Pasatiempo Golf Club

Alongside Pinehurst No. 2, Pasatiempo Golf Club occupies an important position in American golf: it is a first-rate, well-preserved design by a top Golden Age architect that all golfers willing to pay the green fee can see and enjoy for themselves. 

The course’s relative accessibility is a fluke of history. Initially, founder Marion Hollins, the 1921 U.S. Women’s Amateur champion and athletic director for Samuel F.B. Morse’s Del Monte Properties, conceived of Pasatiempo as a private real estate development and sports complex. She hired Alister MacKenzie, whom she had previously tabbed to design Cypress Point Club, to build an 18-hole championship course in the muscular hills above Santa Cruz, California. MacKenzie’s architecture lives up to the drama of the land. His front nine plunges downhill, toward a striking view of the Pacific Ocean, before climbing back to the clubhouse, and his back nine winds through a canyon, continually interacting with a network of large, beautiful barrancas. MacKenzie’s greens are equally responsive to the splendor of the property: they are big, adventurously contoured, and amoeba-shaped, with tongues curling around large, flashed bunkers. When Pasatiempo opened on September 8, 1929, it was one of the most magnificent courses in the world. Six weeks later, however, its future was thrown into doubt when the U.S. stock market crashed, sending the country spiraling into the Great Depression. By the 1940s, Pasatiempo had become reliant on daily fees from non-members. Ever since, it has operated as a “semi-private” club, setting aside a generous number of tee times for the public.

In recent decades, with its finances secure, Pasatiempo has focused on restoring its Alister MacKenzie design. The club hired Tom Doak in 1996, and along with his lead associate Jim Urbina, Doak oversaw a decade’s worth of tree removal, bunker restoration, and green expansions. Between 2023 and 2024, Urbina led another historically informed project, rebuilding all of the course’s greens and bunkers. Today’s Pasatiempo strongly resembles the 1929 original, though its presentation has grown markedly less rustic.

Take Note...

A star-studded debut. Marion Hollins knew how to throw a party. The first group to play Pasatiempo on its opening day in September 1929 consisted of Hollins herself; Glenna Collett, six-time U.S. Women’s Amateur champion; Cyril Tolley, two-time British Amateur champion; and Bobby Jones, who would win the Grand Slam the next year. During the festivities, Jones met Alister MacKenzie. Later, the pair collaborated on the design of Augusta National Golf Club. Julian P. Graham’s photographs of this day in the Santa Cruz Mountains are among the most beautiful golf images ever produced.

Casa de MacKenzie. MacKenzie clearly took a liking to Pasatiempo: he purchased a home next to the sixth fairway, and he died there of a heart attack in 1934. The handsome clapboard house hasn’t changed much over the years, and its location is indicated by a plaque set into a cart path. The plaque reads:

“Home of the Famous Golf Course Architect

Dr. Alister MacKenzie

1930-1934

Designer of Pasatiempo Golf Course, Cypress Point, Auugsta National and Royal Melbourne

‘It is the successful negotiation of difficulties, or what appears to be such, which gives rise to pleasurable excitement and makes a hole interesting.’ -A. MacKenzie.”

Passing the tiempo. For my money, Pasatiempo is the best-named golf course in America. The word “pasatiempo” translates literally to “pastime” or “hobby,” but as the Alister MacKenzie Society notes in this writeup, it also carries a meaning closer to “relaxed passage of time.” This is a pitch-perfect description of how it feels to spend a day at Pasatiempo.

California water. Over the past 15 years, Pasatiempo has significantly reduced its reliance on potable (i.e., drinking-quality) water. In 2010, the course reduced its turf acreage by 25%, and starting in 2017, it began using treated wastewater pumped from the mountain town of Scotts Valley. Today, this reclaimed source accounts for between 65% and 80% of the water Pasatiempo’s maintenance staff uses to irrigate the golf course.

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