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[peaceful piano music]
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[Jim] Cypress Point,
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on California’s Monterey Peninsula, is viewed by many
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as the most beautiful golf course in the world.
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It’s craggy shoreline, bold architecture, and daring nature
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combine to present an experience in golf that’s unmatched.
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It breaks all the rules,
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including back to back par 5s and back to back par 3s
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but Alister MacKenzie’s masterpiece
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is always top three on Golf Digest’s ranking
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of America’s Hundred Greatest Golf Courses.
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Former USGA President Sandy Tatum called it
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The Sistine Chapel of golf.
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It’s beauty and beast, majestic and testing.
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This is no relic overtaken by modern technology.
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It’s 18 holes feature a number of heroic carries
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and alternate routes, making finesse still matter,
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course management richly rewarded.
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[dramatic orchestral music]
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Welcome to Every Hole at Cypress Point.
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The opening tee shot plays over 17 Mile Drive,
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though it’s hidden from view
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by a tall hedge screening the road.
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Clusters of cypress trees pinch the fairway right and left,
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serving as aerial hazards.
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Two bunkers on the left about 280 off the back tee
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suggest that MacKenzie anticipated the future.
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Beyond the perched green are grand, towering sand dunes
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that stretch hundreds of yards to nearby Spyglass Hill.
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[dramatic orchestral music]
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The second hole is the longest on the course,
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a slight dogleg left over a stretch of waste areas
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that mark the target line on the uphill tee shot.
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Far down the fairway lies a huge bunker on the right,
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eating into the fairway,
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counterbalanced by a smaller one left.
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These are carry bunkers,
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a feature MacKenzie repeats throughout the course.
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The green is long, slender, and sloping from back to front.
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Don’t go long or a par could be hard fought.
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[dramatic orchestral music]
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The third is a par three featuring
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a beautiful green complex with scattered bunkers,
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some well short of the putting surface,
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painstakingly restored nearly 20 years ago
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by longtime superintendent Jeff Markow.
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[dramatic orchestral music]
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From the tee, the fourth looks like a sea of bunkers
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but the fairway is quite generous,
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in a dense forest of Monterey Pines.
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Though the spectacular bunkers on the left can be carried,
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those farther down on the right can come into play
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on the tee shots for the bigger hitters.
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The green is considered treacherous.
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You must keep your approach below the hole
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or risk slipping your first putt off the green.
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The late cartoonist Hank Ketcham, a longtime Cypress member,
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said, It’s like putting in a bathtub.
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[dramatic orchestral music]
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The first of consecutive par fives, the 493 yard fifth,
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can be reached in two by some low handicap players
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courageous enough to challenge
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the bunker complex 280 yards from the tee.
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The fairway dips and crests and tilts
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from tee to two-tiered green
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and tall Monterey pines line the hole.
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For the average golfer, it’s a three shot game of chess,
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with each play more demanding that the last.
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[dramatic orchestral music]
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About 30 yards longer than the fifth
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and playing in a different direction, the sixth doglegs left
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with a massive bunker at the turn
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and several more along the left
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to catch shots pulled off sloping fairway lies.
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The green sits at the base of yet another sand dune
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that dominates the landscape.
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[dramatic orchestral music]
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Atop the dune seen on hole six is the seventh tee,
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elevated above a valley.
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The green, restored to it’s original shape
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by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw,
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is fronted by a diagonal string of bunkers
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and backed by more exposed hillsides of sand.
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The seventh provides the transition
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from pastoral parkland into genuine linksland.
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[dramatic orchestral music]
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The eighth is the first of consecutive holes
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that many consider the two most interesting
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short par fours in the world.
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Eight is a sharp dogleg right,
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climbing up a mountain slope of sand.
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The drive is blind, whether playing straightaway
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with something less than a driver or cutting the corner.
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The well-guarded hilltop green, with four distinct levels,
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must be carried on the fly.
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Listen to your caddy who might tell you
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to aim your putt 90 degrees offline.
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[dramatic orchestral music]
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The ascent to the eighth green
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is followed by a hole that plunges downhill.
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Pause for a moment here
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and look around at the beauty of nature.
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At least eight holes can be seen from this vantage point.
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[dramatic orchestral music]
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This par four is reachable from the tee
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with a long, bold drive
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but if one plays an iron or hybrid safe
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to the ribbon fairway, the ball must be positioned
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to avoid sand left and right.
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The second is then uphill to a shelf green
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that’s tricky to hole because
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of it’s diagonal configuration and tumbling character.
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[dramatic orchestral music]
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Ten is the fourth and final par five on the course.
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It’s also the shortest.
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It begins from an elevated tee
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and it seems like it’s going to be easily reachable in two
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but the fairway is pinched by two glorious bunkers,
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one 280 yards off the tee, the other less than
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a hundred yards off the green,
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and a tiny putting surface is ringed
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by a series of deep bunkers.
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[dramatic orchestral music]
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Parallel to the tenth but in the opposite direction
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and often playing into the prevailing wind,
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11 might be the most difficult par four on the course,
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with trees right and left
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and the landing area stopped by two linear bunkers
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in the center of the fairway.
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The second shot might well be a long iron or hybrid
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to an oval green, squeezed by three more bunkers.
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The massive dune containing the ninth green
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provides the backdrop for this hole.
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Like the eighth, this is another sharp dogleg right
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around a windswept hillside of dunes.
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But where the eighth plays extremely uphill,
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the longer 12th plays slightly downhill from the tee.
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Mackenzie’s fairway bunker, far left, is about 260 out.
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It has been restored
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so golfers must position their tee shots.
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The second is over a swale and diagonal bunkers
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to a green that seems to flow out of the dunescape.
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The 12th is claimed to be Ben Hogan’s favorite hole.
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[dramatic orchestral music]
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The drive on 13 is over a ridge of sand
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to perhaps the widest fairway on the course.
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Position is paramount, depending on the hole location.
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The approach is uphill to a green
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with bunkers embedded into another sand ridge.
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Along the left, a ridge resembling a cresting ocean wave.
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[dramatic orchestral music]
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We go from the widest hole at Cypress
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to the uphill, slight dogleg right 14th,
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with it’s gnarly cypress trees left and right.
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The second is uphill to a perched green that,
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despite all the trees framing it,
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still seems exposed to ocean winds.
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[dramatic orchestral music]
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As you walk this narrow corridor,
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look right at the famous octopus tree
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and marvel at our good fortune.
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The best is yet to come.
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You might call this call this hole anticipation.
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[dramatic orchestral music]
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Emerging onto the jagged Pacific coastline,
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we find another Cypress Point oddity,
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back to back par threes.
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The 15th is breathtaking, a short shot from 60 feet
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above a diagonal ocean cove containing
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a cauldron of churning surf
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to a boomerang-shape green surrounded
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by six glorious bunkers.
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Get out your camera.
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Some say it’s the most scenic hole in the world
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but wait until you see what’s next.
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The 16th is perhaps the most photographed hole anywhere,
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if not the hardest.
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Mackenzie debated making it a par four.
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It requires a carry of over 200 yards, over the rock wall,
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above an ocean cove, to reach the front collar of the green.
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To most players, the 16th is still the most awesome risk
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in all of golf, especially if the wind is in one’s face.
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Mackenzie thoughtfully provided
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a wide bailout area to the left
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for those windy or less courageous days
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but from there, the pitch onto the green isn’t easy.
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When the course was being routed back in the 1920s,
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Marion Hollins’ influence on the design of Cypress Point,
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and especially this hole, cannot be emphasized enough.
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She casually dropped a ball on the tee
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and hit it on the green to convince Mackenzie
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it was a par three.
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Years later, Bing Crosby became one of the few
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to make a hole in one.
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[dramatic orchestral music]
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Next comes a shoreline-hugging par four,
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complicated by the expanse
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of rocky coastline all along the right
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and a shallow peninsula green off in the distance.
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For most of us, the second shot must be played
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over or around a grove of cypress trees
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that gobble up much of the fairway.
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The second must be dead online
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to avoid the vertical cliff on the right
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and a nasty bunker on the left.
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Ocean winds always seem swirling on the 17th.
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The short, dogleg right 18th, with an uphill second shot,
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has scattered cypress trees
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that seem to block out the entire fairway.
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Even the club’s yardage book describes them as a barricade.
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The trees give the illusion
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that they engulf the entire hole.
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In truth, a skinny ribbon of fairway threads it’s way
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between tree trunks from tee to green
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and can be hit by a determined, accurate drive.
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[dramatic orchestral music]
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It’s a unique, unexpected finish to a course
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that provides a lifetime of memories in a single round.
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[peaceful piano music]
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You have completed the greatest experience
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in the world of golf.