Los Angeles Country Club

History

In the fall of 1897, a group of Los Angeles residents organized the Los Angeles Golf Club. Subsequently, the club leased a 16-acre (6.5 ha) lot at the corner of Pico and Alvarado streets (now part of the Alvarado Terrace Historic District) to build a nine-hole golf course. Called "The Windmill Links," the course was named for a makeshift clubhouse crafted from the bottom of an abandoned windmill. Through the middle of 1898, this site served as the club's home until the course became too crowded.

The club was removed to Pico Heights, at Hobart and 16th streets, and was named "The Convent Links" for its location behind a convent near Rosedale Cemetery. Again, nine holes were laid out for play, but by the spring of 1899, this course and clubhouse had also become too restricted for play.

The search committee for a new site, consisting of the club founders Joe Sartori and Ed Tufts, found the club's new home just 0.2 miles (0.3 km) west, on the northeast corner of Pico and Western. The clubhouse was transported intact to a new site in Beverly Hills, and it was expanded there. The club also laid out an 18-hole course, reopened on May 30, 1911, expanded to 36 holes, and added tennis courts.

The original golf course was laid out by Sartori, Tufts, Norman Macbeth, and Charles Orr. The courses were redesigned by Herbert Fowler and George C. Thomas, Jr., and again by Thomas with William P. Bell in 1927–28.

From 2019 to 2023, Los Angeles architecture, urban design & planning, and interiors firm, Johnson Fain, along with its consultant team, restored the LACC's 80,000 square foot clubhouse. The original landmark clubhouse, designed by Sumner Hunt and constructed in 1911, was renewed and expanded including the interiors, gardens, and golf pro shop in a multi-year project.

The club has been criticized for the extraordinarily low tax rate it pays – around $300,000 annually despite land valuations calculated between six and nine billion dollars, which would ordinarily draw a tax bill of $60 to $90 million annually. This is because of a series of specific measures passed in the 1970s that provided preferential treatment to golf courses, as well as its status as a federal non-profit.

Hosts national and international championships

The club hosted the 1930 United States Women's Amateur Golf Championship; Glenna Collett Vare defeated Virginia Van Wie in the final match. The club hosted the 1954 U.S. Junior Amateur Golf Championship; Foster Bradley defeated Al Geiberger in the final match. The club hosted the 2017 Walker Cup, won by the United States.

In 1996 and 1997 an extensive renovation of the North and South courses was completed. In February 2010, an extensive restoration of the North Course by Gil Hanse and Thomas biographer Geoff Shackelford took place to return the course to George C. Thomas, Jr.'s design from 1921. The course reopened in October 2010.

Hosts PGA Tour events

The North course hosted the first Los Angeles Open 100 years ago in 1926, and it returned four times: 1934, 1935, 1936, and 1940. The most recent in 1940, won by Lawson Little, was plagued by heavy rains.

2023 U.S. Open

On July 22, 2015, the United States Golf Association (USGA) announced that Los Angeles Country Club was selected to host the 123rd U.S. Open in June 2023. The first major championship held at the club, it was the first men's major in the Los Angeles area in 28 years, and the area's first U.S. Open in 75 years.

Tournament history

Los Angeles Open

The playoff in 1935 was 18 holes and was won by two strokes, 73 to 75, and both earned the same amount.

U.S. Open

Notable members

J. Win Austin, Los Angeles City Council member, 1941–1953

Robert L. Burns, Los Angeles City Council member, 1929–1945

Arthur Letts, department store founder

Ronald Reagan