Community Corner
A Look Back at Green Hills Country Club
History behind the Green Hills Country Club in Millbrae is featured.
The story behind Millbrae's Green Hills Country Club dates back to the early 1900s.
In 1928, a group of doctors and businessmen from San Francisco came together with the idea of building a club along the Peninsula that had a combination of rolling hills and countryside.
Working in unison to make their vision a reality, they settled on a location that cost $250,000.
According to the country club's website, prior to construction, the 143-acre land was first a garden and orchard; plants grown there were used in the World Panama Exposition in 1915.
The venue was named Union League Gold and Country Club. Joining the Union League of San Francisco, only 300 people were allowed membership and had to pay an entrance fee of $1,250.
Dr. Alister MacKenzie, a well known golf architect from Britain at the time, was hired to landscape the club's golf course.
After an estimated $540,000 in expenditures, the Union League Club held its grand opening on April 27, 1930.
"Local media called the course 'one of the finest in the state,' and 'one of the finest in Northern California,'" said the website.
Though the Union League Club debuted with rave reviews, it opened during a period of financial hardships. Due to the stock market crash and Great Depression, they hit a low number of 60 members in 1932.
According to the website, West Coast Life Insurance Company, the club's mortgagee, waived the accumulated interest and annual installments of $15,000.
"The club reorganized in 1933 under Millbrae Golf and Country Club," said the website.
The newly named established opened as semi-public, but the elite insisted on keeping the club private.
The website said with a required monthly payment of $6.60, members were known as the 'Six Sixty Boys."
Setbacks resulted to the removal of many bunkers that MacKenzie designed. In 1944, the club continued suffering due to money problems.
After undergoing several name changes, and further reorganizing, the Green Hills Country Club reopened in 1945. Though 82 of 100 of MacKenzie's original bunkers were gone, a group of members took to the shovels and helped towards its restoration.
Today, Green Hills holds its title as one of the finest country clubs in the state, and have been the site of high profiled events including the MacKenzie Cup, the USGA mid-quarter qualifying and the US Open.
