Cypress Point Club is a private golf club located in Pebble Beach, California, at the northern end of the Central Coast. Its single 18-hole course has been named as one of the finest in golf, best known for a series of dramatic holes along the Pacific Ocean.[3][4][5][6]

Cypress Point Club
View of 16th green from clubhouse in 2004
Cypress Point Club is located in the United States
Cypress Point Club
Location in the United States
Cypress Point Club is located in California
Cypress Point Club
Location in California
Map
Interactive map of Cypress Point Club
Club information
36°34′48″N 121°58′26″W / 36.58°N 121.974°W / 36.58; -121.974
Coordinates36°34′48″N 121°58′26″W / 36.58°N 121.974°W / 36.58; -121.974
LocationPebble Beach, California
Elevation80 feet (24 m)
Established1928; 98 years ago (1928)
TypePrivate
Total holes18
Designed byAlister MacKenzie and
Robert Hunter
Par72
Length6,554 yards (5,993 m)
Course rating73.1
Slope rating141 [1]
Course record63 – Jim Langley, Ben Hogan,
         and others[2]

History

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The course was designed in 1929 by golf course designer Alister MacKenzie, collaborating with fellow golf course architect Robert Hunter. It opened on August 11 that year.[7]

The Cypress Point clubhouse was designed by George Washington Smith of Santa Barbara and decorated by artist and member Francis McComas and Frances Elkins. It opened in 1929 and is mostly unchanged from the original design. The club has 250 members. [8]

Cypress Point is one of five golf clubs that participates in an annual rotating-venue members-only golf tournament known as SCAPS; the other clubs are Seminole Golf Club, Augusta National Golf Club, Pine Valley Golf Club, and San Francisco Golf Club.[9]

Golf course

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Set in coastal dunes, the course's front nine enter the Del Monte forest, reemerging on the rocky coastline for the back nine. The signature hole is #16, which requires a 230-yard (210 m) tee shot over the Pacific to a mid-sized green guarded by strategically placed bunkers.[10][11]

Cypress Point Club was ranked #1 on Top100GolfCourses.com list of best golf courses in the US[12] and #3 on Golf Digest's 2025 list of America's 100 Greatest Golf Courses.[13]

The golf course is considered one of the most exclusive in the world.[14] Non-members require the invitation of a member to play.[14]

PGA Tour

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From 1947 through 1990 Cypress Point was on the PGA Tour as part of the multi-course AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, founded by entertainer Bing Crosby. It was dropped from the rotation because it had no non-white members and refused to admit one to comply with the tour's anti-discrimination guidelines.[15][16] Since then, Condoleezza Rice was admitted as a member of the club.[17]

While no longer part of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, many of the players continue to visit the course in the week leading up to the tournament.[18]

Scorecard

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Cypress Point Club
Tee Rating/Slope 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Out 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 In Total
Championship 73.1 / 141 4205491563834915211703692893,348 4764404043943931352333863433,2046,552
Regular 72.1 / 139 4075351513704725091593422833,228 4764273973443841202183743263,0666,249
Par Men's 45345534437 5444433443572
SI Men's 5117711315913 16421481861012
Red 4095101423664164751553192473,039 4804013102853231192083552962,7775,816
Par Women's 55345534438 5534434443674
SI Women's 1111775313915 21081461816412
Source:[1]

References

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  1. 1 2 "Course Rating and Slope Database™ - Cypress Point Club". USGA. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
  2. "Cypress Point Club". Northern California Golf Association. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  3. "The 50 Best Holes In The U.S". Golf.com. 19 November 2013.
  4. "Best 18 golf holes". Golf.com. 20 September 2012.
  5. "The 18 undisputed, unchallenged, scientifically-factual best golf holes in the world". Golf Digest. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
  6. "Golf's best par 3 holes on the planet". CNN. 8 May 2018.
  7. Routing the Golf Course: The Art & Science That Forms the Golf Journey, Forrest L. Richardson
  8. "Cypress Point – The Alister MacKenzie Society". Retrieved 14 August 2025.
  9. Sens, Josh (9 April 2025). "15 things you didn't know about Augusta National". Golf.com. Retrieved 2 March 2026.
  10. "Cypress Point Club". MontereyPeninsulaGolf.com. Retrieved 6 March 2012.
  11. "Toughest golf hole stymies great in Crosby's Open play". Spokane Daily Chronicle. Washington. Associated Press. 10 January 1958. p. 12.
  12. "USA Ranking | Top 100 Golf Courses". www.top100golfcourses.com. Retrieved 14 August 2025.
  13. "USA Ranking | Top 100 Golf Courses". www.top100golfcourses.com. Retrieved 14 August 2025.
  14. 1 2 "The incredibly unlikely story of how one golfer got onto ultra-private Cypress Point". Golf Digest. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
  15. Diaz, Jaime (18 September 1990). "Cypress Point Drops PGA Tour Event Instead of Changing Its Rules". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 February 2017.
  16. Diaz, aime (10 February 1997). "Off-limits: What's stopping Cypress Point from rejoining the AT&T?". Sports Illustrated. p. G10.
  17. Ostler, Scott (8 February 2013). "Condoleezza Rice changing face of golf". SFGATE. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
  18. Matuszewski, Erik. "Cypress Point Still Has Presence (Unofficially) At Golf's Pebble Beach Pro-Am". Forbes. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
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