Sportin' Life

Think San Francisco's Olympic Club is merely a golf paradise? Its City Clubhouse tells a different story.

- By Evan Rothman

“ICONIC” GETS TOSSED AROUND like fairway grass on a windy day, but the Olympic Club qualifies. A dozen USGA championships hosted, the 2033 Ryder Cup on the way. That glorious clubhouse framing the tricky par-4 finishing hole...

Well, that's not Olympic's main clubhouse. Its primary digs are its City Clubhouse, located 10 miles away, in San Francisco's famed Union Square district. The Olympic Club isn't just a golf club. It's an athletic club—America's oldest, founded on May 6, 1860, five months prior to the first Open Championship being held in Scotland.