Lakeside Golf Club

Tucked into Toluca Lake on the Burbank flats between Warner Bros. and Universal City, Lakeside Golf Club is one of Los Angeles' most storied private clubs. Opened in the mid-1920s to a Max Behr design, its compact, tree-lined layout and Spanish-style clubhouse became the unofficial nineteenth hole of Hollywood's golden age — the home course of Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, W.C. Fields and a long roll call of studio-era stars. Members-only and largely hidden from public view, Lakeside pairs genuine architectural pedigree with a heritage of movie-industry lore that few clubs anywhere can match.

Quick Facts

Course History

Lakeside opened in 1924 on low ground beside the Los Angeles River, and within a decade it had become the sporting clubhouse of the movie business. Its proximity to the neighboring studios made it a magnet for the era's biggest names: Bing Crosby, who won the club championship five times and whittled his handicap down to a 2, held court alongside Bob Hope, W.C. Fields, Oliver Hardy, Gene Autry, Johnny Weissmuller and, later, Ronald Reagan. The card room and the first tee were as much a part of Hollywood social life as any back lot, and generations of stars — from Frank Sinatra to Jack Nicholson and Andy Garcia — have kept the roll of members famous long after the golden age.

The riverside setting has left its marks on the course. A flood in the late 1930s destroyed the original second green, and the long par-five thirteenth was eventually lost when its land was sold to Universal Studios, replaced by a short par four. Beginning in 2011, architect Todd Eckenrode of Origins Golf Design led a multi-year restoration that used historic aerial and ground photographs to recover Max Behr's original bunkering, green sizes and lost pin positions — most dramatically at the fifteenth, whose green was expanded to roughly three times its former size and ringed with hazards.

The Design & Architecture

Max Behr — a Yale graduate, the first editor of Golf Illustrated, and a thinker Alister MacKenzie ranked among the finest American architects of his day — was a champion of strategic, options-driven golf. At Lakeside he built wide fairways with bold contours and large, boldly shaped greens on the sandy soils of a manmade-dune property, designing holes that reward the player who places a tee shot to open the best angle rather than simply the longest hitter. Multiple pin locations and generous width give the ground game room to breathe, while towering mature trees and cleverly placed bunkers frame the compact routing. Eckenrode's restoration returned much of that original width, firmness and bunker artistry, reconnecting the modern course to Behr's intent.

Playing the Course

At just over 6,500 yards to a par of 70, Lakeside is not about brute length; it is a shot-maker's course where precision off the tee and control into small, well-defended greens set the score. The front nine carries three of the layout's four par threes, and the two par fives at the second and fourth reward those willing to take on Behr's angles. Tree-lined fairways and firm, fast-running approaches place a premium on positioning, and the Verdugo Mountains and Cahuenga Peak provide a striking backdrop from nearly every hole. A course rating of 71.9 against a slope of 127 confirms that a tidy, well-plotted round still demands real skill.

Know Before You Go

• Access: Strictly private — Lakeside is a members-only club, and play is limited to members and their invited guests.

• Location: 4500 Lakeside Drive, Burbank, CA 91505, in the Toluca Lake area beside the Los Angeles River, between Warner Bros. and Universal City.

• Contact: Call (818) 984-0601 or visit lakesidegolfclub.com for membership and event inquiries.

• Tip: If you are fortunate enough to receive a member invitation, favor position over power — Behr's wide fairways and small greens reward the player who thinks about angles rather than raw distance.