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- Address1901 E Valley Rd, Montecito, CA 93108, USA
Santa Barbara lies on the Pacific Coast to the northwest of Los Angeles and with lovely Spanish architecture and Mediterranean climate, it’s no wonder that it’s known as the "American Riviera". It seems fitting that one of the greatest and most stylish courses in the USA nestles unassumingly in this cosmopolitan locality.
Dr Alister MacKenzie designed the Valley Club of Montecito in 1929 and by MacKenzie’s standards it is one of his more modest designs. There’s nothing bold or brash about the Valley Club it’s just a subtle and sophisticated layout. Robert Hunter implemented the construction and perhaps that is one reason as to why the course sits so naturally on the Montecito property.
The Valley Club of Montecito is one of the least pretentious courses in the USA and for that reason alone it deserves its rightful place in the Top 100. With a salty sea breeze blowing and the sun shining we doubt there is a more charming and peaceful place to play golf in the world.
“I was pleased to have a part in restoring the bunkers and greens as closely as possible to the dramatic black-and-white photos that the club dug up from 1931,” commented Tom Doak in The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses, “including a reconstruction of the 15th and 18th greens in front of the clubhouse, both of which had been neutered not long after the course opened.”
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Alister MacKenzie was born in England, but his parents were Scottish and the family holidayed every year close to where his father was raised in the traditional Clan MacKenzie lands of Sutherland.
