Clubs · San Rafael

San Rafael Golf Club → Marin Golf & Country Club

Marin’s first golf club, and for most of its 43 years its oldest. One corporation, two courses: the San Rafael Golf Club’s links north of town (1898–c.1908), then the Marin Golf & Country Club east of town (1908–1941).

Years
1898–1941
Status
closed
Where
San Rafael (near today's Civic Center)
Holes
18 (1899–1901), then 9
There now
The Civic Center area (1898–c.1908 links) and the Country Club neighborhood off Point San Pedro Road (1908–1941)

The San Rafael Golf Club was organized in September 1898 and first played on temporary links in Happy Valley near the Hotel Rafael.[1][2] That autumn it bought the Wagner ranch north of the Puerto Suello hill, between the Petaluma road and the Gallinas marsh, where its permanent links ran across what is now the Marin Civic Center area; the 1914 USGS map still marks a station called “Golf” there.[3][4] T. W. Tetley, the club’s first instructor, laid out the links.[5] By mid-1899 the course had 18 named holes, and the club’s colors were red and green.[6] It went back to nine holes in August 1901.[4]

The club did not so much close as move. When the Campbell tract under the links was sold in September 1906, the members looked east of town.[7][8] Their new clubhouse on the Point San Pedro road opened on 12 September 1908 and the new nine-hole links on 8 May 1909, as the Marin Golf & Country Club: the same corporation and the same members, and the 1909 Spalding guide said it “takes the place of the old San Rafael Golf Club.”[9][10][11] J. H. Clark, the old club’s groundkeeper, laid out the course; he later built the Mill Valley nine.[12]

The Marin club had its pros (Harold Clark, Leslie Davies, George Leith and others), a 1924 plan by Willie Locke for 18 holes that was probably never built, and a 1927 fight over selling the course.[13][14][15] In 1934 Mat Palacio set its amateur record of 65.[16] The Depression finished it: in July 1940 the club said it was about to close “after 33 years,” the course closed in May 1941, and the First National Bank of San Rafael took the property by foreclosure on 29 July 1941.[17][18][19] From July 1942 the army’s 74th Field Artillery Battalion camped on the links.[20] Homes came after the war; the clubhouse on Margarita Drive survived for years as a private house.[4]

Full history coming. This is a short, sourced entry. A full San Rafael history site, built from the club’s research, will replace it.

Sources

  1. Marin County Tocsin, 3 Sep 1898, “The Golf Club”; Marin Journal, 8 Sep 1898, “Golf Club Organized”
  2. Marin Journal, 29 Sep 1898 (links in Happy Valley near the Hotel Rafael)
  3. Marin County Tocsin, 1 Oct 1898 (the Wagner ranch bought)
  4. maringolf census, census.csv rows san-rafael-gc and marin-gcc; san-rafael-golf research status (2026-11-13)
  5. San Francisco Call, 5 Mar 1899 (Tetley “laid out the links”), SFC18990305.2.138
  6. San Francisco Call, 8 Jul 1899 (hole names; red and green the club colors), SFC18990708.2.128.1
  7. Marin Journal, 27 Sep 1906, MJ19060927.2.12
  8. Marin County Tocsin, 3 Nov 1906, MCT19061103.2.15
  9. Marin Journal, 17 Sep 1908 (clubhouse opening)
  10. Marin Journal, 13 May 1909; San Francisco Call, 9 May 1909 (links opened)
  11. San Francisco Call, 4 May 1909 (same members), SFC19090504.2.68.17; Spalding’s Official Golf Guide, 1909; USGA Year Book, 1909
  12. Mill Valley Record, 1 Nov 1919, MVR19191101.2.3
  13. San Rafael GC / Marin G&CC staff list, research/people/pros_timeline.csv
  14. San Anselmo Herald, 27 Jun 1924 (Locke’s 18-hole plan), SAH19240627.1.1
  15. San Anselmo Herald, 21 Oct 1927, SAH19271021.1.1
  16. Enterprise-Times (Corte Madera), 29 Aug 1934, ETCM19340829-01.2.44
  17. Petaluma Argus-Courier, 20 Jul 1940, PAC19400720.1.4
  18. Mill Valley Record, 9 May 1941, MVR19410509.2.106
  19. San Anselmo Herald, 31 Jul 1941, SAH19410731.1.1; Mill Valley Record, 1 Aug 1941, MVR19410801.2.39
  20. Mill Valley Record, 14 Jul 1942, MVR19420714.2.65