Richard Dunn
SANTA ANA HEIGHTS - It has been a long and storied journey through
the first 100 years of Santa Ana Country Club, the oldest golf club in
Orange County.
Next month, the club, one of the few remaining golf-only private clubs
in Southern California, will officially celebrate its centennial.
To mark its turning to another chapter, Santa Ana Country Club last
fall completed a remodeling project of its terrace room, card room,
trophy case, hallway and men's locker room.
In September, there will be tournaments and parties and jubilees, but
before members hold up their champagne glasses, the club is hosting an
event that hopes to last one-tenth of Santa Ana Country Club's span.
The second annual Jones Cup will be played Tuesday, beginning at 1
p.m., at the venerable golf course, which has occupied the same real
estate since April 1923.
From the turn of the 20th century to the industrial revolution, from
the Roaring '20s to the Great Depression, from World War II to the
transitional years of the '50s, '60s and '70s, Santa Ana Country Club is
deep in style and rich in history.
In the beginning, 1901, California's appetite for golf grew like the
orange groves in Orange County.
In one year, 43 new courses were built in the Golden State, including
the first site and precursor to present Santa Ana Country Club.
In 1899, there were five original clubs in the Southern California
Golf Association -- Los Angeles Country Club, Riverside Polo and Golf
Club, Redlands Golf Club, Pasadena Golf Club and Santa Monica Golf Club.
Of those clubs, only Los Angeles and Redlands exist today.
But, at the turn of the century, California enjoyed a golf boom and
folks in Orange County were eager to grab a share of the game's good
life. They formed Santiago Golf Club in 1901 and the first golf holes
were played in Orange County, albeit oil-soaked sand for "greens" and
native soil, or hard dirt, for fairways.
The club's original 14 members, led by President R.S. Sanborn, leased
acreage from James Irvine in the Peters Canyon area, a small valley two
miles southwest of present-day Irvine Park, and the pioneers laid out a
nine-hole course. The oiled sand for greens were about 30 feet in
diameter.
Then, with livelier golf balls demanding longer yardages and more
clubs popping up in Southern California, Orange County's original golf
settlers didn't want to be left behind in pursuing more desirable
locations.
In 1912, the members made a bold move to a 160-acre site at the
