Lakeside Golf Club is a strictly private, member-only course in Burbank's Toluca Lake neighborhood — founded in 1924, steeped in Hollywood history, and home to one of the most celebrated par-70 layouts in Southern California.
Keep reading for a full breakdown of the course design, membership, celebrity history, club rules, and everything else worth knowing before you go.
The Origin Story — Why Lakeside Was Founded
Lakeside Golf Club exists because of a rejection. In the early 1920s, Wilshire Golf Club refused to admit celebrities, entertainers, and professional athletes — drawing a hard social line that would inadvertently give birth to one of the most storied clubs in American golf.
About a dozen Hollywood businessmen, tired of being shut out, gathered at the Hollywood Athletic Club on Sunset Boulevard and took matters into their own hands.
They pooled resources, purchased a large tract of orchard land in the western San Fernando Valley, and broke ground in 1922. The development didn't just produce a golf course — it sparked the growth of the entire Toluca Lake residential community around it.
The club was formally organized on May 12, 1924, and the course opened on November 14 of that same year.
The opening day came with an unexpected guest: a lion from Universal Studios' nearby animal menagerie let out a roar loud enough to rattle golfer George Von Elm on the 18th green — a fitting, only-in-Hollywood introduction.
Today, the club operates under the official name “Lakeside Golf Club of Hollywood” and is registered as a 501(c)(7) nonprofit organization. The name has always carried that Hollywood tag deliberately, and a century later, it still fits.
The Course — Design, Layout, and Renovation
Max Behr — a Yale graduate (Class of 1905) and the first editor of Golf Illustrated magazine — designed the original course alongside Willie Watson in 1924.
Working with flat orchard land along the Los Angeles River, Behr used the site's sandy soils to build man-made dunes and bold ground undulations, creating a layout that looked and played nothing like what the land originally suggested.
His philosophy was unconventional for the era: no rough whatsoever, with natural terrain contours and strategic bunkering doing all the work.
The result impressed the best minds in golf. Alister MacKenzie called it one of the world's greatest golf courses, and Walter Hagen went as far as calling it the finest test in the West. Golf historians also credit Lakeside's design — its width, minimal rough, and strategic emphasis — as a direct influence on Augusta National.
The Numbers
| Tees | Yards | Rating | Slope |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tournament | 6,840 | 73.7 | 130 |
| Championship | 6,539 | 71.9 | 127 |
The par-70 layout has only two par 5s, which makes the course play tougher than its yardage implies. Four holes worth knowing before you play:
- 5th hole — 465 yards, uphill dogleg-left with a wildly rolling fairway
- 9th hole — 245 yards, a reverse-Redan and the course's toughest hole
- 13th hole — 302 yards, reachable off the tee for longer hitters
- 15th hole — just 90 yards, with a tiny green ringed by sand
The greens are small, fast, and widely regarded as among the best-conditioned in all of Los Angeles.
The Restoration
Between 2011 and 2018, architect Todd Eckenrode of Origins Golf Design led a two-phase restoration that won the 2018 Golf Inc. Renovation of the Year for private clubs.
- Phase 1 (2011): Replaced all infrastructure — new irrigation, drainage systems, and hybrid Bermuda sod — and removed hundreds of trees that had gradually narrowed the fairways over the decades.
- Phase 2 (2017–2018): Used historic photographs to restore Behr's original vision, enlarging greens, reinstating bunkers, widening corridors, and bringing back closely mown chipping areas to revive the ground game Behr intended.
The restoration didn't reimagine the course — it brought it back.
The Celebrity Roster — Hollywood's Home Course
No golf club in the country has a membership history quite like Lakeside's. Its location — sandwiched between major studios in Toluca Lake — made it the natural gathering spot for Hollywood's elite from day one, and that tradition has held across every generation since.
The Classic Era
The anchor members were Bing Crosby, who joined in 1930 and won five club championships, and Bob Hope, who joined in 1937 and made Lakeside his home course until his death in 2003 at age 100. Around them was a roster that reads like a Hollywood hall of fame:
- W.C. Fields, Howard Hughes, John Wayne, Frank Sinatra, Ronald Reagan
- Humphrey Bogart, who was nearly a scratch golfer
- Oliver Hardy, Fred Astaire, Dean Martin, Stan Laurel, Mickey Rooney, Jack Benny
In 1931, Bobby Jones used Lakeside as the primary filming location for his Warner Bros. instructional series How I Play Golf — a production that featured James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson, and W.C. Fields as on-course cameos. It was golf and Hollywood, literally on the same fairway.
The Modern Membership
The entertainment-industry pipeline never dried up. Current and recent members include Jack Nicholson — who took up golf at 52 and reportedly shot a 64 at Lakeside around 2000 — along with Joe Pesci, Andy Garcia, Ray Romano, Justin Timberlake, and George Lopez, who has hosted charity golf events at the club.
That membership list helps explain why, in the late 1990s, a Japanese business group reportedly offered around $1 billion to purchase the club. The members said no — and given what Lakeside represents, it's not hard to understand why.
Membership — How to Join and What It Costs
Lakeside is strictly private, with no public access and no open application process. The only way in is through an existing member who is willing to propose and sponsor you.
A waiting list is likely, though the club doesn't publish specifics — that level of transparency isn't really the Lakeside style.
What It Costs
Exact fees aren't disclosed, so any figures here come with that caveat. The last published numbers appeared in a 1988 Los Angeles Times article: a $50,000 initiation fee and roughly $270 per month in dues.
Both are almost certainly much higher today. For context, here's how Lakeside compares to other well-known LA private clubs based on available estimates:
| Club | Estimated Initiation Fee |
|---|---|
| Riviera Country Club | ~$250,000 |
| Lakeside Golf Club | ~$75,000–$150,000+ |
| El Caballero Country Club | ~$40,000 |
| Hillcrest Country Club | ~$35,000 |
On top of initiation, members pay monthly dues and a food and beverage minimum. The Lakeside range above is speculative — drawn from comparable club benchmarks rather than any official source.
Guest Access
If you're not a member, your only realistic path onto the course is as someone's guest. Members must accompany guests at all times and take full financial responsibility for any charges incurred.
Guest green fees run approximately $200 for 18 holes, though that figure comes from third-party sources rather than the club directly. Guests follow the same dress code and rules as members — no exceptions.
Club Rules, Traditions, and Etiquette
Lakeside runs on old-school expectations, and knowing them before you arrive — as a guest or a prospective member — matters.
Dress Code
The standards are traditional and consistently enforced:
- Collared or mock-turtleneck shirts, tucked in at all times
- Bermuda-style shorts only — no other short styles permitted
- No denim of any kind or color
- Spikeless or soft-spike golf shoes; metal spikes are not allowed
- Hats and visors must be worn forward on the course and removed entirely inside the clubhouse, except in the locker room
Cell phones are prohibited in the clubhouse, on the putting green, and at the driving range. It's a small detail that says a lot about the atmosphere the club is trying to protect.
The Two Traditions That Define the Experience
Beyond the dress code, two rules shape what a round at Lakeside actually feels like. First, walking with a caddie is the preferred way to play — the club describes it as one of its most enduring traditions. Carts are available, but the culture clearly favors feet on the ground.
Second, rounds must be completed in no more than 3 hours and 45 minutes. That's not a suggestion — the club takes pace of play seriously and considers it equally central to the Lakeside experience.
Together, these two principles reflect a consistent philosophy: golf here should be brisk, social, and played the way it was meant to be played.
Amenities, Events, and How to Get There
Lakeside is a full-service country club, not just a golf course. The facilities cover most of what you'd expect from a top-tier private club in Los Angeles.
Practice Facilities
- Driving range with 6 grass tees
- Putting green, renovated in 2021–2022
- Chipping green with bunkers and a short pitching area
Clubhouse and Recreation
The clubhouse includes a full-service restaurant, bar, lounge, snack bar, and private meeting rooms. Reviews consistently describe it as old school and unpretentious — comfortable rather than flashy.
Beyond the clubhouse, the club offers a swimming pool with cabanas, a fitness center, tennis courts, and a billiards room.
For larger events, a ballroom accommodating around 300 people — complete with a stage and A/V setup — hosts weddings, charity galas, and private functions throughout the year.
Notable Events
Lakeside has a legitimate competitive pedigree. In 2019, it hosted the 120th SCGA Amateur Championship, where Pepperdine's Sahith Theegala — now a PGA Tour regular — won by 8 strokes at 15-under par. The club also hosts the Jim Murray Sportswriters Tournament and the Bob Hope Invitational annually.
Rankings and Reputation
Golf Digest ranks Lakeside 37th in California for 2025–2026, with an overall rating of 4.1 out of 5. Top 100 Golf Courses rates it 4.5 out of 5. Reviewer feedback consistently highlights the conditioning, the layout, and the one-of-a-kind atmosphere.
Getting There
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Address | 4500 Lakeside Drive, Burbank, CA 91505 |
| Phone | (818) 984-0601 |
| Website | www.lakesidegolfclub.com |
| Freeways | Minutes from both the 101 and 134 |
The club is fully gated with a staffed entrance. Members and invited guests only — no walk-ins.
Conclusion
Lakeside Golf Club is a rare combination — a genuinely great golf course, a living piece of Hollywood history, and a private club that has held its standards firm for a century.
The Max Behr design, the celebrity membership list, the caddie culture, the 3:45 pace rule — it all adds up to an experience you won't find anywhere else in American golf.
Getting in requires knowing the right person, but for those who land an invitation, it's worth every effort to be there.
