Armand Hammer, Holmby Park golf course
by J.I.B. Jones
Before California statehood in 1850, Holmby Park was part of the 4438 acre Rancho San Jose de Buenos Ayres where Don Benito Wilson raised cattle. In 1884 the ranch was purchased by John Wolfskill, a forty-niner, and former state Senator, who also owned the 13,000-acre Escondido ranch in San Diego County. The land was known as the Wolfskill ranch before being sold to a syndicate who laid out the boomtown of Sunset in 1887. After the town failed Wolfskill regained ownership in all but a few of the sold lots.
In 1919 Arthur Letts, Sr., the merchant prince of Los Angeles, and the founder of Broadway Department Stores, bought the remaining 3296 acre Wolfskill Ranch for subdivision. The boundaries were roughly Sunset Boulevard on the north, Pico blvd on the south, and from the Los Angeles Country Club to Sepulveda boulevard east to west. The area was marketed by the Janss Investment Corporation and named Westwood. The southeastern section, which included the future Century City, was called Westwood Hills.
L.A.C.C. member Arthur Letts named the Holmby Hills area, as he had his nearby home in Laughlin Park, Holmby House. In 1927, his golfing mad son, Arthur Letts Jr., built his own rambling English house overlooking the country club. It became the infamous Playboy Mansion West in 1971.
It was the company of Letts’ son in law Harold Janss who donated the land in 1926 to the city of Los Angeles, and it was Park Commissioner Van Griffith, son of Griffith Park donor Griffith J. Griffith, who was the father of the new idea of a bowling green and a pony golf course for the park.
The 18-hole Pony golf course opened on May 18, 1929, with a week long public golf tournament, with two trophy cups donated by Harold Janss, “to the man and woman with the lowest gross scores.”
William P. Bell designed the original layout, which was revamped in 1940 under Parks superintendent William Johnson. Alterations, mainly due to providing common park areas at the north end of the park, have reduced the size of the course over the years.
In 1981 Holmby Park Golf Course was threatened with closure due to a city of Los Angeles budget crisis. It was saved at the last minute by neighbors Hugh Hefner of Playboy Mansion West (the Arthur Letts Jr. house), and Occidental Petroleum billionaire, Armand Hammer, whose name now adorns the course.
The City of Los Angeles has been operating the 18-hole pony course and bowling green since 1929.
Happy Birthday Holmby Park!
This page and it’s contents are the property of J.I.B. Jones/Golf Historical Society
Copyright ©2010-2019
Back in 1998-1999 I was the supervisor of Holmby Park. In those days a majority of labor went into the bowling greens and repairing the irrigation system through out the park from the demands of running the creek, so we thought. At least about the cause of the breaks. What we discovered after suspecting the water pressure, was that due to the topography of the area, water as it was fed into the park would spike at 150lbs. At least twice the acceptable rate. Note sure how the golf course or the park looks these days, but I have a feeling it looks great.
The park looks looks great! Unfortunately, L.A. Golf Division has given control of the golf course to RAP. I’m not sure how long it will last.