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 The original Virginia Country Club, which is now the site of Long Beach's Recreation Park Golf Course (COURTESY: Virginia Country Club). As the club looks back on its 100-year anniversary, the membership will celebrate with a gala event and commemorate the milestone with a book and DVD that chronicles its history. Virginia Country Club was conceived in 1909 by Charles Rivers Drake as an amenity to the new Virginia Hotel, once considered one of the five best in the West. It was stated that a single night’s stay could wipe out a workingman’s bank account. The original course was built in the center of a sheep-grazing pasture atop Reservoir Hill. Club members designed the course that featured sand greens slicked with oil to create a better putting surface. Architect Willie Watson was later brought in to forge a more formidable track. In 1920, the club moved to its current location, and the original layout morphed into what is today known as Recreation Park Golf Course. The hotel was vacated as a result of the stock market crash in 1929, and it was torn down in 1933 — just weeks before a 6.4 magnitude earthquake devastated the area. After the move, the membership again selected Watson to design the layout. It was freshened in the late 1930s by A.W. Tillinghast and William P. Bell, and refurbished again in the late 1990s by John Harbottle. At 6,633 yards from the back tees, Virginia Country Club is hardly a monster, but what the course lacks in length it makes up for in character and strategic routing. It also has become a focal point of professional golf locally, with tour pros John Cook, Paul Goydos, John Merrick, John Mallinger and Peter Tomasulo all calling Virginia Country Club their home. ALSO SEE: Remembering Julius "Julie" Bescos, former Virginia Country Club and SCGA president |
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