A Magnet for Famous Golfers
Visitors to the Center will notice a glass display case of golf balls. Imprinted on them are such names as Bob Hope, Richard Nixon, and Frank Sinatra. These people and others--both famous and not so--were fortunate enough to have played on the Sunnylands golf course.
Dwight Eisenhower was the first president to tee off at the Sunnylands course, followed in time by Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush, as well as Vice President Dan Quayle and Secretary of State George Shultz. In fact, Shultz and Reagan had a regular game at Sunnylands every New Year's Eve for several years.
Beyond politicians, stars of the golf world like Raymond Floyd, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, and Tom Watson also had the privilege of playing at Sunnylands. "The course architect, Dick Wilson, was a genius," says Floyd, both a U.S. Open and PGA Championship winner. "What a mind you have to have to create 18 holes on nine greens. It's so cleverly thought out."
An Ingenious Course Restored
Dick Wilson designed the course in 1964, and parts of it were open for play even before Sunnylands was completely finished. Wilson, a highly-regarded golf course designer in the 1950s and '60s, built the Sunnylands course in a parkland style.
The Sunnylands course is unique for its distinctive landmarks. A magnolia tree sits on the seventh hole, given to the Annenbergs in 1972 by President Richard Nixon, who kept a set of clubs on the property. The tree came from a cutting taken from one at The Hermitage, the home of President Andrew Jackson in Nashville, Tennessee. On the fifth fairway is a 30-foot Kwakiutl totem pole. Canadian Ambassador Jack Hamilton Warrant suggested the piece in 1976, and the Annenbergs then commissioned it from Canadian First Nations artist Henry Hunt.
More recently, golf course designers Tim Jackson and David Kahn have given the Sunnylands course a modern facelift. With painstaking research into Wilson's original concept, the greens now average 8,000 to 9,000 square feet. This allows for a variety of pin placements along the double-looping, 9-hole, par 72 course.
Moreover, the course's irrigation system has been upgraded for efficiency and environmental sustainability. In addition, roughly 60 acres of turf grass were replaced with meadow grass and mulch to reduce water use.
