Silva Hired to Renovate Monterey Peninsula CC's Dunes Course


Monterey Peninsula Country Club (MPCC), a 36-hole private club just north of Cypress Point and Pebble Beach on California's Monterey Peninsula, has contracted with golf course architect Brian Silva to renovate their Dunes Course. MPCC's Shore Course is part of the rota for the PGA Tour's AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

Club general manager Michael Bohay has confirmed the member-owned club has selected the New England-based Silva to produce a plan to redo the Dunes Course. Any subsequent work will be approved by the membership.

The par-72, parkland-style layout with Pacific Ocean views and an oceanfront par-3, opened in 1924, was originally routed by Seth Raynor. Raynor died before the course could be completed and it was finished by Robert Hunter and Alister Mackenzie, who were also engaged to finish the nearby Cypress Point where Raynor was the architect at the time of his death.

Rees Jones completed a renovation of the Dunes Course in 1998. MPCC's companion Shore, originally designed in 1960 by West Coast architect Robert Baldock, was redesigned in 2003 by the late Mike Strantz. It's used in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am with Spyglass Hill and Pebble Beach Golf Links.

Silva has extensive experience on Raynor courses, having previously renovated Fox Chapel in Pittsburgh, The Country Club of Charleston in South Carolina, and the Elkridge Club in Maryland. He has also worked on such classics as Seminole in Florida, Augusta Country Club in Georgia, and Baltimore Country Club in Maryland. His only prior West Coast work was at Annandale Country Club in Pasadena, Calif.