Palos Verdes Golf Club

Course History

Palos Verdes Golf Club opened in 1924 as a centerpiece amenity of the Palos Verdes Project, the master-planned community then taking shape on the peninsula. The course was laid out by George C. Thomas Jr. and William P. "Billy" Bell — the celebrated Golden Age partnership also responsible for Riviera and Bel-Air — working alongside the Olmsted Brothers, the landscape firm guiding the wider Palos Verdes Estates development. The land is owned by the City of Palos Verdes Estates, and the club operates under a long-standing concession agreement.

The clubhouse was extensively remodeled between 2005 and 2007, and in 2013 the club completed a roughly $1.5 million course renovation that restored original design features, removed hundreds of trees to reopen ocean vistas, and added modern chipping areas. Long the host of the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge, a premier NCAA women's golf invitational, the course stepped onto the professional stage in 2022 when it hosted the inaugural LPGA Palos Verdes Championship.

The Design & Architecture

Thomas and Bell prized accuracy over length, and Palos Verdes is a textbook expression of that philosophy: natural barrancas and creeks cut across the routing, small, well-bunkered greens demand precise approaches, and the front nine is arranged so that no two consecutive holes share the same par. Fairways and rough are kikuyu grass, the greens a firm, fast blend of bentgrass and Poa annua, and the prevailing westerly ocean breeze bears on much of the round — many holes offer Pacific Ocean views.

Signature Holes

The opener is a 395-yard par 4, a slight dogleg right guarded by a left fairway bunker and finishing at an elevated green with a false front. The downhill par-3 4th frames snow-capped Mt. Baldy in the distance on clear winter days. The 560-yard par-5 7th works along a sloping fairway toward a narrow green opening protected by a pond and bunkers. And the 405-yard 18th closes the round with a dogleg right into a large green that slopes from back to front and is ringed by bunkers.

Playing the Course

At 6,500 yards and a par of 71, Palos Verdes is not long by modern standards, but its 72.8 rating and 134 slope tell the real story: grabby kikuyu rough, small greens, and ocean wind put a premium on ball-striking and course management — exactly as Thomas and Bell intended.

Know Before You Go

• Private club at 3301 Via Campesina, Palos Verdes Estates, CA 90274. Verified Palos Verdes Estates residents may play after 2 p.m. daily under the club’s posted policy, subject to changes for tournaments, holidays, or daylight saving time; residents cannot host guests. Call the pro shop at (310) 373-8659 for play details.

• More info and booking at https://www.pvgc.com.

Course figures source: club Black tee scorecard.