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The Olympic Club is an sports club and private social club in San Francisco.
First named the "San Francisco Olympic Club", it is the oldest sports club in the United States. Established on May 6, 1860, its first officers were President, G.W. Bell, Secretary, E. Bonnell, Treasurer, H.G. Hanks, and Leader, Arthur Nahl.
Its main "City Clubhouse" is located in San Francisco's Union Square district, and its three are in the southwestern corner of the city, at the border with Daly City. The "Lakeside Clubhouse" is located just north of the Daly City border; the two clubhouses are separated by about .
The three golf courses are named Lake, Ocean, and Cliffs. Lake and Ocean are 18-hole par-71 courses, and the Cliffs is a nine-hole par-3 course in the Cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. All three venues are lined with many and offer views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Golden Gate Park. The United States Golf Association recognizes the Olympic Club as one of the first 100 golf clubs established in the United States.
In November 2017, it was announced that Olympic Club would host the 2033 Ryder Cup.
James J. Corbett, the heavyweight boxing champion from 1892 to 1897, joined the club in 1884. He later went on to coach boxing at the club for many years. On January 2, 1893 the club opened its first permanent clubhouse on Post Street. That building did not survive the San Francisco earthquake.
The Cliffs Course opened in 1994 with Jay Morrish and Tom Weiskopf as the course architects.
The Olympic Club hosted the 2004 U.S. Junior Amateur (won by Sihwan Kim) and the U.S. Amateur in 1958 (won by Charles Coe) and 1981 (won by Nathaniel Crosby, son of Bing Crosby). The Lake and Ocean Courses were used for the 2007 U.S Amateur, won by Colt Knost, who earned a 2 and 1 victory over Michael Thompson.
In 1915, the club's amateur basketball team won the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Basketball Championship. In 1934, club member Fred Apostoli won the National Amateur Middleweight boxing title. In 1937, the Olympic Club track and field team won the Track and Field National Championships. In 1941, club member Hank Luisetti helped lead the Olympic Club basketball team to win the AAU Basketball Championships again. In 1950, Olympic Club member Arthur Larsen won the U.S. Open of tennis in Forest Hills, New York. The Olympic Club water polo team won the 1959 Water Polo National Championship.
Cycling is one of the sports with the longest tradition at the Olympic Club. From 1893 to 1903, the Olympic Club Cycling Team was one of the club's premier teams. Although the sanctioned cycling team disbanded in 1903, many Olympians participated in cycling on an individual basis. The most illustrious of these was Ernest Ohrt. Ohrt capped his cycling career by being named coach of the United States Olympic Games cycling team in 1924.
Beginning in the mid-1990s, a revived Olympic Club cycling team supported several cyclists who went on to become professional road cyclists. Former Olympic Club cyclists who later turned professional include Skyler Bishop, Nick Kelez, James Hibbard, Jackson Stewart, Mike Tillman and Zach Walker.
In addition to being a springboard for aspiring professional cyclists, the modern cycling team also boasts some of the finest masters-age cyclists in the nation, including Brian McGuire, Hal Johnson, Cynthia Mommsen and Lisa Hunt.
Club member Maureen O'Toole won a silver medal in water polo at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia.
At least five Olympic Club members have won the Dipsea Race, which was founded by OC members: Oliver Millard in 1910 and 1913, Mason Hartwell in 1917, Norman Bright in 1970, Joe King in 1995 and 1996, and Shirley Matson in 1993.
In 1992, the Club set up the Winged "O" Foundation, which changed its name to The Olympic Club Foundation in 2002. Its purpose is to fund youth sports programs which primarily target less advantaged youth who live in the Bay Area.
In 1926, Percy Locey played football at the Olympic Club. He was a member of the Olympic's "Winged-O" football eleven that handed the University of California's "Wonder Team" their first loss in five seasons. In 1928, Locey took over as the head football coach at the Olympic Club. In his first year with the Olympic Club, his team posted an undefeated season, with wins over future Pac-12 schools Stanford and 1929 Rose Bowl bound California. After the success of that season, Locey was promoted to head coach of all sports at the athletic club. He was named the coach of the West team in the annual East–West Shrine Game in 1929, though his team was defeated that year, 19-7.
Olympic Club members played a major part in the first All-Star football game. E. Jack Spaulding, the founder of the Shrine East-West football classic played, coached and was football commissioner of the Olympic Club. In 1925 the first game was played in San Francisco. Spaulding served as managing director of the first two games. An award in his name is presented each year at the game. O.E. "Babe"
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In 1913, the Olympic Club's rugby union team played the touring the New Zealand All Blacks, then as now the world top team in that sport. Olympic Club members later provided the core of the U.S. national team that won gold medals in rugby at the 1920 and 1924 Summer Olympics, the last occasion the sport was part of the Olympic program.
Setup for the 2007 U.S. Amateur Championship:
The of the Lake Course is from the new championship tees, with a course rating of 75.7 and a slope rating of 143. From the next set of tees forward, the course measures , and has a course rating of 72.3 and a slope rating of 132. From the next set of tees forward, the course measures , and has a course rating of 70.9 and a slope rating of 129. From the front tees, the course measures , and has a course rating of 68.6 and a slope rating of 122.
The Lake Course was lengthened to prepare for the 2007 U.S. Amateur and 2012 U.S. Open by architect Bill Love. Included in the improvements by Bill Love were new tees that have added significant length to the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 9th, 12th, 13th and 16th holes. In addition, drastic changes were made to the par-4 seventh and par-3 eighth holes as part of the greens replacement project. A new two-tiered green at the seventh replaces the old three-level green constructed in the 1970s. This green is located approximately behind the old one. The most dramatic alterations were made at the par-3 8th. Previously just a short uphill pitch, a completely new hole has been built with a teeing area well back and to the right of the original, changing the angle of approach and pushing the length of the hole back to . A new green has also been built at the par-3 15th. The controversial 18th green has also been changed further to reintroduce, in a more playable manner, the slope that was previously removed while at the same time creating more diversity in pin placements for the finishing hole. The new 7th and 8th holes opened for play in May 2009.
The regular yardage for the Ocean Course is from the Black Championship tees with a course rating of 73.6 and a slope rating of 136. From the Blue tees, the course measures and has a course rating of 71.1 and a slope rating of 129. From White tees, the course measures with a course rating of 68.8 and a slope rating of 121. From the Green tees, the course measures with a course rating of 66.5 and a slope rating of 115.
In preparation for the 2007 U.S. Amateur, the 14th hole was changed, to allow the 15th hole and driving range to be lengthened. The Ocean Course recently hosted the U.S.G.A. Amateur Four-ball Championships in May 2015.
Jack Fleck won in 1955, defeating Ben Hogan in an 18-hole playoff after the two were tied at the end of 72 holes on 287. Billy Casper defeated Arnold Palmer in another playoff to win in 1966 and Scott Simpson won in 1987 by one shot over Tom Watson.
Lee Janzen won in 1998 with an even-par score of 280. Players complained about the questionable pin position at the 18th hole in the second round; it was set at the top of a ridge, and many balls rolled on far beyond the cup. Kirk Triplett incurred a two-stroke penalty when he used his putter to stop the ball from rolling. Payne Stewart, the runner-up to Janzen, complained as he three-putted the hole. The green was flattened around 2000 as a result, but was given more slope in the recent renovation to the course.
The 2012 U.S. Open was won by Webb Simpson when he made four birdies over the last thirteen holes. This U.S. Open was part of three sports championships involving San Francisco that year, along with the Giants' World Series victory and the 49ers' sixth Super Bowl appearance.
| Webb Simpson | 281 (+1) | 1 stroke | Graeme McDowell Michael Thompson |
| Lee Janzen | 280 (E) | 1 stroke | Payne Stewart |
| Scott Simpson | 277 (−3) | 1 stroke | Tom Watson |
| Billy Casper | 278 (−2) | Playoff | Arnold Palmer |
| Jack Fleck | 287 (+7) | Playoff | Ben Hogan |
| Yuka Saso | 280 (−4) | Playoff | Nasa Hataoka |
| 274 (−10) | Playoff | Fuzzy Zoeller |
| 277 (−7) | 1 stroke | David Frost John Huston Greg Norman Scott Simpson |
| Colt Knost | 2 & 1 | Michael Thompson |
| Nathaniel Crosby | 37 holes | Brian Lindley |
| Charles Coe | 5 & 4 | Tommy Aaron |
| Sihwan Kim | 1 up | David Chung |
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