I was lucky enough to grow up an easy walk away from this beautiful Alistair MacKenzie course in Santa Cruz, and it's where I learned to play at the tender age of 8 years old. For sentimental reasons and for good golf reasons, it has remained a true favorite.

If you've had the pleasure of playing this gem, you know what a pure, fair challenge it is. If you haven't, and you're planning a trip (or even just dreaming about one) to the Monterey Peninsula, you MUST add this course to your agenda. It's a short hour's drive from Pebble to Pasatiempo, and the course, though shorter than Spyglass and less famous than Pebble, is by all means among the best you'll ever play.

I'd be happy to provide other information if you'd like!

Jackmack,
How about some links or other info on the course? Any favorite travel articles or reviews that really do it justice?

Shark

[QUOTE]Originally posted by TheShark:
[qb]Jackmack,
How about some links or other info on the course? Any favorite travel articles or reviews that really do it justice?

Shark[/qb][/QUOTE]Hmmm... well, as far as favorite travel articles or reviews, my honest answer is that I don't have any.

Some useful links, though: http://www.pasatiempo.com gets you to the course's "official" site.

There are some very nice photos of the course at this URL: http://www.skydancerle.com/golfcourses/pasa.html

And "golfdoggy.com" has a solid article/review at the following URL: http://www.golfdoggy.com/pasatiempo.htm

Of course, a quick google search will turn up plenty more, I'm sure, but that should get you started.

Enjoy!

BTW, what are some of your favorite courses, and where do you live and play?

Wow, that course is a beauty! Can you see the bay from any of the holes? It's hard to tell from the pictures - except for maybe the overhead. Nice choice!!

Any other favorites out there?

[QUOTE]Originally posted by GripItAndRipIt:
[qb]Wow, that course is a beauty! Can you see the bay from any of the holes? It's hard to tell from the pictures - except for maybe the overhead. Nice choice!!

Any other favorites out there?[/qb][/QUOTE]Yep, you have nice views of Monterey Bay from the first tee (an elevated tee on a 474-yard par-4). When I was growing up, this hole played as a par-5, and was the 18-handicap hole. It WAS a pretty easy par-5, but it's a very, very tough par-4 now.

You can also see the bay from #9 green. 9 plays parallel to #1 but goes up the hill; it's one of the course's key holes in my view because it's a great risk-reward proposition (the green's reachable but well bunkered, and if you're in one of the two bunkers that's short of the green, you have an extremely steep bunker shot -- maybe fifteen feet of elevation to the green, so you'll have effectively a blind shot) and the green is extremely demanding.

There really aren't any other views of the bay, but the course is really quite lovely and takes such great advantage of the terrain that you won't miss them. Plenty of mature trees and somewhat older homes (most built in the 1970s), and really just one spectacular hole after the next.