Carmel Magazine

half the golfers at Pebble Beach were staying at the Lodge, and by October, the old booking rules had been reinstated, mandating a room reservation to snag a tee time. With greens fees averaging around $100, Bayonet & Black Horse costs less than a fifth of one round at Pebble Beach and it has become a draw for new golfers or those returning to the spor t. "Being so close to Silicon Valley, where everybody is now working from home, we're definitely getting more of those customers," Jones says. "And then there are locals who don't have many other options for enter tain- ment. There are no Giants games to go to, no movie theaters, no concer ts. The gyms aren't the same. I guess the big question is how many of these golfers we'll keep in the long run. But we're cer tainly happy they're here now." Jones says he has noticed more groups play- ing scrambles and other non-traditional forms of the game to keep up their pace of play and have a little more fun on the two demanding golf courses. A crucial demographic for growing the game is kids, and, from a golf perspective, that is some of the best news to come out of the nascent coronavirus era. National Golf Foundation research shows the number of golfers ages 6 to 17 has risen by as much as 20 percent this year, and the increase is even more dramatic at Bayonet & Black Horse, where juniors who are members of the Youth on Course initiative can play for only $5. "On summer weekends in the past, we might have 10 kids come out," says Jones. "Now, with no soccer or Little League or any kind of camps, we were getting 40 or more." That hasn't changed with the end of summer. Kids doing at-home learning still need to get outdoors, and with organized sports largely shut (Top) Salinas schoolchildren play at Pebble Beach. (Bottom) Families at local courses like Bayonet have found golf to be a new activity to discover together. Photo: Motofoto / Alamy Stock Photo Photo: Keli Uldall 116 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 2 1

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