LACC making rules exceptions as it host US Open

Los Angeles Country Club has a strict set of "customs and traditions" with rules being relaxed while they host the US Open with patrons being allowed to wear shorts. 

MAKING AN EXCEPTION: The Los Angeles Country Club is hosting the US Open for the first time and in doing so making some exceptions to their strict membership rules. Pic: Harry How/Getty Images

Ray Milland, the Welsh-born actor and film director, expressed an interest in joining the Los Angeles Country Club back in the 1940s when he was under contract with Paramount Pictures. At that stage of his career, Milland was no leading man, the perception being that he possessed “a ready smile and an agreeable disposition … never regarded as an actor capable of handling a serious part.” 

At LACC, however, Milland was in the industry, and that was enough for his membership application to be denied.

“I’m not an actor,” Milland reportedly protested, “and I have more than 50 films to prove it.” (To his credit, Milland would eventually find fame in winning an Academy Award in 1946 as best actor in his role as a drunk “The Lost Weekend.”) 

The primary unwritten rule at LACC is that celebrities are not welcome. The Dean Martins and Larry Davids were free to apply up Sunset Blvd. at the other George C. Thomas gems Bel-Air or Riviera, but not here. 

The late great L.A. Times columnist Jim Murray called LACC “the West Coast version of the stodgiest and most exclusive club in the world.” 

“It is said eligibility for membership is a Hoover button, a home in Pasadena and proof-positive you never had an actor in the family,” Murray wrote. 

“Once, when a member proposed Jimmy Roosevelt [a producer and son of Democratic U.S. president Franklin Roosevelt] for membership, they not only blackballed Roosevelt, they kicked out the member.” 

Randolph Scott reportedly found a back door into the club by marrying the daughter of a member and Ronald Reagan was accepted, but only after his acting days were long behind him and he held the more reputable station as the GOP leader of the free world.

While “no celebrities” may not be posted at the door, LACC has a dizzying 1,300-word list of “customs and traditions” (including the pickleball/tennis section) for men, women and child members and guests to adhere to while on the grounds. 

“Since 1897, we have established a series of customs and traditions in order to enhance your experience at our Club,” its website says. “We take pride in making every one of our guests feel like a member during your visit with us.” 

Within two hours after arriving fresh off a cross-country flight to LAX then getting through L.A. traffic to the golf course Monday, this scribe managed to violate five forbidden rules at the exclusive club starting with stepping onto the property wearing the denim jeans that serve as travel wear.

In subsequent order, violations included: using cell phone on property; taking photos with said cell phone; disseminating said photos from said cell phone on social media; and discussing these policy violations on social and (now) professional media platforms. If this had been Masters week, credentials would have been forfeited.

To feel like a member, guests must wear slacks “of a tailored nature” and shirts with sleeves and collars “worn inside one’s trousers.” After 6 p.m., gentlemen are required to wear jackets in the clubhouse. Hats, caps and visors are forbidden inside or on clubhouse patios, except in the uncovered area adjacent to the bar as long as those caps and visors have “the bill facing forward.” 

Women’s golf attire can include tailored slacks (ankle length or longer) or skirts no shorter than 4 inches above the knee. No skorts or culottes. Women may, however, wear brimmed hats (not golf caps) “coordinating with their outfits in the clubhouse.” The extensive list of “unacceptable attire” includes shorts of any kind, gym attire, T-shirts (including jerseys) or apparel containing slogans. Changing shoes in the parking lot is strictly forbidden.

It must have killed the membership chairman to see the U.S. Open contestants playing the course in shorts during practice rounds. Rumour has it that the club bandied about the idea that its 22,000 U.S. Open patrons would have to adhere to the club’s policies (which would have been fairly easy when the club offered to buy all the tickets), but common sense prevailed and shorts were permitted for fans.

The technology guidelines at the club are the most extensive, but just in case they missed the latest trend it ends with this disclaimer. “Please note: if the use of technology is not specifically addressed in this policy, then it is not permitted at the Club.” 

A member encountered on the course remarked that a violation is usually met with a letter mysteriously appearing in the offender’s locker. A second violation get the message delivered in person.

And a third violation? “There’s never a third violation,” the member said.

There has been one small concession made in attire for modern convenience. Shorts, T-shirts and denim pants of any color may be worn from the parking lot to the locker rooms (or vice versa) solely for the purpose of changing clothes. “Loitering in the locker room (including card play, TV watching, drinking) while in shorts, T-shirts or denim pants of any color is not permitted.” 

The world should be happy that LACC offers a peek inside its cloistered gates at all. When it was proposed in the 1980s that the club allow a U.S. Open to be played here, the board approved only to have the motion unilaterally struck down by the club president. It took about 30 more years for LACC to agree to host USGA events.

When the Walker Cup was played here in 2017, the modest media center was set up in one of the clubhouse rooms too small to accommodate the 15 or so reporters on site to cover it.

Former The Times of London golf writer John Hopkins said journalists “were made to feel only marginally welcome,” and that reporters in the cramped press room were told that “in walking to the course they were not allowed to pass through any of the clubhouse’s many rooms.” 

Perhaps this reporter should feel lucky to be here at all. Beyond the jeans and cell phone violations, if the club caught wind on my performances in the role of Giles Corey in my high school’s production of “The Crucible,” they would have never credentialed me in the first place.