Pebble Beach Resort Fun Facts and Useless Trivia

Suprise Your Golf Buddies With These Trivia Nuggets

By Brian Weis

Are you a golf nerd who thrives on trivia that makes your buddies question your encyclopedic knowledge of the sport? Or maybe you're just looking to win the next golf trivia contest at the 19th hole? Either way, Pebble Beach Resort is packed with history, fun facts, and hidden gems that will elevate your status as the go-to golf expert. From bagpipers to artichokes, and even a bit of Salvador Dali, here's a list of 10 fun facts about this legendary resort that'll make you the most interesting golfer in the room.

1. Every evening, rain or shine, a bagpiper performs at The Inn at Spanish Bay, providing a sunset serenade to golfers, diners and hotel guests.

2. The Spa at Pebble Beach is one of only 126 spas in the world to receive the coveted Forbes 5-Star Spa Award, making it one of the top spas on the planet.

3. Pebble Beach Resorts is an epicurean escape boasting 16 restaurants with cuisine inspired by global tastes, including Hawaiian, Italian, Mexican and California Coastal.

4. Located 20 minutes from the "Artichoke Capital of the World," one of the best places to taste the region's famous artichokes is at The Tap Room. Not to miss: the Original California Grilled Artichoke appetizer, served with lemon-garlic aioli and mint chimichurri, or the beloved artichoke soup made with Castroville-grown artichokes.

5. Famous painter, Salvador Dali, spent a great deal of the 1940s at Pebble Beach, with some of his best works available to view at the nearby Monterey History & Art Association.

6. Previous owner, Marvin Davis, who also owned Twentieth Century-Fox, used the profits from the Star Wars film to buy Pebble Beach Corporation in May 1979.

7. Pebble Beach Golf Links was designed for free. Jack Neville and Douglas Grant had no previous design experience when approached to build a golf course, so they built the course at no cost to maintain their prestigious amateur status.

8. Opened in 1881, the iconic 17-Mile Drive is one of only nine private toll roads in the U.S.

9. The first greenskeepers at Pebble Beach were sheep. To cut costs, sheep were allowed to roam freely, keeping their bellies full and the grass short.

10. Pebble Beach contains one of only two native Monterey Cypress Forests in the world. The other is across Carmel Bay at Point Lobos State Park.

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Revised: 10/24/2024 - Article Viewed 7,806 Times

About: Brian Weis

Brian Weis is the mastermind behind GolfTrips.com, a vast network of golf travel and directory sites covering everything from the rolling fairways of Wisconsin to the sunbaked desert layouts of Arizona. If there’s a golf destination worth visiting, chances are, Brian has written about it, played it, or at the very least, found a way to justify a "business trip" there.

As a card-carrying member of the Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA), International Network of Golf (ING), Golf Travel Writers of America (GTWA), International Golf Travel Writers Association (IGTWA), and The Society of Hickory Golfers (SoHG), Brian has the credentials to prove that talking about golf is his full-time job. In 2016, his peers even handed him The Shaheen Cup, a prestigious award in golf travel writing—essentially the Masters green jacket for guys who don’t hit the range but still know where the best 19th holes are.

Brian’s love for golf goes way back. As a kid, he competed in junior and high school golf, only to realize that his dreams of a college golf scholarship had about the same odds as a 30-handicap making a hole-in-one. Instead, he took the more practical route—working on the West Bend Country Club grounds crew to fund his University of Wisconsin education. Little did he know that mowing greens and fixing divots would one day lead to a career writing about the best courses on the planet.

In 2004, Brian turned his golf passion into a business, launching GolfWisconsin.com. Three years later, he expanded his vision, and GolfTrips.com was born—a one-stop shop for golf travel junkies looking for their next tee time. Today, his empire spans all 50 states, and 20+ international destinations.

On the course, Brian is a weekend warrior who oscillates between a 5 and 9 handicap, depending on how much he's been traveling (or how generous he’s feeling with his scorecard). His signature move" A high, soft fade that his playing partners affectionately (or not-so-affectionately) call "The Weis Slice." But when he catches one clean, his 300+ yard drives remind everyone that while he may write about golf for a living, he can still send a ball into the next zip code with the best of them.

Whether he’s hunting down the best public courses, digging up hidden gems, or simply outdriving his buddies, Brian Weis is living proof that golf is more than a game—it’s a way of life.