Welcome to Lake Merced Golf Club
Lake Merced Golf Club is a private golf and tennis club just minutes from downtown San Francisco featuring a championship golf course and practice facilities, with a proud tradition of diverse membership, and offering a great golf experience for avid Bay Area golfers and their families.
Today, Lake Merced Golf club stretches out to a Par 72 that covers 6,925 yards. The layout is defined by the natural beauty that is created by steep elevation changes carved into tree-lined lush green fairways. The course is known across the Bay Area as a tough, but very fair test of golf, on a course that is the crown jewel of the world-class Lake Merced Golf Club experience. Hand in hand Lake Merced offers a fantastic golf experience, along with a luxurious clubhouse that was rebuilt in 2005. The food and beverage program is also a highlight of Lake Merced, offering its members impeccable service and a true culinary experience. If you are planning a special occasion, it is the ideal setting for wedding receptions, golf tournaments and other events.
With its diverse, family friendly membership, this is truly a “home away from home.”
The Course
Today, the Lake Merced Golf Club stretches out to a Par 72 that covers 6,863 yards. The layout is defined by the natural beauty that is created by steep elevation changes carved into tree-lined lush green fairways. The course is known across the Bay Area as a tough, but very fair test of golf, on a course that is the crown jewel of the world-class Lake Merced Golf Club experience. The course however, like our club itself, has undergone many changes in its lifetime.
Lake Merced Golf Club exists today because of the passionate pride the members have always had for the quality of the golf course. In July of 1923 Lake Merced Golf Club opened for play on what was universally regarded to as a masterpiece creation of Willie Lock, the original designer. In 1929, Dr. Alister MacKenzie, architect of Augusta National, was retained to improve the sand traps and areas around the greens. The result improved on what was already considered one of Northern California’s greatest golf course design achievements.
In the 1960’s, Lake Merced Golf Club yielded to the advancing Interstate 280. Robert Muir Graves re-routed the course beautifully, and the result is the foundation of the current design. Evidence of the elite caliber of the course can be found in the numerous championships we have proudly hosted. These championships include many NCGA Championships and US Open sectional qualifiers. Lake Merced Golf Club also has the distinction of the being the site of Tiger Woods’ USGA Championship debut, when he competed in the 1990 USGA Junior.
Finally, in 1996, the final revision of our golf course was completed when Rees Jones was brought in to repair a developing drainage problem. Rees Jones is the acclaimed “US Open Doctor,” a moniker he earned by preparing championship golf courses for US Open competition. Rees Jones continues to serve as custodian to the long-term Master Plan of Lake Merced Golf Club.
Since 1923, generations of Lake Merced Golf Club members have walked these verdant fairways, proud to be part the rich history carved into this old Sand Dune beside the Pacific Ocean. We welcome our guests and prospective members to come enjoy our great golf course with us.