Every golfer dreams of playing the world's most iconic courses. The Old Course at St Andrews, Augusta National and Pebble Beach would be high on the list for most. The trio have all been made famous by hosting epic Major Championships across many decades won by the greats of the game... Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Co.
For the members of the Porsche Golf Circle, those dreams have become a reality in the last two years, with visits to St Andrews and Pebble Beach. In October 2022, Golf Monthly's contributing editor Fergus Bisset had the opportunity to join Porsche's golf community and play at 'The Home of Golf'. A year on and I found myself standing on the first tee at Pebble Beach.
Excited (and nervous) doesn't begin to come close to describing how I felt. The fact I hit a stone cold top off the first with my driver was unsurprising. That I walked off the tee with a smile on my face and laughing with my playing partners for the day - George from New Jersey and Jens and Mark from Germany - was equally predictable. Porsche Golf Circle events are about fun, friendship and experiences that will last a lifetime.
Porsche Golf Circle
The Porsche Golf Circle community was founded in 2017 with the aim of bringing together people from all over the world who share a passion for golf and Porsche. It's open to everyone, with membership benefits including tips and tutorials from brand ambassador Paul Casey, accessed through a free app that can be downloaded for Apple and Google devices. Global membership stands at over 4,000.
The Golf Circle builds on Porsche's relationship with the sport of golf that dates back to 1988 and the introduction of the Porsche Golf Cup where golfers from all over the world who are Porsche customers have the chance to play in national competitions, with winners qualifying for a World Final that has been staged at the stunning Club de Golf Alcanada in Mallorca since 2014.
For the past eight years, the brand has also been the lead sponsor of the Porsche European Open played in Germany, won in 2019 by none other than...Paul Casey!
Day 1 - Hello California!
The famous Lodge at Pebble Beach was the base for the Porsche Golf Circle event and after checking in to my room (complete with a tantalising glimpse of the golf course and the Pacific Ocean beyond), it was time to head to the official welcome and cocktail reception in the card room.
As locations for a welcome event go, this was spectacular. We enjoyed a glass of champagne while overlooking the 18th hole before settling down for a wonderful three-course dinner. Casey was the guest of honor and he took the time to chat to everyone, sharing stories of both his stellar career as a professional golfer and his love of Porsche cars. He has quite a collection of both global tour wins and fast cars from Stuttgart, so the conversation flowed!
As I returned to my room, I looked at my watch and did a quick calculation on the time difference back to the UK and, a snooze on the plane aside, I worked out I’d been up for nearly 24 hours. That's what excitement and anticipation does to the body!
Day 2 - Hidden Delights
After breakfast in the gallery café that overlooks the first tee at Pebble Beach, it was time for the short journey to Spyglass Hill.
This Robert Trent Jones Snr creation, which opened in 1966, has been made famous as one of the co-hosts of the annual Pebble Beach Pro-Am event. With its stunning mix of holes that forge out to the ocean before heading inland to weave through the Del Monte Forest, Spyglass is a visual treat as well as being a very challenging golf course.
I was teeing it up with Karen from Mexico and Mark from Germany and, after a warm up on the range under the watchful eye of Casey, it was time to head to the 1st - a sweeping downhill par 5 that eases you into the round.
On the 3rd tee, everybody got the chance to take part in a beat the pro competition against Paul, who was in great form, laughing and joking with everybody in between shots. However, like the true champion he is, he was able to get dialled in and focus on the job in hand when it was his shot - no more so than when it was our group's turn and he produced a world-class wedge shot that finished just two feet from the flag!
After the fun of the par 3, it was time to refocus and take on the brilliant par-4 4th. The hole is apparently Trent Jones Snr's favorite par 4 that he designed - it's not hard to see why.
With the Pacific Ocean to your left, you drive to a fairway that gives you a glimpse of a unique green that sits between two dunes and measures just 10 yards wide, but 55 yards deep and with a big step to a lower back level in the middle. The flag was positioned right at the front of the green, making the approach even harder.
After another stunning par 3 that plays back towards the ocean, the course turns inland and in doing so changes in character as it starts to play between the trees of the forest.
Many comparisons have been drawn to Augusta National, and they certainly stand up to scrutiny as holes weave their way between the towering trees and dramatic changes in elevation, whilst white sand bunkers sparkle at the sides of fairways and around greens.
Mark and I put in solid rounds (I managed to par all of the stunning par 3s en route to an 86), but Karen was the undoubted star of our group, playing some superb golf and underlining why she was a single figure index golfer.
In the evening, we headed out to the Folktale Winery and Vineyards, some 20 minutes from Pebble Beach, where we got to try some of the amazing wines the vineyard produces before a wonderful four-course dinner with prizes given out to celebrate the achievements of the winners from Spyglass Hill.
Day 3 - Taking The Racing Line
Saturday offered something totally different... a trip to to the WeatherTech Laguna Seca racetrack for the Porsche Rennsport Reunion, which is the largest gathering of Porsche race cars (over 300) and fans (more than 91,000 across four days)
The event had it all, from the unveiling of the new Porsche 911 GT3 R rennsport (of which only 77 will be made, each with price tag of a cool $1m), to a music concert and track races involving vintage Porsche racing cars and even tractors.
The event had a real community feel, with members of the Porsche Golf Circle meeting up with members of other Porsche Clubs, including the Pioneers Circle, a group of enthusiasts who are holders of Porsche NFTs (non-fungible tokens). The diversity of the Porsche community was really something to witness.
The highlight of my day was undoubtedly a 'Hot Lap', sitting in a 911 GTS alongside Porsche factory driver, Matthieu Jamminet. It was actually two hot laps, which was a good job as the first one was frankly terrifying; I didn't know when, or how hard, Matthieu was going to brake around the twisting Laguna Seca track that includes the famous 'Corkscrew' turns, where the track drops down 60 feet in height in just 450 feet of track.
On the second lap, I knew what to expect - like going from 148mph to 35mph to make one turn - and loved every second of it. Exhilarating doesn't come close to describing the experience.
Before heading back to Pebble Beach, I visited the Porsche 'Sonderwunsch' exhibition. The word Sonderwunsch translates to 'special requests' and the programme allows owners to take personalisation to the next level.
There were a host of cars on display that had been through the Sonderwunsch process,. Most notable of all was the 911 Sally Special, which was a collaboration between Porsche and movie makers Pixar to create a real life version of the iconic Sally Carerra, one of the stars of the famous animation film, Cars. It was an incredible work of design and, in 2022, the car was auctioned for $3.6m, with the money going to charity.
Dinner that evening was at the Salt Wood Kitchen, a delightful restaurant tucked away in the Marina Dunes just north of Monterey. The food was superb - the grilled California Trout was my culinary highlight of the trip - and the chat was lively, as guests relived the excitement of the day at Rennsport Reunion and looked ahead to the round at Pebble Beach.
Day 4 - Creating Memories
And so the wait was over - it was time for the Porsche Golf Circle competitors to tee up at the world-famous Pebble Beach Golf Links. The weather was set fine with the morning marine layer burning off to reveal blue skies and just a gentle breeze. Perfect golfing conditions…
Nervous excitement was the order of the day on the first tee as the competitors prepared to take on the course that has hosted so many famous events and witnessed so many historic moments, including Tiger Woods' incredible record-setting, 15-shot victory at the 2000 US Open, the first of the American's three national championships.
Pebble Beach is a fantastic test of golf, but one of the biggest challenges is to keep focused on playing your shots and not get too distracted by the amazing views, especially from the 4th tee onwards as the course breaks out of the trees and runs alongside Stillwater Cove.
From the 4th through to the 10th, the holes tightly hug the coastline with fairways running down to the cliff edges and greens perched on glorious spots overlooking the Pacific Ocean. There can be no finer stretch of coastal golf in the world, and it was an incredible experience playing these holes. The fact I played these seven holes in just two over par made then even more special, but frankly you could be playing poorly and you’d still have a smile on your face.
Walking off the 10th green and up to the 11th tee - a beauty of a short par 4 - you begin a stretch of holes that are slightly inland, and although they are not as dramatic as those you have just played, they are highly strategic designs, rewarding tee shots that are hit to the correct side of fairways. We were fortunate to have caddies - as we did at Spyglass Hill - and their course knowledge was invaluable, especially on those all important lines off the tee and on the tricky greens where putts often broke in different directions than you expected them to!
As with all great courses, there’s a sting in the tail at Pebble - and the 17th and 18th are two of toughest challenges. The famous long par-3 17th - where Tom Watson chipped in for a biride to all but seal the 1982 US Open - demands a precise shot to evade a huge bunker that protects the majority of the front of the green and a necklace of smaller bunkers over the back of the putting surface.
With the Pacific running alongside the entire length of the hole, the 18th is one of the most iconic, and dangerous, holes in golf. Any pulled or hooked tee shot will meet a watery grave and while this encourages you to play to the right, if your line is too conservative, your second shot will likely need to go over or round a tree that is annoyingly well placed. Even though you’ll be coming into the green with a short iron, there’s another tree and deep bunkers to contend with. Aim for the center of the green and commit to the shot! I had a pleasing par, par finish for another round in the mid 80s.
Before we headed off for a well earned drink, it was time for some pictures. Happy, smiling people with a backdrop of the ocean. Glorious stuff!
The final magic moment of the trip came with our farewell dinner and prize giving at Coastal Kitchen in Monterey, where we enjoyed a six-course tasting menu, toasted the winners, reminisced about the round and took lots of photographs.
Day 5 - Until Next Time…
As I headed up the famous Pacific Coast Highway to San Francisco to get my flight back to London, I had the chance to reflect on what had been quite an amazing few days in California.
Not only did I get to play two of the world's greatest golf courses, and spend the day at the Rennsport Reunion event, but I made new connections with golfers from countries as far apart as Mexico and Germany and got to experience how the Porsche Golf Circle community interacts both in person and virtually through the app.
Passions like golf (and amazing sports cars) really do have a way of bringing people together. You know that, I know that and Porsche most definitely knows that.
