Spyglass hill golf course, one of the pebble beach company's four prominent 18-hole courses, has hosted the pga tour's at & t pebble beach national pro-am since 1967, the year it was first unveiled. It was designed by robert trent jones snr and is well-known as a challenging course, with at least one critic describing it as one of the best courses never to host a major.

It was initially known as pebble beach pines golf club, but samuel morse, the founder of the pebble beach company, renamed it shortly after it opened, and he named all of the holes on the course after characters and locations from robert louis stevenson's 1883 novel treasure island, where he spent time in the monterey area before the book was written.

Spyglass hill, nestled between cypress point and monterey peninsula country club, is widely recognized as a more difficult challenge than its more well-known neighbors, bearing more than a passing resemblance to a couple of other classic world-class american courses, as suggested by its illustrious layout.

âĢľthe first five holes, which start deep in the woods and inevitably head to the sea, require target golf through sandy wastes, intentionally reminiscent of pine valley, except with water in the backdrop and buffeted by ocean winds,âĢĿ said robert trent jones snr. âĢľthe remainder of the route, which is intentionally reminiscent of augusta national, runs through tall monterey pines and cypress in the del monte forest.âĢĿ