This iconic club’s primary clubhouse is 10 miles from the course

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“Iconic” gets tossed around like fairway grass on a windy day, but the Olympic Club qualifies. A dozen USGA championships hosted, the 2033 Ryder Cup on the way. That glorious clubhouse framing the tricky par-4 finishing hole …

Well, that’s not Olympic’s main clubhouse. Its primary digs are its City Clubhouse, located 10 miles away, in San Francisco’s famed Union Square district. The Olympic Club isn’t just a golf club. It’s an athletic club — America’s oldest, founded on May 6, 1860, five months prior to the first Open Championship being held in Scotland.

The masonry-style City Clubhouse dates back more than a century, to 1912, and sits next door to another private establish-ment, the (male-only) Bohemian Club, which caters to local and global leaders in the arts and business world.

Courtesy Olympic Club

James J. Corbett, prizefighting’s “Gentleman Jim,” joined Olympic in 1884, 40 years before the club opened its Lake and Ocean courses. Corbett later became heavyweight champion and taught boxing at the club, which is like having Greg LeMond as your SoulCycle instructor. Speaking of cycling, it’s traditionally one of Olympic’s fortes, with the 1924 U.S. Olympic cycling team coach (Ernest Ohrt) and later several professional road racers among its number.

The Olympic Club’s aquatic accomplishments are many—its water polo team won the 1959 national championship, and member Maureen O’Toole won a silver medal in the sport with Team U.S.A. at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.
The Olympic Club’s aquatic accomplishments are many — its water polo team won the 1959 national championship, and member Maureen O’Toole won a silver medal in the sport with Team U.S.A. at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.

Courtesy Olympic Club

Then there was the member who set the shot put world record in 1909 (Ralph Rose); the innovative college basketball superstar who developed an early version of the jump shot (Hank Luisetti); the 1950 U.S. Open tennis champion (Arthur Larsen). There isn’t time here to list the club’s team accomplishments in basketball, cycling, track and field, football and rugby, but rest assured they, too, are of historic proportions.

The club’s basketball team captured two AAU Basketball Championship titles, in 1915 and 1941.
The club’s basketball team captured two AAU Basketball Championship titles, in 1915 and 1941.

Courtesy Olympic Club

The current City Clubhouse isn’t the original, which was destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. It houses a fitness center, a cardio solarium, squash and handball courts, circuit training facilities, two basketball courts and a pair of swimming pools.

Always providing an intense cardio workout, squash is another popular sport at the City Clubhouse.
Always providing an intense cardio workout, squash is another popular sport at the City Clubhouse.

Courtesy Olympic Club

Less strenuous amenities include a pub, dining room, meeting and banquet rooms, guest rooms and a rooftop deck. Or you could jump in a car and be at the first tee in a half hour, depending on traffic.

Ten miles away, Olympic’s 45 holes of golf beckon, com- prising the Ocean (pictured) and Lake 18-holers and the nine-hole Cliffs, in the bluffs over- looking the Pacific Ocean.
Ten miles away, Olympic’s 45 holes of golf beckon, comprising the Ocean (pictured) and Lake 18-holers and the nine-hole Cliffs, in the bluffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Evan Schiller

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