Best Golf Courses on the Monterey Peninsula in 2026

Pebble Beach Golf Links® needs no introduction — designed by Jack Neville and Douglas Grant in 1919, it remains the most recognized golf course in the country. Spyglass Hill Golf Course®, a Robert Trent Jones Sr. design, is widely regarded as the toughest of the Pebble Beach Resorts® courses, with a 75.4 rating and 145 slope from the championship tees. Bayonet, ranked No. 35 nationally by Golf Digest among toughest public courses, rounds out the list for groups chasing a genuine championship test.

Poppy Hills Golf Course sits in the same Del Monte Forest as the Pebble Beach Resorts® courses, but is owned by the Northern California Golf Association and doesn't carry the resort's gate fee. Pacific Grove Golf Links offers genuine ocean-adjacent holes at municipal pricing — among the most accessible green fees on the peninsula. Laguna Seca Golf Ranch is a reliable, budget-friendly daily-fee round close to downtown Monterey.

Carmel Valley Ranch — the only Pete Dye design in Northern California — and Quail Lodge & Golf Club both sit inland in Carmel Valley's warmer microclimate, typically clearing of fog earlier than the coast. Both are golf-anchor resorts, meaning the course is on-site at the hotel.

Pasatiempo Golf Course, in nearby Santa Cruz, was designed by Alister MacKenzie in 1929 — he considered it his finest work and lived alongside the 6th fairway until his death in 1934. A 2024 restoration returned the course closely to its original design.