You can find it photographed from every conceivable angle. Indeed, Pebble Beach Golf Links is a photographer’s paradise, awash in both spectacular scenery and history and enveloped by views of emerald turf alongside Pacific blues.
When GCM stopped by Pebble Beach in early May, photographer Sherman Chu turned his lens to the agronomic side of the experience, catching the following moments of director of golf course maintenance Chris Dalhamer, CGCS, and his crew at work just a few weeks out from the 2019 U.S. Open. (Rest assured, Chu managed to snap some requisite stunning course shots, too.)
Enjoy a tour of Pebble Beach that spotlights the work of the golf course maintenance professionals readying this revered tract of California coastline for the world stage.
2019 marks the 119th U.S. Open and the sixth time the championship has been contested at Pebble Beach.
Pebble Beach Golf Links is celebrating its centennial in 2019. The course officially opened Feb. 22, 1919. It has hosted the U.S. Open in five consecutive decades, in 1972 (the first time a public course hosted), 1982, 1992, 2000, 2010 and now 2019. It was also the site of the 1977 PGA Championship.
According to the Pebble Beach website, the venue is one of only six public courses to ever host a U.S. Open, and it is the only one that has done so more than three times.
The first greenkeepers at Pebble Beach were sheep. According to Pebble Beach’s website, “While their labor was cheap, their hoof prints were much worse than spike marks on greens. As a result, mutton and lamb chops soon became featured items on the menu at the newly opened Del Monte Lodge.”
Twenty-four-year GCSAA member Chris Dalhamer, CGCS, (above) is the director of golf course maintenance at Pebble Beach Golf Links. Dalhamer also oversees Spyglass Hill Golf Course, The Links at
Spanish Bay and Del Monte Golf Course, managing a staff of 86 for all four courses.
Pebble Beach is irrigated entirely with reclaimed water, and the course is a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary.
The greens at Pebble Beach are Poa annua, and the average green size is 3,500 square feet.
Director of golf course maintenance Chris Dalhamer, CGCS, (right) was named superintendent at Pebble Beach in 2005 and has been in his current role there since 2014. Dalhamer is a native of Pacific Grove, Calif.
Pebble Beach has 118 bunkers, 21 acres of fairway (Poa annua/ryegrass) and 65 acres of rough (ryegrass). Tees are Poa annua/ryegrass and average 2,000 square feet in size.
Pebble Beach will welcome the U.S. Women’s Open in 2023 and the U.S. Open again in 2027.