A private club in Glendale's Verdugo Mountains pairing a Max Behr-rooted, later-modernized 7,015-yard layout with a 42,000-square-foot clubhouse.

Quick Facts

Detail	Information
Established	1922
Architect	Max Behr (original); later Bell / Rainville revisions; Schmidt-Curley renovation (2009)
Type	Private
Holes / Par	18 / 71
Yardage	7015 yards
Course Rating / Slope	74.6 / 139
Location	Glendale, CA

Course History

Oakmont Country Club was founded in 1922 in the foothills above Glendale and has been a Southern California Golf Association member club ever since. The original course was laid out by Max H. Behr, the Golden Age architect and influential golf-theory writer whose Southern California work also includes Lakeside Golf Club. The club's own 90th-anniversary history frames Oakmont's story as "a tale of high ideals and expectations, interrupted by frustrations and even disasters, followed by ultimate triumph" — a club carried by generations of members from the Roaring Twenties into the new millennium.

The layout was revised over the decades, with work credited to William P. Bell, William F. Bell and David Rainville. The most significant modernization came in 2009, when Schmidt-Curley Design completed a course-wide renovation — the club today lists Brian Curley alongside Behr as its course architects. That project converted a concrete flood channel running through the property back into a natural, sand-bottomed arroyo, introduced rough-edged bunkering throughout, opened up playing corridors, doubled the size of the practice area, and created several new holes and green complexes — including a new short par 3, a drivable par 4, and a long par-5 finisher formed by combining two existing holes.

The Design & Architecture

Behr's design philosophy emphasized strategic shot-making and the integration of natural features, and Oakmont still plays that way: the routing tumbles along the base of the Verdugos, and native barrancas flank or cross a handful of holes on both nines, guarding greens at the 5th, 7th and 14th and cutting the fairway on the 15th. The 2009 Schmidt-Curley work leaned into that character, stripping out hedges and planters in favor of hard-packed sandy washes and ragged-edged bunkers that echo the arroyo. The greens supply much of the defense — from the opening hole's putting surface, which the club calls the most severe on the course, to the two-tiered 12th and the ridge-split 18th.

Playing the Course

From the back John Goodman tees, Oakmont stretches to 7,015 yards at par 71 with a 74.6 rating and 139 slope — a stout test that plays even longer than the card suggests thanks to uphill stretches and the swirling winds that complicate club selection on every par 3. Five sets of tees scale the course to friendlier yardages, walking is welcome, and the club holds groups to a four-hour pace. The course guide's recurring advice for scoring is simple: stay below the hole on Oakmont's fast, sloping greens.

Signature Holes

No. 7 — par 4, 384 yards (297 from the forward plate): Oakmont's classic risk-reward hole. Big hitters can take a run at the green with driver, but a miss means a tough bunker shot — or worse, the barranca that guards the right of the green. The conservative play is a lay-up short of the greenside bunkers in the 200-yard zone and a precise wedge into a narrow, sloping green that yields birdies and blow-ups in equal measure.

No. 16 — par 3, 147 yards: a "terrific newly created par 3" from the 2009 renovation that looks modest on the card but plays through a quartering wind to a severely undulating green defended by three deep bunkers front-left. In the course guide's words: take your par and run.

No. 18 — par 5, 646 yards from the tips: the club calls this closer "a beast from all tees" — a true three-shot hole into the prevailing breeze, downhill until it doglegs 150 yards from home. The green slopes hard from front to back and is split by a ridge on its left third; balls drifting left feed off the putting surface into a swale, while three front-left bunkers leave nearly blind recoveries.

Know Before You Go

Private club at 3100 Country Club Dr, Glendale, CA 91208; call (818) 542-4292 for tee times and details.
More info and booking at https://www.oakmontcc.com.
Tip: the dress code prohibits denim, collarless or sleeveless shirts, and cargo shorts; soft spikes or spikeless shoes are required, and walking or riding are both permitted.