Monterey Peninsula

Pebble Beach Golf Links sits at the top of most American golfers' lifetime list and has held that position for the better part of a century. Nine holes run along the Pacific coastline on a stretch of California that looks the way people who have never visited California imagine the entire state looking. Six U.S. Opens have been played there. The green fee is $695, and no one who has paid it considers the conversation about value to be straightforward.

But Pebble Beach the course exists within Pebble Beach the destination, and the destination is the Monterey Peninsula: a 20-mile span of rocky Pacific coastline, Monterey cypress groves, marine fog, and seven additional courses you can put on the same itinerary. They range from Spyglass Hill, one of the most demanding layouts in the country, to Pacific Grove Golf Links, a municipal course where green fees start at $53 and the back nine runs along the same ocean. The peninsula rewards planning and demands clear-eyed budgeting.