Spanish Bay's Redeisng Is Being Built Around an Old Promise to the Dunes

The bulldozers working at The Links at Spanish Bay since the middle of March this year are reshaping the golf course, but the rules they work under were written for a sand quarry. The course opened on old mining ground, and the permit approvals behind it required the dunes to be rehabilitated. The 1985 Coastal Commission permit required a public boardwalk along the coast. Those obligations still carry the most weight and decide how far the new holes can spread, how many trees come down, what needs to go back in, how much turf disappears, and where the shoreline path ends up. Seen from 17-Mile Drive, the project is a Gil Hanse golf course taking shape. In the permit file, it is a dune restoration that has a golf course running through it.

A Course Laid Over a Sand Plant

Spanish Bay has always had to walk a delicate line environmentally. In the 1930s, the Pebble Beach Company's sand plant there was the company's only profitable enterprise, but a golf course had been envisioned on the site since the 1970s. When Robert Trent Jones Jr., former USGA President Sandy Tatum and Tom Watson designed it, the permit approvals required extensive rehabilitation of the dunes and native plants, along with protection of whatever native habitat the sand plant had left untouched.

According to the Coastal Commission, the 1985 approval called for a trail from the resort through the golf course. That trail connected to a new half-mile+ long lateral boardwalk-style section of coastal trail along the coast between the golf course and the beach. When Pebble Beach Company returned for an amendment, the boardwalk and the course were bundled into a single request. Under the original permit they had always been one project, so the amendment treated them the same way.

Everything Moves, Inside the Same Lines

The redesign is far more extensive than just a cosmetic refresh. Pebble Beach Company's plan includes these changes:

• Greens about 40% larger, all resurfaced
• Fairways widened about 30%, with bunkers moved
• Forward tees about 500 yards shorter, at 4,705 total
• Championship tees about 375 yards longer, at 7,115 total
• Par dropping from 72 to 71
• Rough around the greens replaced with low-cut turf
• A redesigned cart path system

The 13th and 14th holes were changed the most. The ground that once held a par-five heading back toward the ocean now holds two holes, a straightaway par-four aimed at the same view and an all-new par-three 14th. None of this goes past the old boundary. The commission's file describes the reconfiguration as regrading and reshaping all generally within the area of existing play and turf coverage. It also says the golf work was designed to avoid any areas of native sensitive species or habitats.

John Sawin, Pebble Beach's senior vice president of golf stated that the old 9th green fell off on all sides and sat in front of a bathroom, a road and private residences. Gil Hanse built it into a bowl at the base of a sand dune that was already there, but has been embellished to obscure the bathrooms and the road. Because the footprint stayed fixed, the 9th green dilemma was solved by working with an existing dune rather than relocating it.

Trees and Turf Come Out by Ratio

The amendment also spells out the required tree count. Reshaping the course requires removing 27 planted Monterey pines. Pines under 24 inches in diameter at breast height are replaced 2:1, and larger ones are replaced at 3:1, for 63 new trees in total. The replacements are a mix of Monterey pines, coast live oaks and Monterey cypresses planted at appropriate locations on the Spanish Bay property.

Turf follows the same logic. When the new course opens, it will have 12% less irrigated turf and three more acres of environmental habitat. One detail that may surprise people who see the course as a heavy water user - Spanish Bay already irrigates with non-potable recycled wastewater from the Carmel Area Wastewater District. The commission still counts the reduction as a gain, because using less recycled water here frees some of it for other places on a Peninsula where water supply is limited.

Construction also could not begin until the dune work had its own plan. The special condition added to the permit required a final Habitat Mitigation and Monitoring Plan, prepared by a qualified restoration ecologist and approved in writing by the commission's Executive Director prior to construction. It covers restoration wherever damaged boardwalk is removed, as well as the course areas shown as native sandy transition/dunescape in the plans, and has to set out methods, timing, monitoring, success criteria and remedies, with the goal of a high-functioning, self-sustaining state.

The Boardwalk Moves Back from the Waves

The boardwalk is the part of Spanish Bay most people know without ever playing a round. It runs through the foredunes of North and South Moss Beach, from the Moss Beach parking lot to Sunset Drive. The trail provides accessibility for a broad range of users due to its hard plank surfacing when compared to other portions of the coastal trail in the area where sandy soils make informal trails difficult for young children, older adults and people with disabilities.

The walkway was set well back from the shoreline when it was built. The 2022–23 storms destroyed large parts of the downcoast section, and the Pebble Beach Company chose to rebuild those sections in-kind, and slightly inland rather than defend the old alignment. They needed the California Coastal Commission to approve it, and the commission called this a "relocation inland/managed retreat" in place of hard armoring as an important adaptation and resilience strategy. Because the path moves back from the waves, there is no requirement for a seawall to be built in front of it.

What You Can See from 17-Mile Drive this Fall

Holes 7 through 9 sit along 17-Mile Drive, are the heart of the golf course, and where the work started. They are the farthest holes from the Inn and the location of the irrigation pump station. Last July they were fully grassed, with fairways sodded and tees and greens seeded. Work then moved to the back nine where the greens are taking shape on 10 through 12, and will be followed by grassing across 12 through 14. 

The Grand Re-Opening!

The redesigned course is scheduled to open to the public April 17, 2027. The USGA 127th U.S. Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links is scheduled for June 17–20, 2027 for the championship's seventh visit there. Spanish Bay will have about two months of public play before the championship arrives.

Properties near Spanish Bay and Moss Beach carry a lot of the same history as the course, including the original dune and boardwalk obligations and the newer restoration plans. If you own near this stretch of 17-Mile Drive and want to understand how the redesign affects your property's setting, book an appointment and we can walk you through it in a private conversation. Fore!