MACKENZIE
West Cliff Drive, Santa Cruz

California 100 · a trip

The MacKenzie weekend

Santa Cruz to the Monterey Peninsula without the Pebble bill

2 nights · fly SJC · 50m to the first tee · 2h 00m from SF by car · green fees $650–773 a head

West Cliff Drive, Santa Cruz · Rhododendrites · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
directions ↗

Start where the good doctor lived. Pasatiempo was MacKenzie's home course — his house sat on the sixth fairway — and the 2024 restoration put his greens back the way he drew them, which means three-putts that make you laugh instead of swear. It is the one expensive round of the weekend. Then the drive everyone forgets is beautiful: Highway 1 along the back of Monterey Bay, strawberry fields and the Moss Landing stacks, to Seaside, where Bayonet is the old Fort Ord army course — tight, tree-lined, mean off the tee, the hardest round of the three and a fraction of what the peninsula courses charge. Sunday closes at Pacific Grove, the poor man's Pebble: the front nine is a warm-up through the neighbourhood, and then the back nine walks out into the dunes beside Point Pinos lighthouse with the Pacific on three sides for $66. Three courses, three architects' eras, and the whole thing costs less than one tee time next door.

SJC#2#16#57
SJC ✈ then #2 → #16 → #57 · the dashed line is the order, not the roadmap National Geographic, Esri, Garmin, HERE, UNEP-WCMC, USGS, NASA, ESA, METI, NRCAN, GEBCO, NOAA

the courses

  1. #2PasatiempoSanta Cruz · $465–515 · B value · 1h 35m from SF · 25 mi from SJCto play
  2. #16BayonetSeaside · $119–169 · B+ value · 1h 55m from SF · 28 mi from #2to play
  3. #57Pacific Grove Golf LinksPacific Grove · $66–89 · A+ value · 2h 00m from SF · 6 mi from #16to play
Pasatiempo from above · Esri, Maxar, Earthstar Geographics

#2 Pasatiempo

Bayonet from above · Esri, Maxar, Earthstar Geographics

#16 Bayonet

Pacific Grove's back nine runs to Point Pinos lighthouse
Pacific Grove's back nine runs to Point Pinos lighthouseDennis G. Jarvis · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

#57 Pacific Grove Golf Links

the logistics

airport
SJC San José, 50m — over Highway 17 to Santa Cruz; the peninsula half is 10 minutes from Monterey Regional (MRY) if anyone flies in late
sleep
Friday night in Santa Cruz, Saturday night in Pacific Grove
when
any month; summer mornings are fogged in on the coast, which is half the charm. Pasatiempo closes to aerate twice a year — check before you book.
  1. Fri · drive down after work, tacos on Seabright, a walk on West Cliff, early night
  2. Sat · Pasatiempo in the morning — walk it; the greens are the whole point — then Highway 1 south past Moss Landing to Seaside, dinner on Cannery Row
  3. Sun · Bayonet early, Pacific Grove's back nine in the late afternoon light, 17-Mile Drive on the way out if the gate is still open