Monterey Peninsula Country Club
(Dunes), CA , USA
Green Keeper: Bob Zoller

The Dunes Course at MPCC has it all: a mix of inland and dunesland features
(sometimes both in the same hole as here at the 11th)...

...before getting to the rocky coastline at the 14th.

This website profiles nine Seth Raynor courses because his work leaves much to be admired. And yet, the Club Board at Monterey Peninsula Country Club made the right decision to modify their Raynor golf course rather than restore it. How can this be?

Several reasons. First, Raynor died in Florida at a relatively young age while the Dunes course was still under construction. Similar to what happened at Lookout Mountain, his design team led by Charles Banks was inundated with numerous projects at the time of Raynor's death, and were hard pressed to find the time to devote to so many projects.  

In this case, the local Robert Hunter was called in to finish the course and Hunter shared Alister MacKenzie's view (as expressed in a letter to Samuel Morse in January, 1932) that '...golf course construction is an artist's work and not an engineer's job.' Hunter does not appear to have been captivated by Raynor's style in general and certainly, the architectural styles of a Cypress Point  and a Valley Club of Montecito will never be confused with a Fishers Island  or a Camargo.

Indeed, in the preface to Hunter's The Links (which was published the same year that the Dunes course opened), Hunter praises the work of numerous architects including Colt, Abercromby, Macdonald, Travis, Ross, Emmett, Tillinghast and MacKenzie. Raynor's name is conspicuous in its absence, especially given Hunter's involvement at the time with the Dunes course.

As all of this relates to the course today, some Raynor fans, which are a tough group to please, may be a touch disappointed not to find more of the famous engineer's crisp lines and dramatic steep faced bunkering at the Dunes Course. However, many such features never existed to begin with, as Hunter preferred a more natural - and less engineered - finished product.

Importantly, it needs to be noted that the construction budget from Samuel Morse was limited and this manifested itself underneath the ground where the drainage work was inadequate for a course exposed to such torrential rains. When these famous rains pelt down on the Monterey-Carmel area, the more inland fairways in particular puddled and remained soft for days. Poor grass coverage was a result and more importantly, the desired fairway firmness was unachievable. Tee balls would actually bounce back toward the golfer.

Given its windy location, the ability to play the game close to the ground is crucial, so something needed to be done. In 1998, the Club Board decided to talk with several different architects about improving the drainage on the course. Firstly, they wanted to provide the infrastructure to carry away the large volume of surface water and secondly, to have a minimum grade of at least 1% throughout the course.

Rees Jones's plan of roughing up the flat, cupped fairways made the most sense to the Board and they proceeded with him.

An example of how Jones roughed up the flat fairways to improve drainage. Pictured is the 13th.

Though his work was brought on by the desire to improve specifically the drainage, Jones and the Board used this opportunity to improve upon the unfinished design of Seth Raynor, with the 14th hole being the most obvious example.

Originally constructed in 1926, the 14th was a half-hearted effort by Raynor's team and it highlighted their  limited budget. While the hole that existed for over 75 years was in between 17 Mile Drive and the Pacific Ocean, its location was its sole merit as the tee and the green were as non-descript as one could imagine for such a glorious setting. With more resources at his availability, Jones did what Raynor would have undoubtedly done if he had been on-site during construction: he moved both the green and the tee as far onto the coastline as possible. This one shotter is now a white knuckler and lives up to its awesome setting.

Some traditionalists will tell you that Raynor kept the tee and green well away from the Ocean due to agronomic concerns. However, the angle of the shoreline and the arrangement of this rocky point are such that the waves break well back from the green. No, the fact is that Raynor didn't maximize the hole's potential and to have faithfully restored it would have been nonsensical.

Jones did further work to showcase the natural beauty of the property, and it is this natural beauty that ultimately distinguishes this course from so many others. For instance, a dense grove of cypress trees and underbrush ran along the last 100 yards of the right hand side of the 12th fairway. Since removing such a jungle is both time consuming and costly, and since it didn't directly affect play, it had been left untouched for decades. Jones, equipped with more resources, cleared the underbrush, and thus opened up panaramic views down the coastline. At the same time, wind now plays an even bigger role on the approach shot. Thankfully, of course, with the improved fairway drainage and the resulting firmness, the golfer can beat Mr. Wind by playing the low running shot.

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