Clubhouse entrance to Los Verdes Gof Course in Rancho Palos Verdes. (December 2016 Daily Breeze photo)
The announcement in December 1960 that Los Angeles County had
purchased 172 acres of land overlooking Marineland from the Capitol
Co. for $1.36 million for the purposes of building an 18-hole, championship-length golf
course must have brightened the spirits of all Peninsula duffers.
The land, located west of Hawthorne Boulevard between Crest Road and
Palos Verdes Drive South, was to be transformed into a full-length
course, approximately 7,000 yards in length.
Palos Verdes News, Nov. 28, 1963, Page 21.
Renowned local golf architect William P. “Billy” Bell was hired to
design the course. Bell designed dozens of courses in California and
Arizona, including the Bel-Air Country Club and Rancho Park Golf
Course.
The facility also would include a clubhouse, pro shop, restaurant,
coffee shop, locker rooms, driving range and practice putting green,
and was expected to cost about $2 million, which the county would make
back in greens fees. Ultimately, the course’s price tag would settle
at a much lower $1.4 million.
The County Employees Retirement Association took over the project,
buying it from Los Angeles County in 1962.
Palos Verdes News, March 28, 1964, Page 9.
Grading for the hilly course began in early 1963. A road needed to be
built leading to the course, and the construction of Los Verdes Drive
began in late 1963. The course’s first address, 30201 South Hawthorne
Boulevard, would change to 7000 Los Verdes Drive once the road was
completed.
A plan to build a high-rise hotel also was floated in 1963, when a
developer, Palos Verdes Properties, petitioned for the necessary
zoning change to build such a structure. As late as February 1965, the
idea still had traction, but ultimately, the hotel never became a
reality.
Several multistory apartment buildings were constructed along
the entrance road to the course, however, and sales at nearby housing tracts
such as Monte Verde boomed once the course was announced.
Diagram shows housing tract adjoining the new golf course. Click to enlarge. Palos Verdes News, April 4, 1965, Page 3.
Golf course plans also included construction of a nearby park at 30359
South Hawthorne Boulevard, which was approved in October 1963.
The county park would become Rancho Palos Verdes Park when the city took
it over after its incorporation in 1973. The 9-acre green space was then
renamed Robert E. Ryan Community Park in 1995, after the city councilman who
played a key role in the city’s incorporation.
In November 1963, PGA member Len Kennett was named to be the first
golf pro at Los Verdes, and it was a good hire. The former USC
collegiate golf champion would mentor golfers at Los Verdes for the
next 33 years.
A tireless supporter of junior golf, he eventually would look back and remember when a young Tiger Woods played in a Los Verdes tournament.
American Golf Corporation took over the management of the course in
1998, and Kennett decided to step down as golf pro.
Construction is in full swing in top photo; bottom right photo shows officers of the newly formed women’s golf club at the course. Click to enlarge. Palos Verdes News, March 5, 1964, Page 8.
By March 1964, 350 women already had joined the Los Verdes Women’s
Golf Club and 500 men had applied for the men’s club, a full eight
months before the course opened for play.
Greens fees were set at $2.50 per round for weekdays, and $3.00 for weekend tee times. (Prices have gone up a bit since then, but the course is still considered a bargain.)
Work continued throughout 1964, and reports were positive, with
expectations that the course would be finished later that year.
The big day finally came on Nov. 13, 1964, when the usual boatload of
public dignitaries, aided by figures from the golf world, dedicated
Los Verdes Golf Course.
Leading the festivities was Los Angeles County Supervisor Burton Chace:
“This beautiful new regional golf course was developed by the County
of Los Angeles to be operated by the Los Angeles County Department of
Parks and Recreation for the pleasure and enjoyment of all the people
of this area.”
Burton Chace hits the first shot on the new golf course on Nov. 13, 1964. Daily Breeze, Nov. 14, 1964, Page 1.
After the speechifying, which included remarks by various county
officials, Chace took his stance at the first hole at 10 a.m. on the
windy Friday morning and teed off. The Daily Breeze account of the
dedication indicates that his shot “sliced off into no-man’s land.”
Two others joined Chace on that first tee, Kennett, the club’s golf
pro, and pro golfer Bobby Nichols. Nichols was fresh from winning the
prestigious PGA Championship tournament four months earlier in Ohio,
defeating Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer.
Nichols issued a tongue-in-cheek warning to the guests at the
dedication that the wind might bring the course’s water hazard into
play that day, that hazard being the nearby Pacific Ocean.
The course officially opened to the public the following Monday, Nov.
16, and it has been popular among golfers ever since.
The practice putting green, center of photo, at Los Verdes Country Club. (December 2016 Daily Breeze photo)
Its present-day dimensions: 18 holes, 6,617 yards in length, par 71.
American Golf still runs the course, which has received the Los
Angeles County Course of the Year Award several times, most recently
in 2011.
Its beauty and its stunning ocean vistas rival those more
famous courses such as Torrey Pines and Pebble Beach, helping to make
it one of the most popular and well-regarded public golf courses in
the country. On a clear day, Catalina Island still seems like it’s only a
well-struck 9-iron away.
The Palos Verdes Concours D’Elegance car show, at the Los Verdes Golf Course. Sunday, Sept. 20, 2015. (Daily Breeze staff photo by Stephen Carr)
Non-golfers also have made great use of Los Verdes. It hosts dozens of
weddings every year, and, when the Trump National Golf Course down the
road decided to stop hosting the Palos Verdes Concours d’Elegance
classic luxury car show in 2015, Los Verdes became its new home. (The
2016 event was canceled, and organizers have yet to announce where the
2017 Concours will be held.)
View from a nearby hillside shows the course’s setting. Part of Catalina Island (and Los Verdes clubhouse) can be seen at far left. (December 2016 Daily Breeze file photo)
Sources:
Daily Breeze files.
Los Angeles Times files.
Los Verdes Golf Club website.
Palos Verdes News files.
