Brentwood Country Club

Opened in 1916, the par-71 layout is defined by a dramatic barranca - a deep native canyon that winds through the property - and by a classic, tree-lined routing that has been carefully restored to its 1920s character. The club remains strictly private and is known for its handsome Spanish-style clubhouse and its long championship pedigree.

Course History

The club traces its origins to 1916, when the first nine holes opened for play on March 25 on land initially organized as the Santa Monica Country Club. Willie Watson, a Scottish-born architect trained near St. Andrews, sketched the original routing - an unusual 'double circle' plan in which the front nine started and finished at the clubhouse while the back nine looped around it in a wider ring. Because water was scarce in that era, the earliest putting surfaces were fashioned from oiled sand.

The course was rebuilt with grass greens in the early 1920s, and in 1925 architect Max Behr reworked the layout - reportedly adding some 50 bunkers and rebuilding several greens - to prepare it for tournament play. Over the following century Brentwood hosted events including the Western Open and came close to staging the 1962 PGA Championship, and in 2016 the club celebrated its centennial.

The Design & Architecture

Brentwood's design DNA runs from Willie Watson's original 1916 routing through Max Behr's 1925 revisions to a modern restoration led by architect Todd Eckenrode of Origins Golf Design in 2013 and 2014. That renovation - recognized as Golf Inc.'s Private Club Renovation of the Year for 2015 - removed hundreds of trees, restored the native barranca with fescue and shrubs, relocated and rebuilt bunkers in a 1920s style, and converted the greens to bentgrass. The result is a firm, strategic parkland course that plays over rolling terrain with the Westside skyline as a backdrop.

Signature Holes

The signature is the par-4 16th, known at the club as the Canyon hole, where the approach plays to a green set on a peninsula with the barranca falling away on three sides. It is the most dramatic of the seven holes that engage the barranca, a feature the original architects used in a different way each time it crosses the routing and that the modern restoration returned to a sandy-bottomed, fescue-lined natural state.

A few other holes stand out on the card. The 9th, a short par 4 of about 350 yards that finishes the front nine, was rebuilt in 2017 with a lake and a restored natural creekway guarding the green. The 7th is the shortest test at roughly 142 yards, while the 446-yard par-4 6th carries one of the lowest stroke indexes at Brentwood and asks for two of the best swings of the day.

Playing the Course

The defining feature is the barranca, a canyon roughly 20 feet deep that crosses seven holes and forces players to think their way around it. Its most famous moment comes at the 16th, where the green sits on a peninsula surrounded on three sides by the ravine. Playing to a par of 71 over 6,948 yards from the championship tees (course rating 73.4, slope 135), Brentwood rewards accurate driving and sharp iron play, with tightly bunkered, firm green complexes that put a premium on approach control.

Know Before You Go

• Access: Brentwood is a private, members-only club; play is by invitation from a member.

• Location: 590 S. Burlingame Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90049, on the Westside near the 405 and Sunset Boulevard.

• Contact: (310) 451-8011; brentwoodcc.net. Amenities include a full-service clubhouse, dining, and a practice range.

• Tip: Warm up on the range first - Brentwood's firm greens and the barranca reward players who have their yardages dialed in.