Est. 1926 · George C. Thomas (with William P. Bell)
Why we love this place
Bel-Air is golf's most cinematic puzzle, a course carved through canyons where a suspension bridge and an elevator are just part of the round. We love how George Thomas refused to let brutal terrain beat him and instead turned it into strategy and drama. It is bold, clever, and unmistakably Los Angeles.
Via LINKS Magazine
About Bel-Air Country Club
Bel-Air Country Club opened in 1926 as the centerpiece of Alphonzo Bell's upscale Bel-Air Estates development in the Los Angeles hills. Its course, designed by George C. Thomas in collaboration with construction expert William P. Bell, forms one part of Thomas's celebrated Los Angeles trilogy alongside Riviera and Los Angeles Country Club's North. The site's steep barrancas forced ingenious solutions still unique in golf: players move between holes via tunnels, an elevator, and a famous suspension bridge spanning a canyon. Long tied to Hollywood, the club counted studio royalty among its members and became as known for its guest list as its architecture. In recent years Tom Doak led a sensitive restoration recovering Thomas's original strategic ideas and bunkering. Bel-Air has hosted amateur championships including the Curtis Cup, cementing its standing among the great classic layouts of the American West.
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