Peter Bills: Iconic course a testimony to Morse's vision

The Carmel Pine Cone - honestly, I kid you not, this is the name of a proper newspaper in one of California's most chic towns - dutifully reports a sobering news item as its lead story in this week's edition.

"Although it was only established to temporarily aid a construction project at Highway 1 and Carmel Valley Road" it reports on its front page lead story, "highway officials are considering making a 'free right hand turn' permanent after receiving overwhelming support from Carmel Valley residents. But some Big Sur residents say 'No way'!

Big deal, some overseas visitors might say. Are these guys for real? I mean, the 110th US Open is being played just down the road from twee, sweet little Carmel, the town where Clint Eastwood was once mayor, and all they're fussing about is a right hand turn on the road system. Is this the reason the overseas media pack are counting down the hours to next Monday night's flights out of nearby San Francisco International?

The attitudes of small town America ought to have no place in a region which boasts one of the best golf courses in the world and one of the most prized, expensive stretches of real estate anywhere on the United States' Pacific coast line. I thumbed through a property magazine and couldn't find anything much decent below $4 million. And for that, right now, you don't even get a free right turn. Kinda pricey place, huh?

But the allure is all. The great Jack Nicklaus, US Open Champion on the Pebble Beach course here in 1972, is reputed to have said "If I only had one more round to play, I would choose to play it at Pebble Beach."

Ahead of Augusta, home of the Masters, and St. Andrews, the home of golf on Scotland's east coast? Apparently so. Now that must add up to a humdinger of an advertisement for a course which, in places, traces the contours of the cliff top along a stretch of the Pacific coastline.

If you'd had the foresight to snap up a lucrative piece of real estate around here back at the turn of the previous century, well, you'd have been the most popular father or uncle in US history when you kicked the bucket. And that's what almost happened to Pebble Beach Golf Links - the land was originally destined to house luxury homes overlooking the mighty Pacific Ocean.

It was saved from that fate by a man whose family name became famous the world over - not for saving a prime piece of real estate for a golf course but a far more important reason. In 1915, Samuel F.B. Morse, grand-nephew of the man who invented the telegraph and the Morse code, was told about the property in a portfolio of the Pacific Improvement Company, which he had been hired to liquidate.

Morse sold off most of the portfolio but took a close look at a stretch of real estate known then as the Del Monte unit. Wise fellow. What he saw so enticed him that he bought it himself, rather than allow sub-prime plots to be sold individually for housing. Today, the swish Pebble Beach Golf Links bears testimony to Morse's vision.

Out on horseback, the preferred mode of transport in those days remember, Morse envisaged a grand course. Together with expert advice, he and his golf architects, both of whom had played the game to a reasonable standard, set out to create a masterpiece of a course. Utilising the natural contours and rugged terrain of the location, a great sporting challenge was created.

It was achieved at a cost of $100,000; for sure, a significant amount in the pre-1920s but a pinprick of a sum compared to today's costs for golf course construction. It opened in 1919 to the general public and has never, for a moment, lost its charm since that date.

Down the years, the great and the good flocked here: the legendary Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan and Bobby Jones. Bing Crosby was lured by its appeal yet it wasn't until 1972 that the US Open was held here for the first time. Jack Nicklaus won that year and on every subsequent occasion a US Open has been held here, an American has triumphed - Tom Watson in 1982, Tom Kite in 1992 and Tiger Woods in 2000.

The extraordinary appeal of this mythical course continues to spread, across America and right around the world. Funny thing, then, that a free right turn on a traffic junction fills some of the locals' attention this week. But then, as they say, you can take the man out of Carmel but you can't take Carmel out of the man.

* Peter Bills is a sports writer for Independent News & Media in London.