Pasatiempo Golf Club

Overview

Pasatiempo Golf Club is Marion Hollins and Alister MacKenzie’s hillside course above Santa Cruz. Its angles, barrancas, bunkers and contoured greens create a strategic test at a modest Gold-tee length. The club is semi-private but offers public reservations; its 2023–24 restoration returned all 18 greens and bunkers to play.

History and design

Hollins commissioned MacKenzie for the course that opened September 8, 1929. The club’s restoration history credits Tom Doak and Jim Urbina with work completed in 2007. The newer club restoration account dates the Urbina-led rebuilding of greens and bunkers from April 17, 2023, to December 5, 2024. This is a restoration of the original course, not a new 2024 opening.

Playing the course

The club scorecard and local rules show a gentlemen’s card printed 04/2026, after the restoration. Its 18-hole Gold row is 6,495 yards, par 70, rating 72.7 and slope 143. White, Green and Hollins tees have separate yardages and ratings; the Gold figures here are one coherent row. MacKenzie’s elevated ground asks for placement into greens rather than length alone. The back nine brings barrancas into several approaches; the current local rules specifically identify penalty-area options on holes 11, 16 and 18.

Know before you go

• The rates and access page offers regular public reservations up to seven days ahead and paid priority reservations farther ahead; members retain some preferred times. Check current fees and availability before booking.

• The club’s visitor guide gives dress, spike, caddie and practice guidance. It lists a range near the first green plus putting, chipping and bunker practice; the routing is walkable but hilly.

• The restoration project details say the rebuilt greens were seeded to bentgrass; fairways and roughs remain cool-season turf. Do not infer one grass variety for every playing surface.

• Golf shop: (831) 459-9155. Address: 20 Clubhouse Rd, Santa Cruz, CA 95060.

Sources and further reading

Pasatiempo history · 04/2026 card · restoration completion · public reservations

Film context: The club embeds Fire Pit Productions’ “Restoring the 16th Green — Episode 2” (published April 2025). It follows the completed greens project and includes reopening-day reflections; it is not an independent hole-by-hole flyover.