Club History

In 1901, thanks to the donation of the land from James Irvine, a nine-hole golf course called The Santiago Golf Club was built in Peters Canyon. The largest membership at Santiago was around 45 players. The Santiago Golf Club operated in this spot until 1914, when an 18-hole course known as Orange County Country Club was opened on the Castaways property in Newport Beach. On April 12, 1923 the first meeting was held as Santa Ana Country Club, with C.G. Twist acting as Chairman. On April 17, 1923 it was noted in the Santa Ana Register that “the purchase of 144.29 acres from Bradford and Bryan McCoy, Santa Ana Heights, as a site for the new Santa Ana Country Club”. It is understood the site was bought for $71,000.

In 1951 Santa Ana Country Club retained William P. Bell & Son to upgrade the course and add a golf shop. The project focused on repairing and replacing the water systems that were in place for all 18 holes. It was estimated to cost $33,000.00!  In the early 1960’s a course renovation was passed to replace dry wash areas with shallow lakes that created the original Santa Ana Country Club water features. “The success of the project dramatically changed the topography, beauty and play of the course.” In 1972 Santa Ana Country Club began a tree planting program to create a more intimate “resort-style” layout. This project carried on for over a decade as Santa Ana enhanced the course by addition of a variety of specimens in strategic locations. Some trees from this program continue to stand today! In  1978 Santa Ana Country Club created the course Masterplan which focused on lengthening the course and emphasizing the resort style layout which was very common at the time. This course layout focused on tree-lined fairways, defensive bunker placement, and larger greens that would allow for various pin locations. Prior to this project, Santa Ana played a fair bit shorter and was limited in pin locations due to smaller “postage stamp” style greens. This plan continued through completion in 1993.

During the 1990's Santa Ana Country Club made the decision to convert to Kikuyu grass fairways. After many long battlers of maintaining Bermuda grass against the Kikuyu invasion, Kikuyu became the primary grass for SACC's fairways. This allowed for better lies, quality winter conditions, and Kikuyu grass withstood electric cart traffic much better! In 2016 the golf course underwent a complete transformation and embarked on an 8 million dollar golf course revitalization project and complete rerouting. The project commenced on February 1, 2016 and the grand opening was on November 3, 2016. The project focused on reimagining the Golden era of links golf in the early 1900’s. After so many years of additions from Santa Ana’s Master plan from the 70’s, the course now featured far too many non-native trees, lakes, and flower beds. In order to better present a historic club like SACC, the course redesign was focused on optimizing land usage to better to show off the gem that is Santa Ana. The entire layout was rebuilt, re-routed, and now had the opportunity to present a top class practice facility.  In 2021 the golf course underwent further updating by course design group Jackson Kahn to finalize Santa Ana’s design aspirations. This project focused on optimizing bunker layout, green complexes, and fairway structures. The finished project is what can be seen at Santa Ana Country Club today!

• In 2023 Project 23 was led by Jackson Kahn Design and focused on the addition of multiple strategically placed bunkers to better defend the course. These new bunkers can be found on the par-5 8th hole and par-5 11th hole.
• SACC continues its proud tradition of being a world-class golf course by hosting high level amateur events including the 2018 SCGA Foursomes Championship, 2022 SCGA Senior Championship, 2023 U.S. Amateur Championship Qualifier, and will host the 2024 SCGA Men's AND Women's Mid-Amateur Championships.
• 122 years… and counting!!