Mandeville Canyon Club

Founded in 1928, Mandeville Canyon Club is a private golf, tennis, health and wellness club tucked into the hills of Los Angeles.

The Club is home to an eighteen-hole golf course, tennis facilities, clubhouse and dining room, spa and wellness facilities, guest bungalows, and a staff accustomed to making most things happen without making much of a fuss about it.

Nearly a century after opening, MCC remains much as it was intended: a place to play, eat, rest, gather, and occasionally lose track of the afternoon.

Membership is private. Guests are welcome when accompanied by members, provided everyone behaves reasonably well.

Before the Club

Mandeville Canyon Club began, as many respectable institutions do, with bees.

In 1927, Guy C. Manville, a former lieutenant in the Colorado Cavalry, settled in the upper reaches of the canyon and took up beekeeping.

At the time, there were eucalyptus trees, dusty roads, coyotes, a scattering of citrus groves and, by Manville's estimate, approximately 140,000 bees.

His hives occupied the south-facing slope of the property, where the bees fed on California sage, wild buckwheat, rosemary, orange blossom and whatever else happened to be flowering that week.

Manville bottled the honey by hand and supplied a small collection of grocers, hotels and private households throughout Los Angeles. Records from the period suggest that the honey was quite good. Manville himself was considerably less interested in discussing it.

The operation was run from a modest stone farmhouse with a tiled roof, green doors and a small office at the rear. Manville was known to take lunch there every day at precisely 12:15 p.m.

The building remains standing today.

Its original stone walls now form part of the Mandeville Canyon Club clubhouse, although considerably less honey is produced on the premises.

The Founding of the Club

In 1926, Bobby Jones won both the U.S. Open and the Open Championship.

His success inspired a group of Los Angeles businessmen—some accomplished golfers, others considerably more enthusiastic than accomplished—to pursue the idea of building a championship golf course in Mandeville Canyon.

They acquired the Manville property and formed what would become Mandeville Canyon Club.

For the course, the founders turned to Henry Augustus, a longtime protégé of Alister MacKenzie who had developed a reputation for his understanding of golf-course strategy, routing and agronomy.

Augustus was appointed course architect in 1926.

Construction took nearly two years.

The course opened in 1928 to considerable attention. MacKenzie is said to have described it as “the best course in Southern California,” while C.B. Macdonald reportedly believed the course capable of hosting major championships.

Neither opinion appears to have made Augustus particularly happy.

Henry Augustus

In 1926, Bobby Jones won both the U.S. Open and the Open Championship.

His success inspired a group of Los Angeles businessmen—some accomplished golfers, others considerably more enthusiastic than accomplished—to pursue the idea of building a championship golf course in Mandeville Canyon.

They acquired the Manville property and formed what would become Mandeville Canyon Club.

For the course, the founders turned to Henry Augustus, a longtime protégé of Alister MacKenzie who had developed a reputation for his understanding of golf-course strategy, routing and agronomy.

Augustus was appointed course architect in 1926.

Construction took nearly two years.

The course opened in 1928 to considerable attention. MacKenzie is said to have described it as “the best course in Southern California,” while C.B. Macdonald reportedly believed the course capable of hosting major championships.

Neither opinion appears to have made Augustus particularly happy.

Mandeville Today

Much has changed since 1928. Much has deliberately not.

The Club has expanded to include tennis, dining, health and wellness facilities, swimming, guest accommodations, and a number of modern conveniences that the founders would likely have found unnecessary.

The original clubhouse remains at the center of the property. The golf course still follows Augustus's routing through the canyon. Members still gather for lunch, although adherence to Guy Manville's 12:15 p.m. schedule is no longer compulsory.

Mandeville Canyon Club continues to be guided by a fairly simple idea:

Golf & Tennis. Health & Wellness.

And enough time for all four.