Olympic Club

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The Olympic Club is a country club with several golf courses located in San Francisco, California. The club itself is located in San Francisco. The courses are on a property that straddles the boundary between San Francisco and Daly City, and the clubhouse has a Daly City postal address. They are separated by about 10 miles. The three courses at The Olympic Club are the Cliffs, Lake, and Ocean courses. The Lake and Ocean are eighteen hole par 71 courses, and the Cliffs is a nine hole par 3 course that is on the bluffs of the Pacific Ocean. All three courses are lined with many trees (almost 40,000 on the Lake course) and offer views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Golden Gate Park. The United States Golf Association recognizes the Olympic Club as one of the first 100 golf clubs established in the United States.

The city clubhouse is located at:

524 Post Street

San Francisco, CA 94102

+1 (415) 345-5100

The golf courses are located at:

599 Skyline Boulevard

Daly City, CA 94015

+1 (415) 587-8338

1 History
2 The courses
3 The U.S. Opens
4 External links

[edit] History

The Olympic Club is the oldest athletic club in the United States. The Olympic Club was established on May 6, 1860. The Lake and Ocean Courses opened that year with Sam Whiting as the course architect. James J. Corbett, the heavyweight boxing champion from 1892 to 1897, joined the club in 1884. He later went on to coach boxing at the club for many years. On January 2, 1893 the club opened its first permanent clubhouse on Post Street. That building did not survive the San Francisco earthquake. In 1909, Olympian and club member Ralph Rose set a world record shot put throw of 51 feet. In 1913, the Olympic Club's top rugby union side held the All Blacks of New Zealand, then (as now) one of the world's top teams in that sport, to a draw. Olympic Club members would later form the core of the US national team that would win gold medals in rugby at the 1920 and 1924 Summer Olympics, the last two times the sport was part of the Olympic program.

In 1915, the club's amateur basketball team won the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Basketball Championship. In 1934, club member Fred Apostoli won the National Amateur Middleweight boxing title. In 1937, the Olympic Club track and field team won the Track and Field National Championships. In 1941, club member Hank Luisetti helped lead the Olympic Club basketball team to win the AAU Basketball Championships again. In 1950, Olympic Club member Arthur Larsen won the U.S. Open of tennis in Forest Hills, New York. The Olympic Club water polo team won the 1959 Water Polo National Championship.

In 1993, the Club set up the Winged "O" Foundation. Its purpose is to fund youth sports programs for the youth of the Bay Area. The Cliffs Course opened in 1994 with Jay Morrish and Tom Weiskopf as the course architects. Club member Maureen O'Toole won a silver medal in water polo at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. Two Olympic Club members have won the Dipsea Race. They include Norman Bright in 1970 and Shirley Matson in 1993.

The Olympic Club hosted the 2004 U.S. Junior Amateur and the U.S. Amateur in 1958 (won by Charles Coe) and 1981 (won by Nathaniel Crosby, son of Bing Crosby). The Lake Course will be used for the 2007 U.S. Amateur.

[edit] The courses

[edit] General course information

Guests can only play the courses when accompanied with a club member. The pro shop is open from 7:30 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. (Pacific Time). The dress code states that denim is not allowed and that a collared shirt and Bermuda shorts are required. Metal spiked shoes and groups of five are not allowed. The courses are open all year but are closed on Mondays. The greens are aerated at various times of the year and there is no overseeding. There are few bunkers on the course and no water hazards. The greens are bent grass and the fairways are poa annua.

The green fees for the Lake Course as of 2006 are $75 for eighteen holes. The green fees for the Ocean Course are $70 for eighteen holes. The green fees for the Cliffs Course is $18. The green fees listed apply to club members who do not have a golf membership.

[edit] The Lake Course

18th hole at the Lake Course

The Lake Course has been recognized by GOLF Magazine in its list of the Top 100 Courses in the U.S. It has also been recognized in GOLFWEEK's category of "America's 100 Best Classical Courses."

The regular yardage of the Lake Course is 6,842 yards from the championship tees, with a course rating of 74.4 and a slope rating of 140. From the next set of tees forward, the course measures 6,529 yards, and has a course rating of 72.7 and a slope rating of 136. From the next set of tees forward, the course measures 6,184 yards, and has a course rating of 71.5 and a slope rating of 133. From the front tees, the course measures 5,718 yards, and has a course rating of 69.2 and a slope rating of 127.

[edit] The Ocean Course

The regular yardage for the Ocean Course is 6,942 yards from the championship tees with a course rating of 72.8 and a slope rating of 126. From the next set of tees forward, the course measures 6,502 yards and has a course rating of 71.3 and a slope rating of 123. From the next set of tees forward, the course measures 5,865 yards with a course rating of 68.4 and a slope rating of 118. From the front tees, the course measures 5,352 yards with a course rating of 65.9 and a slope rating of 112.

[edit] The Cliffs Course

The Cliffs Course is the windiest because it is set on the bluffs above the Pacific Ocean. It measures 1,800 yards.

[edit] The U.S. Opens

The Olympic Club has hosted four U.S. Open Championships in 1955, 1966, 1987, and 1998. It is scheduled to host the U.S. Open again in 2012.

Jack Fleck won the 1955 U.S. Open. He defeated Ben Hogan in an 18-hole playoff after the two had tied at the end of 72 holes. They both had scores of 287. Billy Casper defeated Arnold Palmer in a playoff to win the 1966 U.S. Open. In 1987, Scott Simpson won the U.S. Open by one stroke over Tom Watson.

Lee Janzen won the most recent U.S. Open at Olympic in 1998 with a score of 280 (even par, as the course played a par 70 for the U.S. Open). In the 1998 U.S. Open, players complained about the pin position at the 18th hole in the second round. The pin was set at the top of a ridge, and, with the U.S. Open's knack for making hard, fast greens, many balls rolled on way past the cup. Kirk Triplett incurred a two-stroke penalty when he used his putter to stop the ball from rolling. Payne Stewart, the runner-up to Janzen, complained as he three-putted the hole.