The Hyperlinks at Spanish Bay has by no means had the pull of its fellow resort programs on 17-Mile Drive.
Pebble Seaside Firm
The Hyperlinks at Spanish Bay, in Pebble Seaside, was conceived as a Scottish-inspired course, a cap tip to the previous nation on the California coast.
In line with that theme, a bagpiper performs at sundown by the 18th inexperienced. It’s a becoming contact. However a second fiddle would make sense, too. Of the three resort programs alongside 17-mile Drive (Pebble Seaside Golf Hyperlinks and Spyglass are the opposite two), Spanish Bay isn’t anybody’s first alternative.
Pebble Seaside Resorts would love that to alter. In late 2023, possession introduced its plans to carry Spanish Bay as much as snuff with its siblings via a renovation dealt with by the architects Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner. On the time, the schedule of that work was up within the air. It isn’t any longer. Final week, a timeline was revealed. The course will shut on March 18, 2026, and reopen the next spring, forward of the 2027 U.S. Open at Pebble Seaside.
“Partnering with Gil, Jim and their group offers us the utmost confidence that Spanish Bay might be a should play on par with its fellow programs,” David Stivers, CEO of Pebble Seaside Firm, mentioned in a press release that accompanied the information.
Hanse and Wagner aren’t strangers to headline initiatives. Along with their unique work, which incorporates such GOLF Journal Prime 100 programs as Ohoopee Match Membership, in Georgia, and CapRock Ranch, in Nebraska, they’ve turn out to be a go-to duo for big-name restorations and renovations. In California alone, they’ve orchestrated redos at Los Angeles Nation Membership, the Olympic Membership and Lake Merced Golf Membership, amongst others.
At Spanish Bay, they’ve been given a scenic canvas, alongside a closely protected shoreline. Designed by the trio of Robert Trent Jones Jr., Tom Watson and Sandy Tatum, and first opened for play in 1987, Spanish Bay was constructed to each recreate and defend native dunes that had been misplaced over the many years. Its present routing darts via these dunes, then geese into to the Del Monte forest earlier than returning to the coast towards its shut.
Hanse and Wagner’s work will keep inside the unique improvement footprint. Past that, few particulars of their plans have been revealed. However in a video posted by Pebble Seaside, Hanse described the potential as “staggering” and mentioned he expects the undertaking to be transformative to each the playability and look of the course. Pebble Seaside Firm, for its half, has mentioned that it expects Spanish Bay to morph from a “Eighties period, Scottish-inspired course to a contemporary California masterpiece.”
Even earlier than Hanse and Wagner begin turning earth, different work at Spanish Bay will get underway with the reconstruction of public-access footpaths on the property that had been broken in current storms. That a part of the undertaking will start this spring, with the course work kicking off early subsequent 12 months. Till then, the bagpiper will maintain taking part in each night because the solar goes down.
