Bel-Air Country Club

A cable car ferries you across a deep canyon to the first tee, and from there George Thomas routes you up, down, and along the walls of the Santa Monica Mountains in a masterclass of hillside architecture. Short by modern standards but relentless in its demands, Bel-Air proves that terrain and design trump yardage every time.

Bel-Air Country Club owes its existence to the vision and ambition of Alphonzo E. Bell Sr., an oil magnate who struck a fortune while drilling for water in his Santa Fe Springs orange groves. In the mid-1920s, Bell acquired roughly six hundred acres of rugged canyon land between Sunset Boulevard and the Santa Monica Mountains, twelve miles west of downtown Los Angeles, and set about developing what would become the Bel-Air Estates residential community. The country club was conceived as the centerpiece of this development, a place that would attract the city's most successful residents and the growing film industry to a setting of extraordinary natural beauty. Bell commissioned George C. Thomas Jr. to design the golf course, a choice that would prove inspired. Thomas, a Philadelphia-born polymath who had made his name as a rosarian and author before turning his talents to golf architecture, was then at the height of his creative powers. He had recently completed acclaimed work at Riviera Country Club and Los Angeles Country Club, and he brought to Bel-Air his characteristic blend of strategic sophistication and sensitivity to the natural landscape. Thomas was joined by two gifted collaborators: William P. "Billy" Bell, a skilled course constructor who would translate Thomas's vision into reality, and Jack Neville, the amateur golfer who had co-designed Pebble Beach Golf Links on the Monterey Peninsula. Together, this team confronted one of the most challenging pieces of golf course property in America.

The site encompassed four steep canyons separated by deep ravines, with limited flat acreage and dramatic elevation changes that would have defeated lesser architects. Thomas embraced the topography rather than fighting it, devising an ingenious system of lighted concrete tunnels, an elevator carved into the hillside, and an iconic suspension bridge to connect the disparate sections of the course. The front nine was completed first, opening to members in November 1927. The back nine followed shortly after, though its creation required Thomas to solve a significant problem: seventy-five acres originally intended for the back nine had been relinquished around 1925 for the new UCLA campus. Thomas responded by carrying the course across a wide ravine to create the 10th hole and threading eight more holes through the adjoining canyons, a routing triumph born of necessity. The result is a par-70 layout measuring approximately 6,800 yards that is unlike anything else in golf. After completing the 9th hole, golfers enter a tunnel to reach an elevator that transports them from the canyon floor to the hilltop clubhouse, where they can stop for refreshment before descending to the 10th tee. The par-three 10th, perhaps the most iconic hole on the course, demands a 150-yard carry over a steep ravine to a green framed by the rugged canyon walls. To reach the putting surface from the tee, players cross the famous swinging bridge, a suspension span that was rededicated in 2015 to honor Eddie Merrins, affectionately known as "the Little Pro," who served as Bel-Air's beloved head professional from 1962 to 2003. The bridge has become the defining symbol of the club, an experience that transcends ordinary golf and immerses the player in the theatrical grandeur of the setting.

Thomas's design philosophy at Bel-Air emphasized strategic variety over brute length. The par-three 3rd hole plays 175 yards, while the diminutive 5th is just 145 yards, both demanding precision and nerve. The par-four 17th, at 475 yards, was singled out by both Bobby Jones and Ben Hogan as a distinguished hole, a testament to the enduring quality of Thomas's design. The closing hole, the 420-yard par-four 18th, climbs seventy feet uphill to a green defended by a massive center bunker, providing a dramatic conclusion to one of golf's most memorable rounds. Throughout the course, Thomas created green complexes of exceptional variety and interest, incorporating bold contours, the famous "Mae West" mounds on the 12th hole, and deceptive slope patterns that reward careful study. The club quickly became a gathering place for Hollywood's most prominent figures. Howard Hughes famously landed his airplane on the 14th fairway to impress Katharine Hepburn, who lived just off the course and was receiving a lesson from one of the club professionals at the time. Hughes reportedly emerged from the aircraft and joined them for practice, an episode that captures the singular character of Bel-Air's membership. Over the decades, the club has counted among its members many of the entertainment industry's leading figures, including Jack Nicholson, Tom Cruise, Jason Bateman, and Dennis Quaid. The club also serves as the home course for the UCLA Bruins men's and women's golf teams, maintaining a connection to the university that was carved from the club's original acreage nearly a century ago.

In 2017 and 2018, architect Tom Doak and his team at Renaissance Golf Design undertook a comprehensive restoration to revive Thomas's original design intent. Doak's work focused on restoring green sizes and contours to their original dimensions, rebuilding the huge, bold bunkers that Thomas and Bell had crafted, eliminating non-original bunkers and water features that had been added over the decades, thinning trees that had narrowed playing corridors, and restoring short grass surrounds around the greens. The 5th hole was returned to its original 1926 location, and throughout the course, the restoration peeled back layers of accumulated changes to reveal the genius of Thomas's original work. The project earned widespread acclaim and positioned the club for its next major competitive test. In June 2026, Bel-Air Country Club will host the Curtis Cup, the biennial women's amateur team competition between the United States and Great Britain and Ireland. The event will mark a significant moment for the club, bringing international competitive golf to a course whose dramatic setting and architectural brilliance have captivated golfers for nearly a century. For members and visitors alike, Bel-Air remains a place where the artistry of George Thomas, the drama of the canyons, and the romance of Los Angeles converge into an experience found nowhere else in the game.