My Four Favorite Photos of Early Pebble Beach

With the U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach this week, we can be sure of one thing: some people on Twitter and Instagram (and maybe Bluesky?) will post late-1920s photos of the famous par-3 seventh hole. I get why. They’re striking images, highlighting the audacious, if overenthusiastic, bunker work that Chandler Egan and Robert Hunter carried out in advance of the 1929 U.S. Amateur. Reliable magnets for likes and retweets.

Photo credit: Julian P. Graham

Research credit: Simon Haines

But there are other photos from Pebble’s early days that I find equally fascinating and revealing. Here are four:

Nos. 1 and 2, circa 1929

Photo credit: Julian P. Graham

In their pre-U.S. Amateur project, Egan and Hunter not only reshaped every green complex at Pebble Beach but also redesigned the first and second holes, turning the former into a sharp dogleg right and stretching the latter into a then-formidable par 5. I love this view of the first green with the second fairway in the background because it shows a subtler side of Egan and Hunter’s renovation. The bunkers are lacy-edged but not extravagant, and the green is bigger and more intricately contoured than today’s version. Also, how lovely is that mowing line leading into the green-side bunker on the left?

Today's shrunken green and wasp-waisted approach on No. 1 at Pebble Beach

No. 6, circa 1929

Photo credit: Julian P. Graham

Four things stand out here: the tee-side trees, since lost; the pair of large, rugged Egan/Hunter bunkers at the top of the hill, also lost; the grand sweep of the wide fairway, which matches the scale of the land; the fact that Julian P. Graham’s pipe-puffing model appears to be about to hit into the group in front of him. Slow play at Pebble Beach was no more bearable in the late 1920s than it is now!

No. 7, early 1920s

Source: Pebble Beach Co.

In 1919, Pebble Beach’s original architects, Jack Neville and Douglas Grant, established the figure-eight routing that still forms the basis of the course’s greatness. However, many critical details of the design—green shapes and contouring, bunker locations and style—emerged over time. Just look at the original seventh green. Massive! Today, not so much. Perhaps there’s a happy medium.

No. 13, late 1920s

Photo credit: Julian P. Graham

In 1926, a year before construction at Cypress Point started, Pebble Beach hired Alister MacKenzie to redo the eighth and 13th greens. I love his work on 13, likely executed by Robert Hunter. The naturalized bunkering might be the earliest example of MacKenzie and Hunter’s California aesthetic (Meadow Club and Cypress Point both opened in 1928), and the little volcano trap in the back is a delightful touch. As it stands now, No. 13 is my favorite inland hole at Pebble, but it could be even better.

What are your favorite vintage golf-course photos, whether from Pebble Beach or elsewhere? Toss ’em in the comments below.