Valencia Country Club

parkland course in Valencia, renovated by Fry/Straka and reopened in 2022. It hosted the PGA Tour's Nissan Open in 1998–99.

Course History

Valencia Country Club was established in 1965, with Robert Trent Jones Sr. laying out a championship parkland course in the Santa Clarita Valley. The club's biggest moment on the national stage came in February 1998, when the PGA Tour's Nissan Open (the historic Los Angeles Open) moved to Valencia while Riviera Country Club was being prepared to host that summer's U.S. Senior Open — Billy Mayfair rallied past Tiger Woods to take the title. Valencia was also the longtime home of the Champions Tour's AT&T Champions Classic, a senior event founded in 1990 that ran through 2009, when Dan Forsman won its final playing, and the course continues to host top amateur and professional qualifying, including final qualifying for the 125th U.S. Open in 2025.

Dallas-based Arcis Golf acquired the club in 2014 and undertook a sweeping seven-month renovation with Fry/Straka Global Golf Course Design, reopening the course in October 2022. The project set out to restore Jones's original strategic intent: every teeing ground was rebuilt and squared off in classic rectangles, forward and back tees were added on all 18 holes, bunkers were repositioned, removed, or added to create new angles of attack, and all turf except the greens was replaced — cutting irrigation needs by roughly 30%. The work earned Valencia first place for Renovation of the Year in Golf Inc. magazine's private-club category.

Signature Holes

Valencia’s third is a par three with water guarding the right side of the green, shown in Fry/Straka’s post-renovation gallery. The sixteenth is another water-influenced par three.

The closing holes retain Jones's strategic emphasis on position, with bunkers, water and sloping greens shaping approaches. Fry/Straka's 2022 project restored the original design intent and rebuilt or repositioned many bunkers.

Know Before You Go

• Private club at 27330 Tourney Rd, Valencia, CA 91355; call (661) 254-4401 for tee times and details.

• Club and guest information at https://arcisgolf.com/clubs/valencia-country-club/home.

Course figures source: SCGA Gold tee player information.