Wilshire Country Club
Played Wilshire in 2017 – probably my best golfing year in terms of playing new and different courses (of the highest quality). Wilshire is the quintessential LA/Hollywood private club. Its likely most famous member was Howard Hughes and as you can see above, you have a clear (at least as clear as you can get through the LA smog) view of the Hollywood sign. The course was designed by Norman MacBeth who I guess is pretty much a one-hit wonder. The vibe is Hollywood exclusive. The course was recently refurbished (before we played it) and it felt pretty isolated from the neighborhood surrounding it, though it very much feels like a “neighborhood” course. The club is really wedged into the surrounding Hancock Park neighborhood and is bisected by Beverly Blvd. It is like Merion in that it is not blessed with abundant real estate and is shoe-horned into a neighborhood but again the feel within the course proper never makes you feel like it is cramped.
So I liked Wilshire (quite a bit) but when compared to the other top-tier private LA clubs, it is kind of like the Led Zeppelin Presence of LA private clubs. Presence is a great album in its own right but when compared to the other Zeppelin albums, it is a clear level down. The top tier? LACC, Bel-Air, Riviera, and even Sherwood. They’re like the Houses of the Holy, IV, Physical Graffiti, et al. of golf courses in LA. So I guess that begs the question, what is the CODA of LA golf courses…
CODA was just God-awful – especially considering the expectation we had of it since it was a Zeppelin album. So what is the CODA of LA golf courses? Well of the ones I played, it’s probably Angeles National, but only because it just opened when I played there and had a temporary clubhouse and conditions were spotty at best. Private club? Maybe Woodland Hills but again it wasn’t CODA God-awful just another big step below Wilshire. According to Golfclubatlas.com, it’s Cypress (no not that one):
“Cypress Golf Club-Cypress, California — The other California Cypress, which on in The Confidential Guide was properly graded a “zero” which Jim Urbina himself couldn’t save. (Jim worked here for Perry Dye.) Cypress Golf Club in Cypress, California is really that bad. It’s just a bunch of hole (sic) literally “clumped” together with massive containment and fairways literally 10 yards wide in some spots. Ironically, the course doesn’t bother me all that much, and what is even more unfortunate it (sic again) that it was relying on a concept I think really could have worked–if it could have had more room for which to build upon–Golf & Horse Racing. A favorite pastime of mine that makes for a perfect Saturday. Lose money out at the golf course, and go out to the track to lose more money out there too. Even Tiger Woods used to play here, both on this version and at the old Los Alamitos Golf Course, which was an executive tract that once shared the same space as the current par 72 behemoth that exist (sic once again) there now or at least for now. Rumors are it is slated for destruction soon. The property is too commercially valuable.”
Ah but I digress. To the course. You need to cross under Beverly Blvd. to get to the first tee. We had a caddie and he was absolutely phenomenal. Conditioning was great, too. I shot a schmooth 89 here so played okay (for me) as the course didn’t play too easy nor too tough (we played the blue tees measuring 6,265 yards with a 70.7/130 rating and slope).
The first was no push over – the 5th ranked hole and a 378-yard par four. Bogey. OB was right but it wasn’t so tight that I felt nervous on it. The second was the only par-five on the front. I ended up doubling it. They brought back (or maybe just added) some nice waste areas in the redesign and that made for a real nice feature on quite a few holes. A creek meanders through the both nines, and while both front and back were good I preferred the back nine over the front. My only birdie of the day was on eight – a short-ish 365-yard par four.
So my advice for the well-connected golf-trippers, add Wilshire to your LA-area private club rota, assuming you have the chops to get on to all of the best clubs too – LACC, Riviera, Bel-Air, and Sherwood. We got in through our rep firm CAA. They actually put together a nice little package for us: golf, caddie, pro shop credits. It was pricey, but worth the treatment that we got. I have spent an ass-load amount of time in the LA area through my life and have highlighted the best restaurants/activities here and here.
So came here for a segment we were doing on Access Hollywood. Stayed at the Hollywood Roosevelt (which I talk about elsewhere) and met the hosts – funny thing is I never watched the show and kept calling Kit, Natalie and vice versa. Oops. Oh yeah also, there were a bunch of protestors around the Trump Hollywood Star when I was strolling down Hollywood Boulevard. Some triggered lib had taken a pick axe to it shortly before I was there. When I got to it, I pushed a bunch of morons out of my way and took the below shot.
Golf Scrapbook 