Pasatiempo Golf Club is an 18-hole golf club on the West Coast of the United States, located in Pasatiempo, Santa Cruz County, California. Designed by the famous English architect Alister MacKenzie, the course is famed for its breathtaking scenery and rich golf history. The course opened in September 1929 and Bobby Jones was in the first group to play it.

MacKenzie claimed that it was his best layout, ahead of even Cypress Point and Augusta National, and his American home borders the sixth fairway. Pasatiempo is about an hour’s drive from Cypress Point, a Monterey Peninsula neighbor to Spyglass Hill and Pebble Beach.

Pasatiempo is a highly rated course — it is ranked 12 in Golf Magazine’s “Top 100 Courses You Can Play 2006-2007” and ranked 31 in Golf Digest’s “2005 America’s Greatest Public Courses”. Golf Digest also named Pasatiempo Golf Club as one of the top 3 “Courses You Can Play in California” (along with Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill). The magazine ranked Pasatiempo 71 in the “Top 100 Courses in the U.S. (private and public)”, up 13 places over the 2003 ranking.

Source: Pasatiempo GC on Wikipedia

Some general tips offered by the starter include: the course plays 400-500 yards longer than the scorecard shows, expect breaks toward the ocean, and most of the holes encourage the player to play toward the trouble for ideal positioning.

“Many good golfers consider the second nine holes at Pasatiempo the finest in existence. The short holes are specially good, and I think the sixteenth hole is the best two-shot hole I know. I certainly do not know of any hole which gives so great an advantage for length and accuracy”

Alister MacKenzie