The Olympic Club, Lake Course

Boxing and rugby came before golf at this club. The Olympic Club began as an athletic club in San Francisco on 6 May 1860, the oldest of its kind in the United States, and the heavyweight champion James J. Corbett coached boxing there. It bought the Lakeside Golf Club in 1918, and the Lake and Ocean courses opened in 1924 to Willie Watson's design, built by Sam Whiting, who remodelled and rebuilt both after landslides in 1927. Robert Trent Jones reworked the Lake before the 1955 Open. Five U.S. Opens have been decided here: Jack Fleck over Ben Hogan in 1955, Billy Casper over Arnold Palmer in 1966, Scott Simpson over Tom Watson in 1987, Lee Janzen over Payne Stewart in 1998, and Webb Simpson in 2012.

The eighteenth is the hole that gets argued about. In the second round of the 1998 U.S. Open the pin was cut on top of a ridge, balls rolled well past the cup, and players complained. The green was flattened around 2000, and Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner put slope back into it in the 2023 renovation. Par is 71, and the new championship tees stretch the Lake Course to 7,060 yards. Four U.S. Amateurs have been held here, in 1958, 1981, 2007 and 2025, and the Tour Championship came in 1993 and 1994. Yuka Saso won the 2021 U.S. Women's Open here, the PGA Championship comes in 2028 and the Ryder Cup in 2033. In all five men's Opens so far, the 54-hole leader has failed to win.