Brentwood Country Club

Brentwood Country Club occupies 133 acres in the hills west of Los Angeles, where a course that began with William Watson's 1916 routing has been shaped over a century by some of California's most significant golf course architects. The current layout—restored and refined by John Harbottle in 2004 and further refined by Todd Eckenrode—plays to 6,948 yards and rewards the full range of shot-making through barrancas, hillside fairways, and demanding approach angles.

Brentwood Country Club was founded in the spring of 1915, originally incorporated as the Santa Monica Country Club before being renamed Brentwood Country Club by the end of that year. The club's founding president was tennis champion Tom Bundy, and its founding directors included prominent Los Angeles figures such as Herman Janss, who donated the temporary clubhouse site, and King Gillette, among others. William Watson, the Scottish-born golf course architect who had already established himself across California and the Pacific Coast, was engaged in January 1916 to plan the layout of the holes. On January 8, 1916, Thomas McCall met with Watson—introduced in contemporary accounts as a golf expert "of St Andrews, Chicago and Los Angeles"—to sketch the routing across the 133-acre property. Because Brentwood's early water supply was insufficient to sustain grass putting surfaces, Watson's original design featured oiled sand greens, a common solution in early California golf. The front nine opened on March 25, 1916, with the back nine following later that summer.

The club grew quickly, attracting a membership that valued both its sporting facilities and its position in the west Los Angeles social landscape. In 1921, the course underwent a complete rebuild under architect George Merritt, who changed the routing and installed grass greens throughout. The new course reopened in 1923. Two years later, in 1925, Max Behr—a significant figure in California golf architecture—undertook a major enhancement project, adding approximately 50 bunkers and rebuilding seven greens in an effort to elevate the course to championship standard. A grand Spanish Revival clubhouse costing $200,000 was completed the following year. The club converted to public operation between 1937 and 1948 before reopening as a private club in the summer of 1948.

In the years that followed, several architects made modifications to the course, including a remodel by Desmond Muirhead. The most consequential modern chapter opened in 2004, when the club commissioned architect John Harbottle to execute a full course restoration. Harbottle's work reshaped the course with a master plan that addressed bunkers, greens, tees, and routing to restore coherence and strategic interest. The course reopened in 2005 to strong reception. Harbottle is the architect of record for the current design, with the course playing to a par of 72 at 6,948 yards from the Championship tees. In subsequent years, Todd Eckenrode—who built his reputation restoring Golden Age California courses—undertook further improvements, including removing more than 300 trees, reducing maintained turf, and restoring the barranca, a defining natural drainage feature that winds through the property and had been partially obscured by years of landscape modification.

Eckenrode's approach treated the barranca as central to the course's identity, reopening the corridors that Watson and Behr had originally worked with. Today Brentwood plays at a course rating of 73.4 and slope of 135 from the Championship tees, a demanding private-club tests in the Los Angeles area. The club's competitive history includes hosting the 1950 Western Open, won by Sam Snead. Professional Olin Dutra served as head professional from 1928 to 1935, during which time he won the 1932 PGA Championship and the 1934 U.S. Open—a remarkable dual achievement that reflected well on the club's commitment to competitive golf.