Valley Club Of Montecito

The Valley Club of Montecito was founded in 1928 by a group of Santa Barbara golfers and opened for play on December 30, 1929. It became the final collaboration between Alister MacKenzie and Robert Hunter, the same partnership behind Cypress Point and the Meadow Club. Several founders had seen MacKenzie's Northern California work firsthand and sought the same artistry for their coastal foothill site. The routing takes advantage of varied terrain, with holes threading naturally across the landscape and hazards placed to tempt and test rather than merely punish. Hunter oversaw construction, which many credit for how comfortably the holes settle into the land. Long admired by architecture enthusiasts, the course ranks among the top handful in California and appears regularly on national best-of lists.