Inside Riviera Country Club, the most exclusive clubhouse in golf

Riviera is a Golden Age design with the golden glow of Hollywood about it. Walt Disney, Gregory Peck and Humphrey Bogart were members, just as Larry David, Owen Wilson and Mark Wahlberg are today.

Yet for all the public figures who have walked its grounds — and for all the prominent tournaments it has hosted — the club protects itself from prying eyes.

Beyond its gated entrance in Pacific Palisades, a circular drive leads to an expansive Spanish Revival-style clubhouse that Riviera’s ownership regards as sacred. Cameras are forbidden, with rare exceptions.

One of those occasions came in the run-up to this week’s U.S. Women’s Open, when the club gave GOLF.com permission to film inside.

The guided tour — led by longtime Riviera member Michael Robin, with input from director of golf Todd Yoshitake and other veteran staffers — offered an intimate look at a stately space most golfers never get to see, steeped in history and filled with priceless memorabilia. Arched doorways open to a grand hall, with soaring ceilings and windows that peer out across the storied course. An adjacent room shimmers with glassed-in displays that make up a newly installed exhibition to commemorate the centennial that Riviera marks this year. From a patio outside, the view extends over the 18th hole and its famous amphitheater green to take in the Pacific in the near distance. Ocean breezes are a constant at Riviera, rippling the palm trees and complicating shots.

Downstairs, at ground level on the sloping property, is the terrace dining room and a corridor that leads to the locker room, its walls mounted with portraits of the greats who have won at Riviera, from Hal Sutton and Fred Couples to Phil Mickelson and Sam Snead. No name, though, looms larger at Riviera than Ben Hogan, who captured three titles (two L.A. Opens and the 1948 U.S. Open) in the span of 18 months — a feat that inspired Los Angeles Times columnist and Riviera member Jim Murray to nickname the course “Hogan’s Alley.”

“If you listen carefully and dream a little bit, you can feel the big galas from the Roaring Twenties and you can feel the giant events from the last 100 years here,” Robin told us.

The stories, though, are better heard in person. Watch the video above or below and get them straight from the source.

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