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Pebble Beach Road Races

Auto races in the United StatesHistory of Monterey County, CaliforniaSports in Monterey County, California

The "Del Monte Trophy" was held on the twisty, leafy, and very narrow town roads in Pebble Beach, California from 1950 through 1956. The races were managed under the auspices of the SCCA (Sports Car Club of America), as were most races from that day to this. The route was originally 1.8 miles (2.9 km) long, but was lengthened from 1951 onwards to 2.1 miles (3.4 km). The search for an appropriate route for the race began at the famous 17 Mile Drive but that later proved unsuitable. After evaluating several alternatives, a collection of roads near the Lodge at Pebble Beach was chosen, partly for its location and partly because it was short enough and tight enough that it wouldn't overtax some of the small cars of the day. Not all of the "track" was paved; the original 1950 route consisted of both paved two-lane roads and sections of dirt or loose gravel. Races started along Portola Road near the present-day equestrian center. Cars then turned right onto Sombria Lane, then right again onto Drake Road. In 1950, drivers would turn right once again onto Forest Lake Road; in 1951 and later years they turned left onto Alvarado Lane (now Stevenson Drive), then sharp right onto Forest Lake. The final corner was a sharp right-hander at Ondulado back onto Portola and past the start/finish line. Although the course was always tight and twisty with tall Cypress trees hemming in the track on either side, accidents were scarce and relatively uneventful. The exception came in 1956 when Ernie McAfee (no relation to fellow racer Jack McAfee) fatally slammed his Ferrari into a tree. This spelled the end of the popular Pebble Beach Road Races, although it was the genesis of Laguna Seca Raceway, its modern-day successor. Here is an aerial view of the location. Google map The track appears as a lopsided T-shape tilted by about 45 degrees, between the Cypress Point Club (to the north) and the Peter Hay golf course (to the south). The present-day equestrian center occupies some of the space on the infield by the old start/finish line. The famous Pebble Beach Golf Links are just a stone's throw to the southeast. The Pebble Beach Road Race course has been recreated in a computer game. Grand Prix Legends allows players to download user-created tracks, and a simulation of the Pebble Beach course is available here. For the future, it looks as though the Pebble Beach Road Race course will soon be obliterated. One or two of the 1950s-era roads have already been developed or rerouted, and the corporation that owns and manages Pebble Beach is planning a major overhaul of the area that includes demolishing many of the roads that served as part of the race course. Visitors can drive most (but not all) of the old race course today. Simply pay the standard $10.75US entrance fee and follow your map.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Pebble Beach Road Races (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Pebble Beach Road Races
Portola Road,

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N 36.5744 ° E -121.9546 °
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PebbleBeach Equestrian Center

Portola Road
93953
California, United States
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Pebble Beach Golf Links
Pebble Beach Golf Links

Pebble Beach Golf Links is a public golf course on the west coast of the United States, located in Pebble Beach, California. Regarded by Travel and Leisure blog as one of the most beautiful courses in the world, it hugs the rugged coastline and has wide open views of Carmel Bay, opening to the Pacific Ocean on the south side of the Monterey Peninsula. In 2001, it became the first public course to be selected as the No. 1 Golf Course in America by Golf Digest. Greens fees are among the highest in the world, at $525 (plus a $40 cart fee or a $92.50 caddie fee for non-resort guests) per round in 2018. Four of the courses in the coastal community of Pebble Beach, including Pebble Beach Golf Links, belong to the Pebble Beach Company, which also operates three hotels and a spa at the resort. The other courses are The Links at Spanish Bay, Spyglass Hill Golf Course, and Del Monte Golf Course. The PGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions play annual events at Pebble Beach, AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the First Tee Open. It has hosted seven men's major championships: six U.S. Opens and a PGA Championship. It also hosted the 1988 Nabisco Championship, now known as the Tour Championship, the season-ending event on the PGA Tour. It is hosting the first women's major championship, the 2023 U.S. Women's Open on July 6, 2023. World-renowned, the course is included in many golf video games, such as the Links series and the PGA Tour series.

2000 U.S. Open (golf)

The 2000 United States Open Championship was the 100th U.S. Open Championship, held June 15–18 at Pebble Beach Golf Links in Pebble Beach, California. Tiger Woods won his first U.S. Open by a record-setting fifteen strokes over runners-up Ernie Els and Miguel Ángel Jiménez – it remains the most dominating performance and victory in any major championship. As the United States Golf Association wanted to begin the millennium with a memorable tournament, Pebble Beach was moved up two years in the rotation. Notable golfers going into the tournament at large included Jack Nicklaus, playing in his final U.S. Open; Vijay Singh, the year's Masters winner; Ernie Els; and David Duval. Defending champion Payne Stewart had died in an aviation accident on October 25 the previous year at the age of 42. His death was commemorated many times throughout the week, starting with a ceremony on the eve of the tournament at the 18th hole. Speakers included Stewart's widow Tracey and his good friend Paul Azinger, while attendees included Phil Mickelson, Davis Love III, David Duval, Tom Lehman, Lee Janzen, Sergio García and Stewart's caddy Mike Hicks, and it concluded with shots being hit into Stillwater Cove in a golf version of a 21-gun salute. García also wore Stewart's trademark navy plus fours in Stewart's honor in the first round. Nicklaus was asked to take Stewart's spot in the traditional opening grouping of the prior year's Open Championship (British Open) winner (Paul Lawrie), U.S. Amateur winner (David Gossett), and U.S. Open winner, and he asked for a moment of silence in Stewart's memory before his opening tee shot.Aside from being the last U.S. Open appearance for Nicklaus, playing in his 44th consecutive U.S. Open, it was also the last appearance for two-time winner Curtis Strange.

2019 U.S. Open (golf)

The 2019 United States Open Championship was the 119th U.S. Open, played from June 13–16 at Pebble Beach Golf Links in Pebble Beach, California. It was the seventh major and sixth U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, which last hosted U.S. Opens in 2000 and 2010, won by Tiger Woods and Graeme McDowell, respectively.Gary Woodland won his first major title by three strokes over world number one Brooks Koepka. Ranked 25th coming into the tournament, and having never finished in the top 20 in the U.S. Open previously, he was generally seen as a surprise victor. Koepka had won four of the last nine majors, and was attempting to become the first player to win three straight U.S. Opens since 1905.Woodland shot 68 in the first round, and 65 in the second, to lead by two strokes after 36 holes. He shot 69 in the third round, to have a single-stroke lead over Justin Rose going into the final day. After shooting a 69 in the final round, he converted a 54-hole lead into a victory for the first time in eight attempts in stroke-play events. His 72-hole winning score, a 13-under-par 271, was the lowest relative to par since 2011 and included a stretch of 34 holes without a bogey. Woodland led the field in scrambling, having begun the week ranked 169th in that category.The previous winner of the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, Graeme McDowell, finished tied for 16th with a 3-under-par 281. Tiger Woods was tied 58th after the first round, and began his final round by bogeying four of his first six holes, but rallied on the back nine to finish tied for 21st with a 2-under-par 282. Justin Rose entered the final round one shot back of Woodland but made three bogeys on his final seven holes to finish tied for 3rd. On his 49th birthday, six-time U.S. Open runner-up, Phil Mickelson finished with a 4-over-par 288, having won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am earlier in the year at Pebble Beach.79 players made the cut, including four amateurs. The leading amateur was Norwegian Viktor Hovland, who had qualified by winning the 2018 U.S. Amateur, which was also held at Pebble Beach. He finished tied for 12th at 4-under-par, to become first low amateur at the Masters and U.S. Open in the same season since Matt Kuchar in 1998.The U.S. Open traditionally has a winning score around par, but a joint record 31 players finished under par for the tournament. This was partly attributed by the media to the soft conditions resulting from a marine layer, and relatively low wind speeds for a links-style course.

1972 U.S. Open (golf)

The 1972 U.S. Open was the 72nd U.S. Open, held June 15–18 at Pebble Beach Golf Links in Pebble Beach, California. Jack Nicklaus, age 32, captured his third U.S. Open title, three strokes ahead of runner-up Bruce Crampton. This was the first of six major championships held to date at Pebble Beach: five U.S. Opens and the PGA Championship in 1977. Scoring conditions during the final round were extremely difficult; the average was 78.8, the highest in post-war U.S. Open history. Nicklaus' 290 (+2) was the second-highest winning score during that span. It was Nicklaus' eleventh career major championship as a professional, tying the record of Walter Hagen. When combined with his two U.S. Amateur wins, it was his thirteenth major, equaling Bobby Jones for most all-time. Defending champion Lee Trevino had been hospitalized in Texas for several days for bronchitis and pneumonia; he was released on Tuesday, two days before the first round, and tied for fourth.It was the second consecutive major title for Nicklaus, who won the Masters in April. Previous winners of the first two majors of the year were Craig Wood (1941), Ben Hogan (1951, 1953), and Arnold Palmer (1960); later champions of both were Tiger Woods (2002) and Jordan Spieth (2015). In addition, Nicklaus held the PGA Championship title from February 1971; four weeks later, he was the runner-up by a single stroke at the Open Championship at Muirfield, Scotland. Nicklaus won seven additional majors, the last at the Masters fourteen years later in 1986 at age 46.

1992 U.S. Open (golf)

The 1992 U.S. Open was the 92nd U.S. Open, held June 18–21 at Pebble Beach Golf Links in Pebble Beach, California. Tom Kite, long considered one of the best players to never win a major, finally broke through with a U.S. Open title, two strokes ahead of runner-up Jeff Sluman. Gil Morgan was the story of the opening two rounds. He took the first-round lead with a 66, then recorded a second-round 69 for the 36-hole lead. After a birdie at the 3rd hole of the third round, Morgan was at 10-under, becoming the first in U.S. Open history to reach double-digits under-par. He got as low as 12-under after a birdie at the 7th, but then collapsed. He made three double-bogeys the rest of the round, but still held the lead by one over Kite, Ian Woosnam, and Mark Brooks. Morgan finally fell out of the lead after a double-bogey at the 6th in the final round. He eventually finished in 13th place, playing his final 29 holes in 17-over par. As Morgan was falling, Kite played steady golf, recording two birdies at 12 and 14 to offset bogeys at 16 and 17. He finished with an even-par 72 and a 3-under total of 285 for a two-stroke win over Jeff Sluman.Windy conditions combined with lightning-fast greens made scoring conditions in the final round extremely difficult. Morgan shot an 81, Woosnam, one back at the start of the round, shot 79, Brooks, also one back, shot 84, and Nick Faldo, two back at the start, carded a 77. Colin Montgomerie shot 70 for the joint lowest score of the round and jumped over 25 players to finish in 3rd place. The final-round scoring average was 77.3, the third-highest in post-World War II U.S. Open history.Greg Norman, who was ranked #7 in the world, did not qualify.

1977 PGA Championship

The 1977 PGA Championship was the 59th PGA Championship, played August 11–14 at Pebble Beach Golf Links in Pebble Beach, California. Lanny Wadkins, 27, won his only major championship in a sudden-death playoff over Gene Littler. It was the first playoff at the PGA Championship in ten years and was the first-ever sudden-death playoff in a stroke-play major championship. The last was 36 years earlier at the 1941 PGA Championship, when the 36-hole final match went to two extra holes. Prior to the start of the championship, the irons of several top players were deemed to have non-conforming groove dimensions, most notably those of Tom Watson. He had won the Masters and British Open earlier that year, and was attempting to become the first to win three majors in the same year since Ben Hogan in 1953. Others with non-conforming irons included major winners Raymond Floyd, Hale Irwin, Gary Player, and Tom Weiskopf. The rule limiting groove width to .035 inches (0.89 mm) had been around for decades. Watson shot an opening round of 68 (−4) with an old set of borrowed irons, and finished at 286 (−2), four strokes back in a tie for sixth. He won eight majors but never a PGA Championship; his only win in the U.S. Open came here at Pebble Beach in 1982. Four-time champion Jack Nicklaus finished one stroke out of the playoff at 283 (−5). He won the previous major at this course, the U.S. Open in 1972, and was runner-up to Watson at the next in 1982. This was the 13th consecutive professional major won by American-born players. The streak began with Lee Trevino's victory at the 1974 PGA Championship and continued as the Americans swept the majors in 1975, 1976, and the previous majors in 1977. This remains the second longest major-winning streak for Americans; the longest was in the 1940s and ended with Lew Worsham's win at the 1947 U.S. Open. This was the second major championship at Pebble Beach, which had hosted the U.S. Open in 1972. The U.S. Open returned in 1982, 1992, 2000, 2010, and 2019. It was only the second PGA Championship in California and the first as a stroke-play competition; the previous was in December 1929 in Los Angeles at Hillcrest. The 1962 event was originally awarded to Brentwood in L.A., but was moved to Philadelphia at Aronimink.The fairways at Pebble Beach were extremely dry, due to an extended drought, in its third year in northern California.