Pebble Beach is returning a signature feature to its famous 18th hole
When a tree falls on the fairway of a famous golf hole, does anyone notice? Of course they do.
They also notice when it is changed.
On Thursday, Pebble Beach Golf Links posted photos of the new addition to its 18th hole, where a second cypress tree has been planted, replacing the one that fell during the Dec. winter storm. 11, 2014. The project brings back a feature that featured long, complex tee shots and layups on the par-5 finish.
A replacement tree appeared on the 17th hole near Spyglass Hill. Now it stands in the same spot that the storm-felled tree once occupied, about 30 yards closer to the green than its pine companion.
Ranked 15th on GOLF’s list of the Top 100 Courses in the World, Pebble Beach opened in 1919 and has already evolved over a century of life, making subtle and significant changes. In 1997, for example, Jack Nicklaus was hired to build a new par-3 5th hole, a change that brought the hole to the edge of the bluffs overlooking Stillwater Cove.
Since 2010 alone, the course has undergone a number of additional renovations – longer tees on the 2nd and 9th holes, restored bunkers, and integrated greens designed to revive old features and open up new holes.
The tree planting comes as Pebble fine tunes the course ahead of the 2027 US Open, which will host a record seventh.
This is not the first time that the iconic tree has been replaced in Pebble. In 2002, an 80-foot Monterey cypress was planted along the 18th green, taken from the first hole to replace the first, which had died of cancer. That replanting — digging a big hole, guiding a big root into its place — was a spectacle.
But it played with much less popularity in the pre-Instagram years.
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