Malibu Country Club Is Sold to New Investor Group

PHOTO CREDITMSN/Frank Lamonea

NEW OWNERSHIP—The Malibu Country Club, designed in the late 1970s by William Francis Bell Jr. to be “evocative of the golf landmarks built at the turn of the 20th century,” came under controversy in the mid-80s when owners announce plans to develop homes around the course. Speaking for the new owners, Malibu Associates, club general manager Dan Meherin says that a residential/resort community “is an option that is being explored..”

Sale Prompts Speculation about Plans of Golf Course’s New Ownership

BY BILL KOENEKER

The Malibu Country Club located at the headwaters of Trancas Canyon was recently sold to a group of investors for about $30 million, according to published reports.

Malibu Associates, a newly formed LLC, purchased the 18-hole course from Fuji International Inc. in April. In turn, the investors hired Greenway Golf Management to run the mountaintop facility, according to the club’s General Manager Dan Meherin, who said he would stay on under the new management.

“The new owners and the management are fantastic. Those who haven’t played here for awhile should come back. They are making improvements to the golf course,” he said.

When asked about rumors concerning plans for building a residential/resort community around the golf course, Meherin said the investors have plans for improving the course and that is one of many options being explored. “They are reviewing a number of different scenarios,” he added.

A previous owner of the course, The Church of Liberty, a Japan-based organization, caused an uproar in western Malibu when it announced plans in the mid-1980s to develop homes around the golf course.

Malibu West homeowners felt particularly threatened because of all of the stormwater runoff, potential flooding and other problems they believed could find their way downstream via Trancas Canyon Creek past their homes—some of which are located on the banks of the stream.

Additionally, federal officials were concerned because, at the time, the National Park Service was attempting to acquire thousands of acres in the nearly pristine canyon downstream of the course for inclusion into the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

Today most of the canyon is owned by the NPS, which exerted some influence over the golf course when it needed to renew its Conditional Use Permit from the county several years ago. Park Service officials wanted assurances that runoff from the golf course, which flows into the canyon stream, would be free from fertilizers, pesticides and other potential pollutants.

Designed by golf course architect William Francis Bell Jr. in the late 1970s, the Malibu Country Club is described as evocative of the golf landmarks built at the turn of the 20th Century. Nestled in the rolling hills of the Santa Monica Mountains, the public links provide the feel of a private or resort course at daily fees.