Who Owns Pebble Beach?

Pebble Beach is a beautiful golf course located along the Pacific Ocean (Carmel Bay) on the southern side of the Monterey Peninsula in California. The golf course is home to the annual AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am golf tournament featuring professional golfers being paired with sports stars and other celebrities.

Pebble Beach is Home to AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am Golf Tournament

The 2012 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am featured sports celebrities like New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, who just lost to the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLVI. Belichick is not a bad golfer.

Other sports celebrities who played in the tournament included Nick Saban, head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide in college football, NBA Basketball Hall of Fame player Clyde Drexler, and NFL QB Aaron Rodgers from the Green Bay Packers, and Dallas Cowboys QB Tony Romo, who played with Tiger Woods.

Pebble Beach is Located on Beautiful Monterey Peninsula

I've been to the Monterey Peninsula and Pebble Beach a few times, and it is just a beautiful place. I've biked the 17 mile loop road on the Monterey Peninsula, and the area is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been.

If you've never been there though, be forewarned that the famous Lone Cypress tree growing on a rock above the Pacific Ocean, which is the official symbol of Pebble Beach, is heavily wired to the rock so it won't fall down.

Pebble Beach is Open to Public but is Expensive to Play

I've been a golfer and golf fan for over 40 years, and Pebble Beach is one of the most beautiful golf courses I've ever seen. It is a public course, but if you've never played there and are planning to, make sure you bring plenty of money because it's not cheap. 

Here's a quick look as to who has owned Pebble Beach over the years, and who owns it today.

Pebble Beach was Opened in February of 1919

Samuel Morse, a cousin of the Samuel Morse who invented the telegraph, and a former Yale football captain, built the Pebble Beach Golf Links, which was opened on February 22, 1919. Morse owned Pebble Beach until he died in 1969. His company continued to own Pebble Beach until 1977, when Twentieth-Century Fox purchased the company.

Oil tycoon Marvin Davis took over Twentieth-Century Fox in 1981, and thus assumed ownership of Pebble Beach. Davis continued to own Pebble Beach until 1990, when he sold the property to Minuro Isutani, who was a Japanese businessman, and a golf nut. Isutani then sold Pebble Beach to The Lone Cypress Company, which was owned by Sumitomo Bank and Taiheiyo Club of Japan, in 1992.

In 1999 Group Led by Arnold Palmer and Clint Eastwood Bought Pebble Beach

In 1999, an ownership group that included golf great Arnold Palmer, former baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth, Academy Award winner Clint Eastwood, along with GE Capital, purchased the Pebble Beach Company for $820 million. That group still owns Pebble Beach today. Clint Eastwood was the mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, which is literally right down the road from Pebble Beach, in the late 1980s.

Pebble Beach Has Hosted U.S. Open Five Times

Pebble Beach has hosted the U.S. Open Golf Tournament in 1972, 1982, 1992, 2000, and 2010. Tiger Woods won his first U.S. Open in record fashion at Pebble Beach in 2000. Jack Nicklaus won the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach in 1972.

Pebble Beach is hosting the U.S. Open again in 2019 and 2027.