The Loop

Poppy Hills plotting a comeback?

June 09, 2009

The Northern California Golf Association has been interviewing golf course architects as it ponders renovating Poppy Hills Golf Course in an attempt to return it to the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am rotation, the Monterey Herald reports.

It seems to be doing so reluctantly, however. "The only feedback we got from the tournament this year was that the pace of play at Poppy Hills was a little bit slower than the other courses," Michael Hexner, president of the NCGA, tells the newspaper. "Poppy Hills was nine minutes slower than Spyglass. I just don't know that nine minutes is a significant amount to break a contract and an 18-year partnership."

The tournament recently announced that the Shore Course at Monterey Peninsula Country Club would replace Poppy Hills in the 2010 AT&T.

-- John Strege