San Gabriel Country Club

Course History

San Gabriel Country Club was founded in 1904 on land that once belonged to Mission San Gabriel, beginning as a nine-hole course laid out by Norman Macbeth after the Pacific Electric Railway brought a stop to the area. Macbeth returned in 1912 to redesign the course and add a second nine, and the club holds the distinction of being the oldest 18-hole course in the Los Angeles area still occupying its original site. William “Willie” Watson delivered a new eighteen-hole layout at the start of the 1920s — the club’s first with grass greens — and in 1929 William P. “Billy” Bell rebuilt and regrassed all eighteen greens, continuing to refine the course through the following decade. Later work came from Robert Trent Jones Sr., Robert Trent Jones Jr. and John Harbottle III, before Todd Eckenrode’s Origins Golf Design completed a 2015 renovation that restored the Bell-era character of the bunkering.

Since 1943 the club has been home to the Cravens Invitational, a Ryder Cup-style foursomes event founded in 1925 by Los Angeles businessman John S. Cravens that draws teams from across the country to compete for the Silver Bell; past competitors have included General Omar Bradley, Clint Eastwood and John Elway. San Gabriel has also hosted the SCGA Amateur Championship seven times, most recently in 2011, when Patrick Cantlay took the title. The course record of 59, set in 1954 by twelve-time club champion and 1949 Walker Cup player Bruce McCormick, still stands.

The Design & Architecture

The course occupies a compact, level property that is ideal for walking, framed by roughly a thousand trees — including coast live oaks estimated at two hundred years old — with the San Gabriel Mountains as a backdrop. The Rubio Wash cuts through the middle of the routing and three of the four par 3s play across it, while small, cleverly angled greens and Billy Bell’s serpentine, flat-bottomed bunkers supply most of the defense. Kikuyu fairways lead into Poa annua putting surfaces, a classic Southern California combination.

Signature Holes

San Gabriel’s most memorable holes trade length for character, crossing streets and washes that have been part of the routing for a century:

• No. 2 (par 5, 525 yards): the fairway crosses Hermosa Drive, a quirk of the routing that has drawn comparisons to Merion.

• No. 10 (par 4, 439 yards): a heavily bunkered two-shotter to an elevated green with runoffs on all sides.

• No. 11 (par 3, 169 yards): plays across the wash over a long diagonal bunker to a green framed by ancient oaks, with the San Gabriel Mountains behind.

• No. 17 (par 4, 452 yards): widely considered the toughest hole on the course, hemmed in by out-of-bounds, dense trees and a massive coast live oak.

• No. 18 (par 4, 395 yards): the tee shot plays back over Hermosa Drive to close the round.

Playing the Course

At par 71 and 6,664 yards with a 72.3 rating and 133 slope, San Gabriel is not long by modern standards, but the sticky kikuyu rough, the carries over the Rubio Wash and the small, well-bunkered greens demand precision over power. Approach angles matter on nearly every hole, and holding the correct side of the putting surfaces is the difference between birdie looks and awkward recoveries.

Know Before You Go

• Private club at 350 E. Hermosa Dr., San Gabriel, CA 91775; call (626) 287-9671 for tee times and details.

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