Moreover, having studied the rankings for two decades, I knew that courses bursting into the top 100 routinely jump on at unrealistically high numbers, because the first people to play and rate them usually are locals or friends and associates of the course architect or owner/developer. A backlash invariably occurs in the next ranking, when the second wave of raters—skeptics and curmudgeons like me—add their votes. Typically, it takes six years—three ballots—for a course to find its rightful rung.

However, all that skepticism about Pacific Dunes was balanced by a longtime friendship and respect for its designer. I had known Tom Doak since his college days and had helped him ply his talent as a golf writer before he pursued a career in course architecture. I had no doubt Tom could craft a superb golf course.

So could it be true? Could this upstart pseudo-links really be the best course I had never played? More to the point, could it ever replace the course I had long cherished as No. 1, Pebble Beach? There was only one way to find out. Thus it was on Monday of Memorial Day weekend that I set off on a four-day investigative boondoggle: two rounds at Pebble followed immediately by two rounds at Pacific.

The comparison would not be easy, I knew. I had played Pebble Beach more than 30 times, in all conditions, from all tees. I had had great rounds and awful ones, but never a round that wasn’t a joy. Pacific, on the other hand, was a blank slate and I would have only two shots at it.

Happily, however, I was blessed with ideal circumstances at both places: great weather, tour-caliber caddies, affable and low-handicap playing companions, and ideal starting times—one morning and one afternoon at each site—that resulted in an average round of well under four hours. (In fact, the early time at Pebble was 6:10 a.m. and we walked off the 18th green less than two-and-a-half hours later.) What’s more, my game was equally weak at both places. So the playing fields, topography aside, were dead level.