Pebble Beach Cut Down a Sick Tree. The Internet Decided It Was a Conspiracy

Sat, 19 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The par-4 16th at Pebble Beach Golf Links has always played the same small trick on you. Four hundred yards from the tips, gently downhill off the tee, and then an approach threaded between two Monterey cypress trees standing sentry about ninety yards short of the green, close enough together that generations of golfers have called them a pair of goal posts. Aim for the gap, and the hole opens up in front of you. Miss it, and you are punching out sideways wondering why a par 4 with no water in play has just cost you a shot. In early September, one of those goal posts came down. The tree on the right is simply gone now, and depending on which corner of golf social media you were reading last week, that removal was either a quiet piece of course maintenance or the first shot fired in a plot to soften Pebble Beach before the U.S. Open returns in 2027.

Monterey Cypress on Pin High Press

Pebble Beach Cut Down a Sick Tree. The Internet Decided It Was a Conspiracy