By J.I.B. Jones
DEL MONTE No. 2. golf course at Pebble Beach
“Undoubtedly the golfer on his first visit to Pebble Beach has a delightful surprise in store, for he will find an all-grass links, tees, fairways, and greens.“ (R.H. Hay Chapman, April, 1918)
The story of the Hotel Del Monte No. 2 golf course at Pebble Beach has been smudged into propaganda, which is not likely to change, especially in 2019, with the onslaught of publicity for Pebble Beach’s “100th anniversary,” and the holding of the U.S.G.A.’s Open Golf Championship in celebration thereof.
The truth is, the Hotel Del Monte was the grandest resort in California history, and the center of California golf competition since the Del Monte Cup in 1899. The Pacific Coast Golf Association was founded at Del Monte in 1901, and the California Golf Association in 1911, by which time the all-grass Del Monte No. 1 golf course had become overly congested with golfers.
After taking advice from numerous golf experts, who were unanimous in their opinion, plans were announced on December 26, 1915, by Hotel Del Monte manager Carl Stanley for building a Scottish golf links on the sand dunes at Moss Beach early in the New Year. New manager Stanley was an ardent golfer known for developing the Hotel Virginia and the Virginia Country Club at Long Beach. His son Ashton Stanley was California’s first Junior golf champion in 1919.
As fate would have it, over New Years 1915-16, Del Monte property company manager, and ardent polo player, Sam Morse arrived to look over development plans for his Del Monte Unit. Strangely, Morse soon sent a telegram to the Universal Film Company at Universal City, Los Angeles, offering 20,000 acres of the Monterey peninsula to Hollywood as a movie set. This, thankfully, never happened!
After consulting with Carl Stanley and Del Monte golf manager Jack Neville, Morse shelved plans to spend $250,000 on the golf links at Moss Beach and decided that Pebble Beach was a much better and far more affordable location, as it already had a club house, the Hotel’s electric bus service, and Jack Neville’s real estate office, which needed a lot of help!
Aside from being the manager of Del Monte’s golf division and the Pebble Beach subdivision, Jack Neville was also the secretary of the California Golf Association, and publisher of their organ, Pacific Golf & Motor magazine, as well as a legendary multiple championship winning amateur golfer, and coincidently, chairman of the Del Monte Golf and Country Club green committee along with amateur champion Douglas Grant and club president, and California golf legend, Charles Maud.
In January 1916, Stanley and Neville hired professional golfers James Donaldson (Scotland), Wilfrid Reid (England), and Walter Fovargue (U.S.A.), to remodel the Del Monte No. 1 golf course for the Western Amateur Championship in July. In February, Donaldson and Reid began laying out holes at Pebble Beach, and by March 1917, Neville and Grant had chosen the final layout from six different plans, and the new Del Monte No. 2 golf course at Pebble Beach was born.
Jack Neville was indeed the true “architect” of the Pebble Beach golf course, as he planned and superintended every detail of its construction, and by February 1918, the all-grass course had the best tees and fairways in the State of California. It had cost the company $100,000, with $22,000 spent on underground piping for the 450 outlet irrigation system, which in 1918 was “the most up to date and efficient water system in the United States.“ (W.A. Buckner, Golfers Magazine 1921)
Unfortunately, on December 16, 1917, just eight weeks before the opening, fire destroyed the Pebble Beach Forest Lodge club house, which was a huge blow to the company. As soon as possible a new golf shop and lockers were constructed, and plans were drawn by Lewis Hobart (who also designed the old Lodge) for a new and much larger lodge, which wouldn’t open until 1919.
With the Pebble Beach golf course opening delayed until March 1918, Stanley and Neville had a chance to do more work on the greens, which had grown poorly over the wet winter. They hired America’s turf and grass expert, William Tucker, who rebuilt and re-seeded the troubled greens, but it was too late for them to be fully ready for opening day.
Del Monte No. 2 at Pebble Beach (Pebble Beach Golf Links) opened for play on March, 30, 1918. The new golf course was 6,588 yards, par 74, from the championship tees, and 6,188 yards from the alternate tees. It is interesting to note that the original eighteenth hole was a 575 yard, par 5, which must have been altered by the construction of the new lodge, which was built on the south side of 17-mile drive (Cypress), across the road from the old lodge.
“Natural Hazards abound and the ocean hazards, while not difficult, will be real mental hazards for all the challengers of ‘Mr Par’. Whether the second rater or dub golfer will be able to get around the course in respectable figures without the loss of half a dozen balls is something that can only be answered when conditions are more normal.” (“Bobs” – San Francisco Chronicle, March 31, 1918)
The first golf tournament was a Four Ball “foursomes” match with teams of amateurs against professionals and was played on the following day (March 31).
In the feature match of the Four Ball, Jack Neville teamed with Fred Reilly and beat professionals Mike Brady & Tom McQuarrie, 4 and 3.
Neville and Reilly also had the low best ball score of 71.
On April 1st, 1918, the Hotel Del Monte held an Open tournament over thirty-six holes, medal play, for amateurs and professionals. Many amateurs chose not to lose any more golf balls and joined the gallery. Bets were laid that no player would beat 160 for two rounds from the championship tees. Instead they saw the hottest golfer in America, Mike Brady of Boston and Brentwood Country Club, Los Angeles, play like a machine and score 79-75, for 154, winning over runner-up and Pebble Beach professional Harold Sampson by thirteen strokes! Low amateur was a tie for third place between State amateur champions Jack Neville and Dr. Fredericks on 168. Other than Brady’s blistering golf, course knowledge was a big factor in the low scoring.
Other professional competitors included Tom Hughes, John Black, Tom McQuarrie, Harold Clark, Bob Clark, Peter Hay, George Turnbull (new Del Monte No. 1 pro), and amateurs Arthur Vincent and Fred Reilly.
“Few people as yet realize that one of America’s best golf courses has been built at Pebble Beach.” (R.H. Hay Chapman, August 1918)
Harold Sampson scored a course record 70, in July, 1918, the same month that alcohol was banned at the Hotel Del Monte, at Pebble Beach, and over the rest of the Monterey Peninsula until the War ended, which was another huge blow to the Del Monte company’s business. In September, Sampson left his shop to take over from Walter Fovargue in San Francisco. He didn’t return until 1919, when the new Del Monte Lodge was opened on Washington’s Birthday.
Jack Neville joined the United States army at Camp Lewis in September 1918, as World War I took over everyone’s lives
To be continued…
© 2019 J.I.B. Jones/GolfHistoricalSociety – All rights reserved.
John-
Absolutely wonderful, as usual. We need more production from you so stop playing music and get to work!
Great piece, keep it coming.
Ed Holmes
Bless you. You are right! At least Goiff still has some mystery left in it, as compared to todays music!
John,
Saved this article to read just before the US Open begins. As always your insight and thourough research makes for great reading. I have played all of the penninsula courses, now really looking forward to this years Championship. Thanks for doing what you do
John
Thanks John! BTW, Moss Beach became Spanish Bay after the 40 foot high sand dunes were harvested to make coloured glass for Tiffany and others. Expanding the sand mine must have been on Sam Morse’s mind, rather than creating a real Scottish links, when he took over the “Del Monte unit” in 1916.
I was looking for information about the use of Del Monte Lodge by the U.S. Navy in World War II, because my (late) husband spent time there in 1945 or 1946 for radar training. They were first stationed at Mare Island. He was a young lad from Wisconsin, who enlisted while he was a senior in high school. Because of this, I was hoping to see some information about that part of Del Monte Lodge’s history. Perhaps you could suggest another source that I should explore?
Thank you,
Marilyn Fluegel, wife of Keith Edward Fluegel (7/4/27 – 6/29/2015)
Although I have not researched the Hotel Del Monte during or after World War II, the Dudley Knox Library at the Naval Post Graduate School has an excellent page here – https://library.nps.edu/hotel-del-monte – which I hope you will find useful.
I have a 9 piece set of golf clubs stamped made for Howard sampson with the letters wcd stamped on them I know they are his golf clubs can anyone tell me what something like these would cost infact he could be holding one of the in the picture on this site
Could you send a photo to fore@golfhistoricalsociety.org
Is it Harold or Howard Sampson?
Its harold Sampson. These cluds are the only clubs he ever owned. And made Especially for him as it is stamped made Especially for haorld Sampson they were made in Burlingame ca. He uses these same cluds in the illustrations in his book. When ever there is a picture of him and one of his clubs it one of these clubs. There really amazing.
Hello, I have a collection of books that belonged to R H Hay Chapman. I just started to Google him to get info on him and his comments on Pebble Beach came up. Who was he?
Dena Schwarte, Lake Tahoe
Please email me at fore@golfhistoricalsociety.org