America has around 16,000 golf courses, contributing about 43% of all golf courses in the world. With such a dominant share on the global stage, choosing the absolute best isn’t easy, but Cypress Point definitely makes the cut.

Cypress Point Club is located at the base of the Santa Lucia Mountains, at the outer edge of the Monterey Peninsula. The course occupies coastal land that includes areas of elevated ground.

How Cypress Point turned into reality

Just north of Pebble Beach, on a cape first known as Cabo de Nieve and later renamed Cypress Point in 1774, Sam Morse and Marion Hollins initiated the development of a private golf club to strengthen Pebble Beach as a golf center.

Marion Hollins contributed in two main ways to the planning and formation of the Cypress Point Club golf course.

First, she appointed Alister MacKenzie to take over the project after the death of the original architect, Seth Raynor, who had completed only a preliminary routing of the course. 

Second, while standing at the location that is now the sixteenth tee, she hit a shot to the area that later became the green, and on that basis, the sixteenth hole was designated as a par three.

Cypress Point Club grew in popularity

The Cypress Point Club golf course opened for play in 1929. Its visibility increased when Bobby Jones, after losing in the first round of the 1929 U.S. Amateur at Pebble Beach, came to Cypress Point and played an exhibition round.

This event contributed to Alister MacKenzie being selected to design the Augusta National golf course, and it brought increased attention to the site and to the Cypress Point golf course.

The Iconic 16th Hole of Cypress Point Club

The sixteenth hole is recognized as one of the most well-known par-three holes in the game. It is a 231-yard hole that requires a forced carry of more than 200 yards across the Pacific Ocean to reach the green. 

Some critics classify it as a potential weakness because players who cannot carry that distance may be disproportionately penalized, especially in windy conditions at Monterey. 

To address this, Alister MacKenzie included a fairway to the left of the green so that players may lay up and play the hole in an additional stroke.

What is your opinion? Do you think there are golf courses that make the cut above Cypress Point?

Written by

Aditi Singh

Edited by

Joyita Das