PEBBLE BEACH — Golf tournament organizers often cite that preparations for an event begin the day after the previous edition. It’s not an exact blueprint, but a year can be sufficient.
A major championship is different. Plans for the 2027 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links began seven years ago. It was just after Gary Woodland won the 2019 title, the last time the venue hosted the national championship.
“The first thing we do after every championship, whether it’s the AT&T, a U.S. Open, a women’s U.S. Open, or what have you, is reflect on what went well and what didn’t go as well from the last tournament,” said David Stivers, CEO and president of Pebble Beach Company.
“We develop an action plan for the next championship. So after 2019 and again after the women’s open, we looked at how the golf course played. Which holes were the easiest to play? Which were the toughest?”
Preparations for next year’s U.S. Open at Pebble Beach started shortly after Gary Woodland hoisted the championship trophy in 2019. (David Royal/ Monterey Herald Correspondent)
The one-year countdown to the U.S. Open has begun, a bookmark set by this year’s U.S. Open, which ended June 21 at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in New York.
Next year’s tournament, scheduled for June 17-20, will be the 15th major golf championship held at Pebble Beach. The first was the 1929 U.S. Amateur, contested 10 years after the links opened.
It will be the seventh U.S. Open on the oceanfront course and first since Woodland’s title. With Pebble Beach as the host course, Jack Nicklaus (1972), Tom Watson (1982), Tom Kite (1992), Tiger Woods (2000) and Graeme McDowell (2010) claimed titles.
Five U.S. Amateurs, two U.S. Women’s Amateurs and the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open have also been held at Pebble Beach. All required specific course design nuances.
Organization of the U.S. Open, a collaboration between Pebble Beach Company and the United States Golf Association, incorporates all operations for the event — the course, traffic and parking, tickets, merchandise and the location of corporate hospitality.
Plenty will change for 2027. Logistically, Stivers noted fewer tickets will be sold for next year’s tournament, a nod to a more fan-friendly experience. The exact reduction hasn’t been announced, but the venue was notably crowded for weekend rounds in 2019.
The Hay, Pebble Beach’s recently redesigned nine-hole course, will become a spectator experience area. The previous primary merchandise tent infrastructure will be no longer.
A corporate hospitality area on the 18th fairway will be replaced by a high-end 1895 Club, an all-inclusive ticket option. More grandstands will also be erected.
“All of it is a direct outcropping of what happened in 2019,” said Stivers. “It’s like we do with the golf course. How can we make it (the fan experience) just a little bit better?”
Venues are sometimes selected for national golf championships decades in advance. Pebble Beach is also scheduled to host the men’s U.S Open in 2032, 2037 and 2044. The women’s U.S. Open is scheduled for Pebble Beach in 2035, 2040 and 2048.
In 2030, the U.S. Senior Open and U.S. Senior Women’s Open will be held at Spyglass Hill Golf Course, adjacent to Pebble Beach.
“A U.S. men’s open versus a U.S. women’s open is a lot different just in terms of the number of people who will be here,” said Stivers. “For the U.S. Open next summer, for the whole championship week, we will have in the neighborhood of 200,000 to 250,000 attendees, with fans, contestants, volunteers and all of that.”
Pebble Beach will be the host course for three professional tournaments before next year’s U.S. Open: the PURE Insurance Championship (Sept. 18-20), TaylorMade Pebble Beach Invitational (late November, dates not confirmed on the Pebble Beach Resorts website) and the 2027 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (Feb. 4-7).
Fans may notice some differences at the 18th hole from 2019. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
How those tournaments, all requiring individually nuanced course layouts, are orchestrated with the U.S. Open on the horizon is John Sawin’s responsibility while working with the USGA’s desires.
“We already had the dates (for 2027) when the 2019 U.S. Open was being played,” said Sawin, the vice president and director of golf at Pebble Beach. “We went through the championship as it was happening. Every little thing. As it was happening, we were evaluating ‘What was working well and what can be done better?’ ”
“We did a fantastic job memorializing those things and all those lessons learned. Some of those you could pick up in 2025 and put them into place for 2027. But some of them take many, many years to map out.”
Sawin detailed significant changes to multiple holes, bunkers to fairways to greens. Visitors to Pebble Beach may immediately notice some differences, while others will be more subtle.
The most obvious change may be the replacement of the Cypress tree on the 18th hole fairway. It toppled in a late 2014 storm and was replaced in April with a Cypress tree moved from the 17th hole at Spyglass Hill.
Bunkers have been altered to correspond to pro players’ increasing shot distances. Since Pebble Beach has “several genres” of greens, Sawin said several holes have been renovated and returned to their “original intent.”
Players are likely to notice even the small alterations.
Bobby Clampett, the retired PGA Tour and Champions Tour player from Monterey, competed in the U.S. Open seven times, including twice at Pebble Beach. He played in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am 15 times.
He viewed the playing conditions at this year’s U.S. Open, which resulted in only three players finishing under par. He also knows the USGA’s reputation for difficult course layouts, including at Pebble Beach.
“I was just thinking of course conditions and how they differ during the U.S. Open,” Clampett said. “The rough lines are very different for the U.S. Open. The USGA brings the rough in and narrows all the fairways.”
While Pebble Beach has undergone many changes since Clampett’s last U.S. Open in 2000, he remembers details.
“On No. 10 during the AT&T, there’s no rough between the fairway and the bunker. But during the U.S. Open in ’82 and in 2000, there was very deep rough between the bunker and the fairway. You were better off in the bunker than you were in the rough.”
Ticket sales for the 2027 U.S. Open began during this year’s championship. Various packages are detailed on the tournament website, www.usopen.com. Merchandise sales began last fall at Pebble Beach.
For eager fans, a glimpse of how the course will be presented next June will be possible next February.
Sawin said all structural changes for the championship will be completed in time for the 2027 AT&T. Whatever the inherent unknowns of golf on the Monterey Peninsula may offer will be the exceptions.