More
than 40 years later, when the drainage needed improvement, the
members seized
the opportunity to make the layout as stunning as the
land it was blessed with.
“I wanted to shape the course to sweep with
the natural terrain—the rocks, the
trees and grasses, the ocean,”
Strantz said. “I dreamed that the course would
appear to dance among
the cypress trees on this coastline
forever.”
Strantz
fashioned 12 new holes and remodeled the other six to add
more than 500 yards to
the par-72 layout, which now measures 6,743
yards. One of Zoller’s favorite
holes is the 178-yard 11th, where
Strantz built a hidden tee into a large rock
outcropping that
previously had been solely decorative.
The
415-yard 15th is a dogleg left with one of the most picturesque
approaches on
the course—the green is backed by a boulder and cypress,
with the ocean farther
down the sightline. Strantz’s redesign made
ocean views as prevalent as they are
at nearby Pebble
Beach.
Strantz
worked while enduring chemotherapy treatments, losing close
to 80 pounds and
most of his hair. Occasionally, he would be bedridden
for the entire day. Yet he
still maintained his reputation as a
hands-on designer, marking every nook of
the course on his own.
“I
couldn’t be in a much better place, and more excited about a
design,” Strantz
said during the project. “It makes me feel alive. It
makes me feel it’s worth
the battle. It’s the best medicine there
is.”
Shore
reopened to glowing praise in June 2004, just after Strantz
underwent procedures
to remove most of his tongue. But he didn’t have
much time to enjoy his
masterpiece: A year later, he finally lost his
battle at the age of 50. Shore
course would be his final design—and
likely his best.
“The
last words he said to me when I said goodbye to him, before he
had the surgery
to take his tongue out, were, ‘Take care of my baby,’”
Zoller says. “And I told
him I would.”
Monterey Peninsula Country Club
Par: 72
Yardage: 6,743
Year founded: 1961
Architects: Bob Baldock and Jack Neville, Mike Strantz
