Born as the Santa Monica Country Club on July 6, 1915, the club secured 133 acres by purchase and lease and planned an eighteen-hole golf course, twenty tennis courts and a polo field, at what was then Brentwood Park, Santa Monica.
Tennis champion Tom Bundy was founding president, with Thomas McCall of the Los Angeles Country Club, vice president. Directors included Mayor Dudley of Santa Monica, real estate man Robert Marsh, Riverside’s Frank Miller, and class amateur golfer and LACC member Norman Macbeth.
Old-time polo players George Waring, and J.B. Proctor, along with tennis players, Claude Wayne, the Sutton and McCall sisters, Herman Janss, King Gillette, Stanley Anderson, and Judge Works, were some of the other charter members.
By the end of July 1915, the club was renamed Brentwood Country Club. Architect Frank T. Kegley designed a clubhouse and trees were planted to enhance the site.
On Saturday, January 8, 1916, Thomas McCall met with golf expert William Watson of St Andrews, Chicago and Los Angeles, and planned the layout of the holes. Under the direction of McCall and his golf advisory committee of E. S. Armstrong and Norman Macbeth, work began on Monday clearing and smoothing the grounds, before constructing Watson’s novel double circle all-grass 18-hole sand-green golf course.
105 years ago on Saturday, March 25, 1916, the new Brentwood Country Club held their official opening with nine-holes ready to play and the temporary clubhouse (donated by Herman Janss) outfitted with lockers, showers and baths. The 3,004 yard, par 35, front nine would be followed in the summer by the opening of the second nine. Hutt Martin of LACC acted as host professional for a series of putting and driving contests played over the opening weekend. Clarence Mandeville was then hired as the club’s first professional instructor, and the youngest on the West coast.
105 Years of the Brentwood Country Club 1916 by J.I.B. Jones
©2021 jib jones/golfhistoricalsociety