Pebble Beach Emperors new clothes ?

[mstuk]

I played at Pebble Beach last week and would like to ask a question of our American cousins. It cost $450 for a round and by the 6th hole we had to wait at the tee for the group in front to tee off , thereafter we waited a lot. Now I was playing with three nice American chaps I had not met before and asked then why they were prepared to tolerate this having paid $450 since it was clearly caused by too many groups being allowed on the course with an insufficient gap on the first tee . They just shrugged and seemed prepared to accept this , I have played most of the great championship courses in the UK and have never seen this situation , I did explain this to the proshop afterwards but they seemed to think it was strange that I should object , what are your thougts on this please.

Incidentally whilst I thought pebble was spectacular in its vistas I much preferred Spyglass. I also played the olympic in San fran which was great and I joined the saturday morning roll up at the Monteray Peninsular Country Club and had a fantastic time with a terriffic group of guys on an outstanding golf course.

[iacas]

I think that we did a whole week on Slow Play not too long ago, and I despise it as well.

[mstuk]

I think we are all agreed on that , I was more enquiring as to the rather lassez faire acceptance of this given the price . in the uk it would simply not be tolerated the hold up was caused by the course mangement rather than by the players I feel.

[mkoreiwo]

I certainly wouldn't be laissez faire over it! Frankly the $450 tag is a bit much for me. Even at our local public courses I am upset when the courses get backed up. I guess on the marquee courses here, people just want to be able to say they played them. But for me, it just doesn't wash. A round of golf should be enjoyable, not simply a prestige thing. I can't think of any other reason people would tolerate it...

[hurley9192]

unfortunately, most Americans tolerate waiting for anything...traffic, tickets for a sporting event, you name it...it's frustrating and really a pain in the butt. I assume you either have connections or paid the $728/night to stay at the Lodge for 2 nights just so you could get a tee time. IMO...Pebble is one of the more overrated courses for the price. I've played it, but don't have an inkling to play again unless I can get a tee time for free and it's an early round.

You are completely correct that it's not like this in the UK. I played Sunningdale a couple years ago and had 10 times the experience as I did with a place like Pebble.