‘Where the fun never stops’: An inside look at the major renovations at Bel-Air Country Club

If you scripted a movie centered around the quintessential Los Angeles golf club, that lead would look a lot like Bel-Air. Winding through the mansion-dotted canyons of the Hollywood Hills, Bel-Air Country Club is a Tinseltown vision of Southern California golf with topography so steep it seems fictitious as golfers are guided hole to hole through tunnels, an elevator and the city’s most famous suspension bridge.

The design is one of the cornerstones in the trilogy of great Los Angeles courses built by architect George Thomas, and since it opened in 1926, Bel-Air has been known as much for its famous and colorful membership as for the unique arrangements of its holes. A who’s who of actors, directors, musicians, athletes, professional golfers and even U.S. presidents have played their golf on these sunny fairways. Regardless of their level of fame, the guiding principle for all of them is the same: “Leave your ego at the door.”

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A major renovation by Tom Doak and his associates that began in 2017 brought back the glory days of Thomas’ original architecture, leading to the course’s highest spot in our national rankings in over 30 years (125th on our 2025-2026 list). Plus, the debut of a new 64,000-square-foot clubhouse to celebrate the club’s centennial anniversary has enhanced Bel-Air’s reputation as one of the country’s most unique hangouts—the club, they say, where the fun never stops.

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Completing a George C. Thomas hat trick of designs—the others being Los Angeles Country Club (North) and (Riviera)—is Bel-Air Country Club. It’s a charming throwback design that winds through mansion-dotted canyons of Los Angeles, the topography so steep that golfers are guided from hole to hole via a tunnel, an elevator and the city’s most famous suspension bridge, which spans a gulch on the par-3 10th and serves as a dramatic backdrop for the 18th green.

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Bel-Air’s original clubhouse, designed by Southern California architect Carleton Winslow, opened in 1926 and stood like a Spanish Colonial acropolis overlooking the golf course. In 2021, the club demolished the old structure and began replacing it with a new, larger version designed by the firm MAI, mirroring the original’s style and layout. Stone from the old building was salvaged and repurposed, and four fireplace hearths from the members’ card room have also been reincorporated. Upgrades include over 10 times more patio and terrace space, expanded dining options and new overnight accommodations.

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HOLE 1: 510 YARDS, PAR 5

Thomas began each of his L.A. courses with a par 5 reachable in two for good players. Like at Riviera, the opening tee shot at Bel-Air plays steeply downhill off the clubhouse plateau toward the skyline of Westwood and the UCLA campus, with downtown Los Angeles visible on clear days. Dry barrancas that were reconstructed in 2018 wind down each side of the broad fairway, but there’s plenty of room to land the ball—and the hole is really about the second and third shots. Approaches that cover the bunkers 60 yards short of the green can ride the kick slope on the left onto a large green that runs away toward a grass hollow on the right.

HOLE 3: 160 YARDS, PAR 3

George Thomas’ elegant bunkers decorating the par-3 third had to be recreated by Doak’s team to replace a small pond that had been added in front of the green in the 1980s. The hole was made possible only after Thomas’ crews blasted a saddle in a rocky hillside above the second green to create the nook for the secluded tee. The shot plays downhill to an island-like green elevated above its surroundings, spilling off on all sides into bunkers and chipping areas. Member Richard Nixon, then the ex-Vice President, memorably aced the third hole in 1961.

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HOLE 10: 205 YARDS, PAR 3

Members and guests are lifted from the lower ninth green by an elevator embedded deep inside the clubhouse mountain to the high 10th tee set tight against the newly expanded outdoor patio. One of five par 3s, the tee shot at No. 10 plays across a deep ravine spanned by the iconic Swinging Bridge. The green is another Bel-Air oddity, a giant catcher’s mitt with moguls and ramps that corral the ball onto the putting surface. It’s imperative here to use enough club to take advantage of the helping contours since balls that come up short often filter 20 yards back down the fairway.

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TUNNELS

While the canyons of the Hollywood Hills and glamorous estates that adorn them provide a movie-set backdrop to the golf, they limited where Thomas was able to route the course. The fingerlike valleys forced him to lay the holes in the low areas, and the only way to link up the segregated sections was to drill long tunnels through the mountain ridges between them. In four places golfers are teleported from one Bel-Air quadrant to another through underground passageways, including the long subterranean tunnel leading to the elevator that delivers golfers up to the clubhouse terrace. The combination of tunnels, bridges and elevators make a round at Bel-Air one of the game’s unique voyages.

HOLE 17: 475 YARDS, PAR 4

On a course full of scenic and historic holes the long 17th might be one of the best par 4s George Thomas built. The canted fairway is 50 yards wide, but like all good strategic holes the angles reward drives that hug the inside line of the dogleg next to the ravine on the right. This sets up a long approach straight into the depth of a narrow green perched regally against the backdrop of the UCLA campus. The putting surface is starkly crowned, falling away on three sides, and missing left or right is dead. Smart golfers know the play is always to keep the ball short rather than fire at back pins.

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