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kgrace

O Club Pictures and history
« on: August 14, 2004, 12:46:21 PM »
Does anyone know of a site with pictures and some history on the Olympic Club?  I'm lucky enough to be playing there next week and want to brush up on the course.  I'm sure it will get the best of me.
Thanks,
Kevin

Joel_Stewart

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:O Club Pictures and history
« Reply #1 on: August 14, 2004, 05:50:34 PM »
There is quite a bit of information if you do a google search.  This is from www.olyclub.com

Enjoy yourself, and play it safe.


The San Francisco Olympic Club is the oldest athletic Club in the United States. It was founded on May 6, 1860 in a firehouse downtown in the still-new city by 23 young men whose number included artists, writers, lawyers, businessmen, working men, firemen, miners, immigrants and adventurers.

This diversity did then and continues now to give this extraordinary institution a special egalitarian character. But for all of the variety, Club members hold in common a single consuming passion for athletic excellence. And few organizations the world over have sent forth so many stellar athletes or so many who have registered "firsts" in their sports.
 
The earliest of these innovators was James J. Corbett, who as boxing's "Gentleman Jim" dethroned as World Heavyweight Champion the Great John L. Sullivan. In doing so he revolutionized his sport by demonstrating that a "scientific boxer" could whip a slugger. The Olympic Club also spawned in J. Scott Leary the first American to swim (in 1905) one hundred yards in 60 seconds flat and in Ralph rose the first shot putter (in 1909) to exceed 50 feet.

The Club's Maurice McLoughlin was the first successful practitioner of the "Big Game" of serve and volley in tennis, and he won the U.S. Singles Championship in 1912 and 1913. He was succeeded by his Clubmate, William "Little bill" Johnston, who won the title in 1915 and '19, as well as Wimbledon in 1923. The Olympic Club's Cornelius Warmendam in 1942 became the first pole vaulter to clear 15 feet. Its Hank Luisetti changed basketball for all time by pioneering the one-hand shot in the 1930s.

Between 1929 and 1950, the Club won six AAU championships in track and field. It has won 12 U.S. Open titles and three Masters championships in water polo. And it has won eight U.S. Masters and four World Masters championships in swimming. Since 1920 its handball players have consistently achieved national prominence, winning national championships time and again. At its gorgeous Lakeside country Club overlooking the Pacific Ocean the OC today boasts of two championship-quality golf courses, as well as a nine-hole par three spread. The premier Lakeside course has been the site of four U.S. Open championships---in 1955, 1966, 1987 and 1998.

More than 6000 members - men and women, juveniles and juniors - now enjoy a vast variety of sports in both the downtown Clubhouse on Post Street and at Lakeside that range from Swimming, Handball, Squash and Basketball to Golf, Tennis, Rugby and Soccer. The original promise has been kept, but if they somehow were alive today those original 23 members would most likely be astonished by what they would see a couple of centuries later. Then again, maybe they wouldn't be, for they were all dreamers.

David_Tepper

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:O Club Pictures and history
« Reply #2 on: August 14, 2004, 07:55:20 PM »
Kevin-

Be sure to check out the 6-8 aerial photos of the club property that hang on the wall in the main corridor within the men's locker room. They were taken at different times over the last 70 years or so and you can see how the property has changed in that time, especially regarding the Ocean Course.

There are also a large number of older photos in several show cases in the hallway outside the downstairs bar and grill room, which is on the same level as the men's locker room.  You can see pictures of how the property was originally sand dunes and almost devoid of trees, a big change from the way it looks today!

Enjoy your visit.

DT      

David_Tepper

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:O Club Pictures and history
« Reply #3 on: August 14, 2004, 09:07:29 PM »
Kevin-

Two other suggestions-

1) Assuming it is not too foggy, be sure to look for the towers of the Golden Gate Bridge while standing on the 3rd tee of the Lake Course.
2) If you do not get a chance to play the par-3 Cliff Course, be sure to take 5-minutes to walk from the driving range thru the tunnel under the highway in front of the club out to the 1st tee of the Cliffs Course. If you get a clear day, the panorama is stunning. It ain't too bad on a foggy day either.

DT

Gerry B

Re:O Club Pictures and history
« Reply #4 on: August 14, 2004, 11:09:21 PM »
The Cliffs course is one of the greatest warmups in golf - beats the range on a bad day. Add the Lakes course, a couple of burgers(maybe the best half way house food item of all time) and you cannot help but have a great day. Bonus points for close proximity to downtown SF, the airport and the San Francisco Golf Club.

Mark_Rowlinson

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:O Club Pictures and history
« Reply #5 on: August 15, 2004, 11:31:28 AM »
I had the pleasure of playing the par-3 course with David earlier this year.  It's as good a par-3 course as I've encountered anywhere.  The views are, indeed, special from it.  I played the Lake Course the previous year and had a lot of fun.  I was driving accurately, but not long, so I kept my ball in play and had no trouble with the trees.  My problem was that the ball stopped immediately on landing, leaving me out of range of just about all the two-shot holes.  One rather endearing feature was that the collars of rough around the greens grabbed the ball and kept it where it was if the approach shot was just off the green, whereas on a British links the ball would have bounced wickedly on the hard green-surround and probably shot off into deep rough or gorse bushes.  Hope you enjoy the experience.  I did.

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