Understated style

Editor's note: This story originally was published on May 3.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA | Washington Road in Augusta, Georgia, with its fast-food clutter, and the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and the Santa Monica Freeway just a long par-5 from Beverly Hills are as different as they are far apart.
But not unlike the way Augusta National sits tucked peacefully and privately away from the noisy commerce outside its boundaries, Los Angeles Country Club occupies one of the most valuable pieces of undeveloped urban property anywhere, surrounded by high-rise buildings overlooking a golf club that is, to borrow a Hollywood term, ready for its close-up.
If you weren’t looking for LACC driving down Wilshire Boulevard, you likely wouldn’t know it was there. There is no sign, just a road leading to a white guard house that offers access to one of the most exclusive clubs in the country.

Up a gentle slope is a white clubhouse that is as elegant as it is understated. In a city where big and splashy sells, Los Angeles Country Club doesn’t need f...