Los Serranos Golf Club Rich With Southern California History

LAND OF THE RANCHOS

The story of today’s Los Serranos Golf And Country Club begins some two hundred years ago, when bands of Indians roamed the fertile valley and hunted an ample supply of game. In the early 1800’s the land became part of the vast San Gabriel Mission, and was used to graze horses and cattle belonging to the Mission.

In 1810, a young Spaniard named Don Antonio Maria Lugo began to accumulate lands that were to stretch from the San Bernardino Mountains to the site of present-day San Pedro. In 1841 he was granted rights to what was to become the 47,000-acre Rancho Del Chino De Santa Ana, named after the patroness Saint Anne of the Fair Hair. Don Lugo sold the rancho to his son-in-law, Issac Williams, who lived on this land until 1864. His rancho became a haven for travelers, particularly miners on their way from Yuma to the Sacramento gold fields. In 1881, Richard Gird, who helped start the City of Chino, bought the rancho from the heirs of Issac Williams. Eventually, the ranch house would later become the first clubhouse for the golf course in 1925.

RESORT COMMUNITY DEVELOPS

On April 25, 1925, the tradition of golf in the country near the City of Chino began in the beautiful Chino Hills at the Los Serranos Country Club. In the beginning, the club was a semi-private seven hundred and fifty acre recreational community and resort providing golf, stables and riding trails, swimming, trap shooting, boating, fishing, polo grounds, a private landing strip, rental cottages and wonderful country home sites. The golf course was designed by internationally known Golf Architect, John Duncan Dunn.

TENNIS CHAMPION JACK KRAMER BECOMES OWNER

In 1948, the golf course became part of the Rolling Ridge Ranch, owned and developed by the Jack Greening Family. In 1953, Los Angeles businessman Bill Cranston, Montebello Golf Professional Zell Eaton and Professional Tennis Champion, Jack Kramer, acquired the lease, reopened and commenced major improvements at the club. Jack Kramer became sole owner in 1961 and appointed Kevin Sullivan, former Australian diplomat and tennis promoter, as general manager from then until 1997.

The North Course was the site of the Pomona Valley Open in the 1950’s. The South Course, California’s longest golf course at 7587 yards, opened in 1964. These two courses are now home to over eight hundred company and group type golf tournaments each year. For twenty-three consecutive years, the qualifying for the California State Amateur was held at Los Serranos. For seventeen years, and continuing, it has been the site for the Los Angeles Open qualifying. Since 1996, sectional qualifying for the United States Amateur Public Links Championship has been played on both courses. The California State Open was held here in 1983 and the Southern California Open in 1999.

KRAMER FAMILY HONORS TRADITION

It was Jack and Gloria Kramer’s hope that Los Serranos would provide to those in need of finding health-giving relaxation through the sport of golf, either for their years of retirement or for the purpose of equipping them to perform their daily tasks more efficiently.

Golf came to America as a great amateur sport, rich with tradition and enjoying the highest possible standards of ethics and good sportsmanship in its play. The idea has been to accept the game at Los Serranos in this form and to maintain and preserve these standards in order that amateur golfers might find at Los Serranos those things which Jack and Gloria Kramer sought and now their five sons and eight grandchildren continue to provide it.

“The history of this wonderful old ranch and land, and now the golf course, gives us a glimpse of the heroic spaciousness of life on the great ranches during the early days of a pioneer civilization in this golden land. Every pilgrim who came through to the West on the Santa Fe Trail passed through this ranch. It was more than a mere station on the way; it was a refuge, an oasis, a home in the wilderness.” -Mr. H.C. Davidson, in whose mind the idea of Los Serranos was conceived and under whose direction was first developed.

“So on and on around the full eighteen holes at Los Serranos there is an ever-changing play, replete with natural hazards, beautiful shots and sportiness that challenges you. There is a lasting temptation here to play this ancient game- to beat Old Man Par- and dare those encroaching years to add a furrow to your brow or add a silver strand upon your head.” -John Duncan Dunn, Golf Architect