Cypress Point Club: The Most Beautiful Golf Course in the World
Cypress Point Club on the Monterey Peninsula in California is not the most famous golf course in the world — that distinction belongs to Augusta National or St Andrews — but it may be the most beautiful. The private club that Alister MacKenzie designed in 1928 winds through Monterey cypress forests, along Pacific Ocean cliffs, and across native coastal prairie in a routing so perfectly suited to its terrain that the course appears to have grown from the land rather than been built on it. Its rarity — extreme privacy, membership by invitation only, photographs almost impossible to obtain — has only enhanced its legendary status among golf pilgrims who have never played it and may never get the chance.
The MacKenzie Masterwork
Alister MacKenzie received the commission for Cypress Point from Marion Hollins, the Women's Western Amateur champion who had purchased the land for a golf development and recognized immediately that the terrain called for a designer of exceptional sensitivity. MacKenzie walked the property and produced a routing of extraordinary elegance, one that used all three distinct landscapes — forest, coastal headland, and ocean promontory — across 18 holes without forcing any of them.
MacKenzie considered Cypress Point his finest work. Given that his other designs include Augusta National, Royal Melbourne, and Crystal Downs, this is a significant statement. The course opened in 1928 to immediate critical acclaim and has never fallen from the top tier of course rankings in the century since.
The Course: Three Distinct Landscapes
The routing divides naturally into three acts. The first several holes play through the Monterey cypress forest, where the trees frame fairways and provide the aesthetic of a Scottish woodland parkland course, with tight fairways and small, precise greens. This section requires accuracy and patience before the drama of the coast arrives.
The middle holes transition to open coastal prairie where sea breezes become a constant factor and the Pacific becomes visible in the distance. The pace quickens here as the course opens up and the views expand.
The finishing holes on the oceanfront headlands are where Cypress Point achieves something close to perfection. The 15th, 16th, and 17th holes along the ocean constitute one of golf's great consecutive sequences, combining visual drama with strategic demands that test every element of a player's game.
The 16th Hole: The World's Most Fearsome Par-3
The 16th at Cypress Point is a par-3 of approximately 233 yards that requires a full carry over the Pacific Ocean from a clifftop tee to a green set on a promontory across a cove. There is essentially no bail-out position: the green is flanked by rough and rocks, the water is everywhere below and to both sides, and the distance demands a full commitment from the most reliable club in the bag.
When the wind is up on the Monterey Peninsula — which it frequently is — the hole can be almost impossible to par. Playing conservatively to the wide fairway left of the water shortens the carry to about 100 yards and provides a wedge approach, an option that has saved many scores and shattered many egos who thought they could carry the water in poor conditions.
The hole has produced some of golf's most extraordinary moments. Bing Crosby hosted the Pebble Beach Pro-Am at Cypress Point for years, and the 16th provided annual television drama. In 1981, an amateur named Jerry Pate — who later became a successful Tour professional — made a hole-in-one on 16 that stands as one of the most celebrated aces in golf history.
Membership and Access
Cypress Point Club is among the most exclusive private clubs in the world. Membership is by invitation only, rumored to be in the range of 250 members, and the waiting list does not technically exist because membership is never openly available. The club has no website and seeks no publicity. Photography from inside the course is actively discouraged, contributing to the mystique that surrounds a place that most devoted golfers will never see in person.
The club withdrew from the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am rotation in 1991 rather than comply with PGA Tour diversity requirements, a decision that removed it from public view and enhanced its status as a deliberately private institution.
The practical reality for most golfers: Cypress Point is accessible through relationships with members or through very occasional charity tournaments. The Cypress Point Invitational is the most prominent of the latter. Otherwise, the course lives in the imagination, in the few available photographs, and in the accounts of the lucky few who have played it.
The Monterey Peninsula Golf Context
Cypress Point exists within one of the world's densest concentrations of great golf. Pebble Beach Golf Links, ranked among the top 10 courses in the world and publicly accessible for a substantial but manageable green fee, plays along the same stretch of Pacific coastline. Spyglass Hill, Monterey Peninsula Country Club, and Pasatiempo (another MacKenzie design in nearby Santa Cruz) are all within reach of a dedicated golf visitor.
The annual AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, played across Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill, and Monterey Peninsula Country Club, brings professional golf to this stretch of coastline each February and provides one of the best spectator golf experiences in the United States.
Why Cypress Point Matters to Golf History
Cypress Point matters to golf history beyond its rankings because it represents something the modern golf industry has lost: a course designed for golf rather than for business. There is no hotel attached to Cypress Point, no resort packages, no tee-time booking website, no pro shop with branded merchandise. The course exists to provide the best possible golf for a small group of members and their guests, and every decision — maintenance standards, playing pace, aesthetic preservation — is made with that singular purpose in mind.
In an era when the most celebrated new courses are built as luxury resort anchors with aggressive marketing and carefully crafted social media presence, Cypress Point's deliberate obscurity is itself a statement about what golf can be when commercialization is removed from the equation.
FAQs About Cypress Point Club
Can you play Cypress Point Club? Cypress Point is a private club with no public access. Golf is available only to members and their invited guests, and through very occasional charity tournament invitations.
Who designed Cypress Point Club? Cypress Point was designed by Alister MacKenzie, who considered it his finest work alongside Augusta National. It opened in 1928.
What is the famous hole at Cypress Point? The 16th hole, a par-3 of approximately 233 yards over the Pacific Ocean to a clifftop green, is one of golf's most celebrated and feared holes.
Where is Cypress Point Club located? Cypress Point Club is located on the Monterey Peninsula in Pebble Beach, California, adjacent to other famous courses including Pebble Beach Golf Links and Spyglass Hill.