Olympic Club - Daly City, CA
Posted by: 
DougK
N 37° 42.560 W 122° 29.728
10S E 544471 N 4173685
Established in San Francisco in 1860 the Olympic Club enjoys the distinction of being America's oldest athletic club. Their members wear the logo of a winged "O".
Waymark Code: WMBTWR
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 06/20/2011
Views: 3
The Olympic Club has two clubhouses for members. The downtown clubhouse in San Francisco is known as the City Clubhouse and the one at the golf course is known as the Lakeside Clubhouse. There are three golf courses at the Olympic Club. The Lake Course and Ocean Course are 18-hole, par-71 courses, and the Cliffs is a nine-hole, par-3 course that is on the bluffs of the Pacific Ocean. More detailed descriptions of each course can be found at
Wikipedia.
From the Olympic Club History web page:
In 1918, the Club assumed control of the operations of the financially distressed Lakeside Golf Club, thus gaining the 18-hole golf course designed by Scotsman Wilfred Reid. By 1922, the Club purchased enough acreage to replace the original golf course with two 18-hole golf courses, as well as build a new clubhouse. The Lakeside clubhouse, designed by famed architect Arthur Brown (who also designed the San Francisco City Hall) opened in 1925. Willie Watson designed and Superintendent Sam Whiting constructed the first Ocean (Pacific Links) and Lake Courses in 1924. Due to storms during the winter of 1925/1926, the second Lake Course (today’s) and Ocean course were designed by Sam Whiting and opened in 1927.
Lakeside went through several major renovations to modernize and upgrade the facilities. A new 9-hole par 3 Cliffs Course overlooking the Pacific Ocean was added in 1994. The Ocean Course went through a few renovations, but a new, fresh course, designed by Tom Wieskopf, opened in 2000. The Club completed the latest Lake Course renovation in 2009, which featured the creation of a new 8th hole and bent-grass surfaces on all the putting greens. The Lakeside Clubhouse itself was extensively updated in 1995.
In 1955, the Club had the honor of hosting its first U.S. Open. Robert Trent Jones, the USGA golf course architect, arrived prior to the US Open to prepare the Lake Course, which included lengthening it, altering par on several holes and adding a fairway bunker to #6. The 1955 Open came down to a playoff between Jack Fleck and Ben Hogan; Fleck, an unknown golf professional, took the championship over Hogan, already a legendary golf figure. When Billy Casper won over Arnold Palmer at the 1966 US Open, the Lake cemented its reputation as a host of upsets and “a graveyard of great golfers.” The course lived up to its reputation in both 1987 and 1998, when Scott Simpson won the 1987 Open over Tom Watson and Lee Janzen won over Payne Stewart in 1998. The Club will host their fifth US Open in June, 2012.