Visalia Country Club

Visalia Country Club is a private member club in Visalia, California, with a history going back to 1922. Its 18-hole course plays to 6,668 yards and par 72, and the club describes it as very challenging, with water features, mature trees, professional-quality bunkers and large greens.

Practice facilities include two putting greens, a chipping green with a sand bunker and a driving range. The recently renovated golf shop, run by head golf professional AJ Shiffert, is the hub of golf at the club and stocks new equipment and current fashions.

The clubhouse, dedicated in 1990 and remodeled in 2006, hosts member dining, a lounge, patios, the 1922 room and a snack bar, along with weddings and banquets. Private events require membership or sponsorship by a member. The Women's Club, formed in 1924, still meets on Wednesdays for golf followed by lunch.

The club was organized at a meeting in the Visalia Municipal Auditorium on January 27, 1922, led by Harvey V.E. Gilmer, a man who had never played golf but had watched it with his college friend Mr. Wrigley on Catalina. He went on to win the club championship four times. Founders raised twenty-five hundred dollars and leased land from Dick Hyde; the first membership cost fifty dollars, dues were five dollars a month, and $400 bought a team of horses and a hay mower.

Visalia Golf Club started with three holes, which survive as today's 11, 12 and 13, with oiled sand greens and asphalt tee slabs. In 1926 six more holes and grass greens were added. The Jennings Ditch shaped the fairways and, after Mill Creek was diverted in 1950, remained as a dry ditch still visible along the ninth and near the lake between 17 and 18. The club became Visalia Country Club in 1950 and reached 18 holes in 1952.

Former Chicago Cubs pitcher Orval Overall, a two-time World Series champion, served as president from 1924 to 1933. The first clubhouse, just 16 by 24 feet, burned in 1927 and was rebuilt the same year. John Keogh, hired in 1932, served as pro and manager for over 32 years, and president J. Thomas Crowe led the club through the Depression for more than 30 years.

In April 1942 Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Johnny Weissmuller and amateur Johnny Dawson played an exhibition here for the American Red Cross. A $120,000 clubhouse followed in 1953, and some 4000 trees were planted in the 1950s. Later investments included kitchen and golf shop renovations in 2010 and 2011 and new irrigation in 2013. In 2012 the club lost Visalia's oldest Valley Oak after 260 years.