip the only time the fog was bad was the day I played 36 at Bayonet/Blackhorse. It was pretty foggy for the first 5 holes or so then it broke up and was sunny the rest of the day.

Bah, just found out Pasatiempo is aerifying the last week of September... as much as I'd like to play there and hope for the best, this will be a dealbreaker for the group.

Plan B?

30 mins at most yeah

Depending on when you get into SFO the good options that are one the way are:

Half Moon BayBayonet / Black HorsePoppy HillsThat's the order you will hit them as you drive from SFO to the Inn. Poppy Hills is on 17 mile drive, essentially right next to Spanish Bay but is probably the best out of those courses.

 My wife and I spend a lot of time throughout the year on the Monterey Peninsula and I found that usually the best weather is August through October. Spanish Bay is a really nice place to stay we've stayed there many times in fact my wife and I stayed there during the Christmas holidays as I got a Duke's Club rate of almost 50% off so we splurged and got an ocean view room overlooking #1. We prefer Spanish Bay over the Lodge as there's too many tourist at Pebble. I believe that if you joined Duke's it would be too late to revise your current tee times to Duke's and you wouldn't be able to play Pebble with Duke's during October. With Duke's you would be able to bring 3 friends at the Dukes price which is substantial. If you'd like I can ask the head pro that I know at Del Monte if you join Duke's can your tee times at Spyglass and Spanish Bay be converted to Duke's since Duke's club membership is issued from Del Monte. If you'd like any restaurant, bar suggestions let me know.

Yes, please - on both the Duke's compatibility as well as dining/drinking rec's!

Also - based on Vincent's input above - I've boiled the Wednesday arrival round down to either Half Moon Bay (flying into SFO), or Poppy Hills (flying into SJC or Monterey). I prefer the latter due to not wanting to burn travel time through the valley from SFO. Do you know if we can join NCGA as non-CA residents, and if so, would we all have to join or can one do so and book/pay for all (like the Duke's guest discount)?

You can definitely join the NCGA as a non-resident. That's what I did before my trip. Off the top of my head I don't remember if there was a different rate for guests of members at Poppy.

I will check with the head pro and as mentioned you could join NCGA but then you could only get discounts at the following courses in the Monterey area.

Poppy Hills NCGA members pay $85 Mon. - Thurs, guests pay $115, Friday - Sunday $145.

NCGA gets discounts at Bayonet & Blackhorse, Quail Lodge and Carmel Valley Ranch.

I found out from the head pro that if you joined Duke's you would have to cancel your reservations at Spyglass and Spanish Bay and then re-book with Duke's. The problem that I can see is that with Duke's we can only book a tee time 30 days out and it's possible that you won't get the tee times that you want.

I doubled up on Spanish Bay/ Spyglass and did Pebble by itself then 36 at Bayonnet/Black Horse

However this shakes out, its a hell of a trip at some great tracks!

I've heard the 5-8 hour rounds recently at Pebble have been a real problem to deal with

LOL... 8 hour round? Im sure they would be happy to refund all the GTF (guaranteed to finish) from 11-noon. No 8 hour rounds on pebble. The offending parties would be removed if they were that slow. I can see a scenario where it crawls towards 6 hours.

We ended up playing in about 5:20. It moved pretty well until the 7th tee and then it was backed up solid all the way in.

This was on a beautiful day weather wise with very little wind to speak of so it was playing as easy as it gets.

When I played is took about 5:30 or so.. Paying that amount of money I was fine with it taking that long. More bang for your buck. Shot my best round of the week also!

Doubt it would take anyone to go around in 8 hours. Pretty sure they would be thrown off the course.

Good to know; I think we'll just stick with the times we have. With 2 groups I don't want to take the risk of getting blocked out or separated just to save a few bucks (okay, so a lot of bucks but it's still too risky IMO!).

What I'm still unsure of is if we can book at PH with a single NCGA membership (or 2, so 1 per group) and still get the discount for all players. If nobody here knows I can break down and call the golf shop and actually talk to a person... oh the humanity! :D

I can't speak to Half Moon Bay since I didn't play there on my Monterey trip, but I was impressed with Poppy Hills when we played there in summer of 2018. Definitely get the NCGA membership, which you can definitely do as a non-CA resident: I lived in FL at the time and got an e-membership or something like that and it paid for itself solely for the savings at Poppy. I believe the way it worked when I went in 2018 is there is an NCGA member rate and then there's an accompanied guest rate which is still significantly lower than rack rate but not quite as low as the NCGA rate: I got the NCGA membership and my dad played at the "guest" rate, which saved both of us a ton of $. It's a really nice track. Reminds me just a bit of Bandon Trails in that it's woodsy and firm and fast.

The guests don't get the full discount but still a pretty big one. Non-member rate is $250. Below is from their website.

NCGAMEMBERS: $85 (MON-THU) / $115 (FRI-SUN)

GUESTS (Accompanied by NCGA Member): $115 (MON-THU) / $145 (FRI-SUN)

OP - what's your expected arrival time on the Weds? Since Pasa is out, from SFO getting to anything worthwhile down in Monterey or on the way could still be some drive. If SJC flights work out that would definitely be a better option. And not just travel time, but SJC is dead easy to get out of, with rental cars being a short walk across the road from baggage claim, while at SFO you need to take Airtrain out to the car rental centre.

IMHO you've already got Pebble and Spanish Bay for oceanside wows, which makes HMB's main point to play redundant. Down in Monterey Bayo/Blackhorse/Poppy/PG are all either better, more fun, or both. Less than an hour from SJC is San Juan Oaks - hardly a marquee name, but a solid course and a good warm up round in a different setting than the rest of your trip.

Definitely get an NCGA membership and play Poppy. And if you are worried about getting in a full round somewhere before Spyglass, you could grab a coffee, do the back 9 at PG (the cool linksy holes), then grab late breakfast/early lunch before Spy.

Anyways, as others have said, with those 3 main rounds already sorted, you're in for a great time, whatever else you do.

See reply #17 from me and besides Poppy NCGA member and guest fees I also list the other courses in the area that give NCGA member green fee discounts.

Thank you all for the clarification on the NCGA rates. We're definitely going to book PH for the Wed afternoon.

Duffer, it looks like SFO is the best option due to direct flights in and out. I'd like to skip the long drive but it's just not going to happen. We get in right around 9am so after arranging transport we should be able to get down to the course by 1:30ish at the latest, which should still get us in by sunset I'm hoping.