Virginia Country Club (Alt)

Overview: Virginia Country Club is a private Long Beach course with a compact Golden Age character: small greens, varied elevation and holes that ask for a thoughtful line rather than a routine power play. The current course is generally described as an 18-hole, par-71 layout of roughly 6,505 yards. Willie Watson’s original routing, later work associated with William P. Bell and A.W. Tillinghast, and the club’s mature parkland setting all remain visible in the way the holes change direction and elevation.

History: The club’s golfing story begins at its original Long Beach location in 1910, when members had a nine-hole layout. Virginia moved to the present Rancho Los Cerritos site in 1921, where the current course was designed by Willie Watson and later reshaped by Bell and Tillinghast. John Harbottle III led a major 2001–02 renovation, while later turf work continued the club’s effort to preserve continuity across several generations of design.

Did You Know? Virginia’s own history describes the course as eclectic because successive architects and renovations added different layers to the layout. One of its most memorable historic features was the “Splash Hole,” whose tee once projected onto a pier over a lake. The club’s ability to keep those stories attached to a playable modern course is a large part of its appeal.