EL CABALLERO COUNTRY CLUB

Located in Tarzana, California, this William P. Bell design opened in 1924 on land once owned by writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, creator of Tarzan. Burroughs was on the club’s Board of Governors along with several prominent developers, including Alphonzo Bell, who developed Bel Air, and so El Caballero didn’t lack for VIP visitors and events. The course itself wound its way through a couple of large canyons and generally pleased the media, with the Los Angeles Times lauding its “pair of famously diminutive par threes, the 144-yard fifth and the 115-yard 17th. At the former a mid-iron generally was required to find an L-shaped green perched just above the canyon; the latter was notorious for its tiny, bunkerringed putting surface.” Sports-writing legend Grantland Rice said El Caballero was one of the West Coast’s most amazing courses, and the national press regularly praised El Caballero as well. It hosted the 1927 Los Angeles Open (won by Bobby Cruickshank) and seemed destined to be a classic, but the Great Depression hit it hard and WWII dealt the final blow. The course was converted to housing during the postwar real estate boom, although a club of the same name opened in 1957 at a different location.