Palos Verdes Golf Club is a private

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

and social club on the West coast of the

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, located in

Palos Verdes Estates, California Palos Verdes Estates (''Palos Verdes'', Spanish for "Green Sticks") is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, situated on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. The city was master-planned by the noted American landscape architect and ...

, a suburb southwest of

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History

The golf course design began in 1923, and the course was opened in 1924. The club, an amenity for area residents in the newly developed Palos Verdes Project, was designed by

Olmsted Brothers The Olmsted Brothers company was a landscape architectural firm in the United States, established in 1898 by brothers John Charles Olmsted (1852–1920) and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. (1870–1957), sons of the landscape architect Frederick Law O ...

together with the architects George C. Thomas and William P. Bell. Many varieties of trees were planted during original construction, which are now very mature and line and narrow the fairways. The land on which the course is situated is owned by the City of Palos Verdes Estates, and the club is operated under a concession agreement with the city. The clubhouse underwent a major remodel from 2005 to 2007 and is a popular venue for weddings, with expansive views of the

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and variable capacity.No. 24 Buckeyes Open Spring Slate at Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge - The Ohio State Buckeyes Official Athletics Site - OhioStateBuckeyes.com
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General information

The greens at Palos Verdes are a mixture of ''

Poa annua ''Poa annua'', or annual meadow grass (known in America more commonly as annual bluegrass or simply poa), is a widespread low-growing turfgrass in temperate climates. Notwithstanding the reference to annual plant in its name, perennial bio-types ...

'' and

bent grass ''Agrostis'' (bent or bentgrass) is a large and very nearly cosmopolitan genus of plants in the grass family, found in nearly all the countries in the world. It has been bred as a GMO creeping bent grass. Species * ''Agrostis aequivalvi'' (Ar ...

, and the fairways are kikuyu grass. The course has much change in elevation, and can be difficult for some players to walk. Guests may play the course with a member, or may pay a public rate of $275 with highly restricted non-member tee times available. For the

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is not allowed; a tucked-in collared shirt, belt, and slacks or Bermuda shorts are required, as are soft spikes. The course sits on , within an parkland preserve, encompassing several connecting canyons and unmanicured forestland. Membership is generally restricted to residential property owners in the city of Palos Verdes Estates, and is open to residents of neighboring cities only by sponsorship from an existing member, and when no residents are on the waiting list. Nonresidents of Palos Verdes Estates additionally pay a higher entrance fee. Over the last few years, the waiting list for membership has shortened, allowing residents to join quickly and nonresidents to join within one year. The club is the site of the annual

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Regional Challenge - an invitational tournament for the top

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women's golf teams in the country. In

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, it hosted the inaugural edition of the

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's Palos Verdes Championship.

The course

The course is par 71 and from the black tees, from the blue tees, from the white tees, and from the red tees. The men's

slope rating The slope rating of a golf course is a measure of its relative difficulty for a bogey golfer compared to a scratch golfer. It is used by handicapping systems to equalize the field by accounting for the likelihood that, when playing on more diffic ...

s are 72.3/133, 71.2/130 and 68.9/124 for the black, blue, and white tees, respectively. While not considered lengthy at just under 6,500 yards, the architects' use of the natural terrain, barrancas, creeks, and hills, combined with small greens, extensive bunkering, narrow fairways with strategically designed landing areas, and prevailing westerly ocean breezes, the course presents a challenge for players of all levels. Members have taken great care in preserving the original design and routing of this masterpiece. As of July 2013, the course underwent a fresh $1.5M renovation, restoring some of the lost hole design features and removing hundreds of trees to open up ocean views, and adding modern chipping areas around most greens. A number of the holes (1, 2, 3, 6, 12, 13, 14) play long, as they are into the prevailing west wind from the Pacific Ocean, less than a mile from the course. Fourteen of the course's eighteen holes feature panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean (a Thomas trademark). The front nine is a "perfect nine" - where no two holes in a row are of the same par. The course record post-renovation (black tees) is 61; the long-standing record from the blue tees pre-2013 is 59.

Scorecard

References

External links

Official site

Course blog
{{Palos Verdes Golf clubs and courses in California Landmarks in Los Angeles Clubs and societies in the United States