The Links at Spanish Bay

The Links at Spanish Bay closes on March 18, 2026, for a comprehensive Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner renovation estimated at 13 months. What follows is a profile of the course as it existed before the work began, because Spanish Bay will reopen, and because understanding what came before is part of understanding what comes next. Robert Trent Jones Jr., Tom Watson, and Sandy Tatum designed it in 1987 as an intentional departure from the tree-lined parkland courses that dominated American architecture at the time.

The brief was to build a links course on the Pacific Coast and the result moved through restored sand dunes and coastal grasses with the open, wind-exposed character that Americans associate with Scotland and Ireland. At 6,821 yards with a slope of 142, it played as the most accessible of the three Pebble Beach Company courses, demanding creativity and ground-game imagination over raw power. Opening holes ran along the coastline with the Pacific in view from most tees. Turf was firmer and faster than parkland conditioning, encouraging the bump-and-run approaches links golf rewards. Watson's involvement showed in the strategic options around the greens. The back nine turned inland through dunes and ice plant before returning to the coast for a finishing stretch that caught the late afternoon light. The daily bagpiper at sunset, walking the grounds near the Inn at Spanish Bay as the sun dropped, became the course's signature tradition.

When Hanse's work is done, Spanish Bay may emerge as the most architecturally sophisticated of the three Pebble Beach Company courses. The bagpiper, presumably, will return.