Trump National Golf Club, Los Angeles is a public

golf club A golf club is a club used to hit a golf ball in a game of golf. Each club is composed of a shaft with a grip and a club head. Woods are mainly used for long-distance fairway or tee shots; irons, the most versatile class, are used for a variety o ...

Rancho Palos Verdes, California Rancho Palos Verdes is a coastal city in southern Los Angeles County, California, United States. Incorporated on September 7, 1973, the city has a population of 42,287 as reported in the 2020 United States census. The city sits atop the bluffs of ...

with a course originally designed by

Pete Dye Paul Dye Jr. (December 29, 1925 – January 9, 2020), commonly referred to as Pete Dye, was an American golf course designer and a member of a family of course designers. He was married to fellow designer and amateur champion Alice Dye. Earl ...

, and redesigned by Donald J. Trump and

Tom Fazio Thomas Fazio (born February 10, 1945) is an American golf course architect. Fazio graduated in 1962 from Lansdale Catholic High School and was inducted into its hall of fame in 2007. He began his career in golf course design with his family's f ...

. It is owned by

The Trump Organization The Trump Organization, Inc. is an American Conglomerate (company), conglomerate. Privately owned by Donald Trump, it serves as the holding company for most of Business career of Donald Trump, Trump's business ventures and investments, with ar ...

. Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles was formerly known as Ocean Trails Golf Club, an 18-hole course designed by Dye, which was about to open when a landslide occurred in June 1999, and the 18th hole slid toward the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

. The Ocean Trails Golf Club subsequently went into bankruptcy, and on November 26, 2002, Trump bought the property for $27 million, intending to repair, redesign the course and build homes on adjacent lots. It includes a clubhouse. It is ranked among the ''Top 100 Courses You Can Play'' by ''

Golf Magazine ''Golf Magazine'' is a monthly golf magazine. One of the first "special interest" magazines of its kind, it was started in April 1959 by Arnold Abramson and Robert Abramson, the owners of Universal Publishing and Distributing Corporation, who sol ...

''. The club is known for its views of the

and Catalina Island. The course featured three

artificial waterfall An artificial waterfall is a water feature or fountain which imitates a natural waterfall. Artificial waterfalls have long been featured in traditional Japanese gardens, where they can serve to highlight a scene or to provide focus. The classic ...

s until they were removed during the

2011–2017 California drought The 2011–2017 California drought persisted from December 2011 to March 2017 and consisted of the driest period in California's recorded history, late 2011 through 2014. The drought wiped out 102 million trees from 2011 to 2016, 62 million of tho ...

. The

Michael Douglas Michael Kirk Douglas (born September 25, 1944) is an American actor and film producer. He has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and the ...

Pro-Celebrity and Friends Golf Tournament takes place there annually, in April. At a total cost of $264 million, it would be the most expensive golf course ever constructed. Trump's representatives claimed the course was worth $10 million in dealing with the L.A. County property tax assessor two years after the course opened.

History

The Ocean Trails Golf Club was part of a property owned by developer Edward Zuckerman and a partner. Prior to the Zuckerman purchase, the property was used as a farm. The golf course is on the

Palos Verdes Peninsula The Palos Verdes Peninsula () is a peninsular subregion of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, located within southwestern Los Angeles County, California. It is often called simply "Palos Verdes", and is made up of a group of cities in the Palos ...

known for its landslides. The height of the

peninsula A peninsula is a landform that extends from a mainland and is only connected to land on one side. Peninsulas exist on each continent. The largest peninsula in the world is the Arabian Peninsula. Etymology The word ''peninsula'' derives , . T ...

of above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

and the action of the waves are two main contributing factors for the landslides. The stratification of the

sedimentary rock Sedimentary rocks are types of rock (geology), rock formed by the cementation (geology), cementation of sediments—i.e. particles made of minerals (geological detritus) or organic matter (biological detritus)—that have been accumulated or de ...

below the course is visible in the high cliffs of the area as it gradually slopes seaward. The sloping and stratification create favorable conditions for the generation of landslides. As a result, homes and roads have been lost to the ocean in that area. In the area occupied by the golf course and its vicinity, there are three ancient landslides which have been named by

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the structure, composition, and History of Earth, history of Earth. Geologists incorporate techniques from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and geography to perform research in the Field research, ...

s as A, B and C respectively. The green of the Ocean Trails golf course 18th hole and half of its fairway were on top of ancient landslide C. On June 2, 1999, the 10-year, $126 million construction project on the Ocean Trails golf course was almost complete and close to its scheduled opening when a landslide unexpectedly occurred, caused by the sudden reactivation of ancient landslide C, and of the 18th hole fairway disappeared under the ocean when a

fissure A fissure is a long, narrow crack opening along the surface of Earth. The term is derived from the Latin word , which means 'cleft' or 'crack'. Fissures emerge in Earth's crust, on ice sheets and glaciers, and on volcanoes. Ground fissure A ...

parallel to the cliff appeared and subsequently collapsed. A long island was created due to the landslide, temporarily trapping a local resident. The landslide caused most of the par 4 18th hole to slide toward the ocean, including the fairway and

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

. Also due to the slide, bike paths, walking paths, the edge of the bluffs and a segment of an

LA County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles and sometimes abbreviated as LA County, is the most populous county in the United States, with 9,663,345 residents estimated in 2023. Its population is greater than that of 40 individua ...

sewer line disappeared. It is believed that fluid discharge from the sewer line, probably leaking before the slide, acted as a

lubricant A lubricant (sometimes shortened to lube) is a substance that helps to reduce friction between surfaces in mutual contact, which ultimately reduces the heat generated when the surfaces move. It may also have the function of transmitting forces, ...

on the thin underlying layer of

bentonite Bentonite ( ) is an Absorption (chemistry), absorbent swelling clay consisting mostly of montmorillonite (a type of smectite) which can either be Na-montmorillonite or Ca-montmorillonite. Na-montmorillonite has a considerably greater swelli ...

, which became saturated with liquid sewage in turn, and this acted as a facilitator for the stratified geological accumulations to slide relative to each other. Bentonite, a form of clay, exhibits a low

frictional coefficient Friction is the force resisting the relative motion of solid surfaces, fluid layers, and material elements sliding against each other. Types of friction include dry, fluid, lubricated, skin, and internal -- an incomplete list. The study of t ...

when wet, i.e. it becomes slippery. The golf course opened with only 15 holes because of the landslide. The landslide caused the Ocean Trails Golf Course construction project to go into

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...

. Covered by insurance funds, a massive geotechnical project was launched to reconstruct the 18th hole using of earth to fill it. The stabilization work and the slide caused cosmetic damage to the course. At the time, golf course historian Geoff Shackelford said that at the then projected cost of repair of more than $20 million, the 18th hole would have been "the most expensive single hole in history". After three years, legal issues between the involved banks and developers caused the geological stabilization work to stop. In 2002, Donald Trump stepped in and bought the property, including the golf course, with the intention of finalizing construction and repairs by the summer of 2003. On January 20, 2006, the 18-hole Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles opened in Rancho Palos Verdes. The reinforcement fill designed to stabilize the area affected by the slide is located under holes 17 and 18. During the massive geological stabilization process the golf course was open for business. The geological stabilization process was based on a

geotechnical Geotechnical engineering, also known as geotechnics, is the branch of civil engineering concerned with the engineering behavior of earth materials. It uses the principles of soil mechanics and rock mechanics to solve its engineering problems. I ...

design involving the use of

geosynthetic Geosynthetics are synthetic products used to stabilize terrain. They are generally polymeric products used to solve civil engineering problems. This includes eight main product categories: geotextiles, geogrids, geonets, geomembranes, geosyntheti ...

materials designed to enhance the cohesion and strength of the landslide fill. Asked about the safety of the work, Trump said: "If I'm ever in California for an earthquake, this is where I want to be standing". In 2008, Trump sued the city of

Rancho Palos Verdes Rancho Palos Verdes is a coastal city in southern Los Angeles County, California, United States. Incorporated on September 7, 1973, the city has a population of 42,287 as reported in the 2020 United States census. The city sits atop the bluffs o ...

for $100 million, alleging that the city did not allow him to make the improvements needed to maintain the "Trump image." The lawsuit was settled in 2012 for undisclosed terms. In 2015, Trump announced he would forgo his plans to build homes on 16 additional lots and granted an 11.5-acre conservation easement to the

Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy The Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy (PVPLC) is a non-profit organization that is based on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in southwestern Los Angeles County, California. Its mission is "Preserving land and restoring habitat for the education ...

. The same year, the course was scheduled to host the

PGA Grand Slam of Golf The PGA Grand Slam of Golf was an annual off-season golf tournament contested from 1979 until 2014 when the tournament was cancelled. It was contested by the year's winners of the four major championships of regular men's golf, which are the Ma ...

. However, the tournament was cancelled by the PGA supposedly based on Trump's comments about illegal immigrants. A few sport teams and charities sought to move their charity-golf tournaments to other venues based on politics.

Media

*The Trump National Los Angeles was the setting for the filming of Golf Channel's '' The Big Break VI: Trump National''. *The Trump National Los Angeles was also the setting for the golf course shots in ''50 First Dates'', with Catalina Island clearly seen in some of the shots. *In the 2008 film '' Step Brothers'', the course was used for the "Catalina Wine Mixer" scenes, doubling as Catalina Island. *In the 2014 film ''

Horrible Bosses 2 ''Horrible Bosses 2'' is a 2014 American crime comedy film directed by Sean Anders and written by Anders and John Morris (filmmaker), John Morris. A sequel to 2011's ''Horrible Bosses'', the film features Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeiki ...

'', the 'cancel the order' scene was filmed at the golf course. *The ''

Modern Family ''Modern Family'' is an American television sitcom, created by Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd, that aired on ABC for 11 seasons from September 23, 2009, to April 8, 2020. The series follows the lives of three diverse but interrelated fa ...

'' 2014 episode " The Wedding (Part 2)" was filmed at the golf course. *In 2016, it was the filming location for and the subject of the

Adult Swim Adult Swim (stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representativ ...

and s is an American adult-oriented television programming block that airs on Cartoon Network which broadcasts during the evening, prime time, and Late-night television, late-night Dayparting, dayparts. T ...

special '' The Adult Swim Golf Classic'' which depicted Trump National Los Angeles hosting a golf tournament in 1966 sponsored by the fictional cigarette company Portnoy 100s.The Adult Swim Golf Classic
(Retrieved from the adultswim.com website on 09 June)

Scorecard

References

External links

* {{Trump businesses Golf clubs and courses in California Palos Verdes Peninsula Landslides in the United States Assets owned by the Trump Organization 1990s landslides 1999 natural disasters Donald Trump real estate

History

Media

Scorecard

See also

References

External links