by Forrest Richardson
The math may seem hard to follow, but it’s worth it. In 1918, accomplished amateur Jack Neville (born in 1895) was asked along with Douglas Grant (also a ranked amateur) to lay out what would become known as Pebble Beach. Developer Samuel Morse needed to put Pebble Beach on the map with a great course. Neville and Grant were convenient. Never mind they were not known as ‘golf architects’ of the time. I was born 41 years after Pebble Beach opened in 1918. Neville passed away in 1978 at age 83. I was 19 years old when he died.
In 1974, I had been bitten by the golf design bug. At 13 years of age, I began publishing a newsletter, aptly named “The Golf Course Designer.” Among my subscribers were Arnold Palmer, Dick Nugent, Ed Seay, Robert Muir Graves, Ken Killian, Arthur Jack Snyder and Desmond Muirhead. Despite losing money after printing, postage and envelope costs, I persisted. My parents subsidized me. Thank you. In 1974, after a year or so of monthly issues, I had the idea to write about Pebble Beach. This, despite never setting foot on the course. What better angle than calling one of the designers. Grant was out, having died in 1966 as a result of a tragic fire in his Carmel, California home. I began thinking about Jack Neville.
Jack Neville at Old Del Monte
So, just before AT&T (the only telephone provider in the U.S. at the time) decided to begin charging for ‘directory assistance,’ (yes, you could actually speak to someone over the phone to have them look up numbers for you) yours truly picked up the rotary dial phone in our modest Phoenix home. I politely asked the ‘operator’ for the number of “Jack Neville in Pebble Beach, California.”
She gave me the number. I called him. He answered.
“Mr. Neville, I publish a newsletter about golf course design, and I wondered if I could ask you a few questions?” Mr. Neville was gracious, and I recall he said something along the lines of “Sure, it would be a pleasure.” I’m pretty sure he didn’t know he was being interviewed by a freshman in high school.
Among my recollection of the conversation were several pieces of wisdom and insight to how he and Grant went about creating Pebble. First, he was quick to point out that it was a great piece of land. “It was mostly there for us to use,” he said to me. “We did very little to open up the holes. The less we did, the better we felt it looked.”
Mr. Neville, near 80 at the time, went on to explain that the clubhouse location had been predetermined, and that beginning and finishing the course along the ocean was not an option. With the clubhouse at the far west end of the chosen site, they decided to begin inland and then drift down to the cliffs at No. 5. “We took No. 6 out to the point where we had this great land for a short hole [the iconic 7th],” he told me. The point for the short par-3 was an ideal hole. And that led to No. 8 across the chasm, and then the holes toward the far end.”
There was a humbleness in what I heard. Mr. Neville was a consummate gentleman. At no point did he seem to really want the acclaim that came with co-authoring what is among the world’s most iconic courses. I recall this description, which is paraphrased to the best of my ability — “We simply had to find the best way to get the players around. We wanted the layout to be interesting for match play and competitions. It was easy because we had a long expanse of cliffs and nice rolling land up the hill. We were amateur players, not really architects. But we took our job seriously, and we did the very best we could.” Mr. Neville made it a point to tell me that they had walked the land many times, and they imagined how shots would be played.
Original plan of Pebble Beach as remastered by Golframes (www.golframes.com). Notable changes to Pebble Beach have included the transformation of the 18th into a par-5 by Herbert Fowler in 1921, and work by Jack Nicklaus in 1998 to relocate the 5th along the ocean, making way for two of the world’s most expensive residential lots ever sold. ©Golframes
Among his points to me was their strong belief that the course should finish along the bay. “The 17th needed to be different than the 7th, and the 18th just seemed natural with its fairway down much lower than the other holes along the water.” Perhaps the best way to pass along his demeanor of taking second position to the land, was this simple line, “We were very lucky at Pebble Beach, and I hope someday you get the same opportunity.”
I have always imagined that Jack Neville may have said something like that to everyone who ever asked him about the creation of Pebble. Knowing my interest in golf architecture, he likely threw in the part about having a similar opportunity.
Little did I know who exactly I was talking with back then. My eyes were big, my knowledge naïve, and my writing at the time was based almost entirely on very distant relationships with the courses I ‘covered.’ Thankfully, I connected with Mr. Neville and had the opportunity.
Someone recently remarked that I may well be the only living golf course architect who had a conversation with Neville. That got me thinking, and the math became interesting. Assuming most golf architects would have been at least in their mid-30s when I spoke to Neville, they would now all be past 80. Who knows. What matters most is that I have this memory, and am able to pass it along.
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Jack Neville remained at Pebble Beach as a real estate salesman for most of his life. He assisted Peter Hay in creating the short Hay Course in 1957. Reportedly, he prepared a preliminary design for The Links at Spanish Bay, but no drawings exist. Sandy Tatum consulted with Neville when getting Pebble Beach ready for the 1972 U.S. Open. Tatum remarked it was among the most rewarding memories of his career. Neville is credited with designing the infamous back nine at Pacific Grove. Neville died in 1978 at the age of 83. Forrest Richardson recalls hearing of his passing, but at 19 his interests by then drifted to his new position in the Art Department at KPHO Television in Phoenix. He also was in the early part of his soon-to-be marriage to Valerie, now somewhere past the 47 year mark.
Neville was quoted about Pebble Beach in a 1972 San Francisco Chronical article, “It was all there in plain sight. Very little clearing was necessary. The big thing, naturally, was to get as many holes as possible along the bay. It took a little imagination, but not much. Years before it was built, I could see this place as a golf links. Nature had intended it to be nothing else. All we did was cut away a few trees, install a few sprinklers, and sow a little seed.”
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