El Segundo’s popular nine-hole golf course began as the International Meadows Golf Center in 1962.
The unusual name arose from the city’s chamber of commerce declaring the area where it was located south of LAX along Sepulveda Blvd. as the “International Mile” in March 1962, an attempt to encourage business and industrial development on the city’s east side.
Companies and developers took them literally, and soon corporate headquarters, and, in 1965, the 12-story International Trade center, took shape along the stretch of Sepulveda between Imperial Highway and El Segundo Blvd.
In keeping with the “International” theme, the new executive golf course at 366 S. Sepulveda adopted the International Meadows name.
Jim Stinnett, who developed the facility along with partners Jack Heath and Bob Brown, brought a bit of local history to the new course when he bought the old Patmar’s diner building for $500 in 1960. The diner had closed in 1959. He spent another $1500 moving and refurbishing it, but when he was done, International Meadows had its “new” pro shop.
Its driving range was first to open, on Feb. 15, 1962. The golf course itself initially was scheduled to open in June, but the first players didn’t step onto the 16.5-acre links until September 1962.
The popular course dropped the International Meadows name for the more prosaic “El Segundo Golf Course” in the early 1970s. I hope I’m not the only duffer who deposited a shot onto nearby Sepulveda on its short ninth hole, whose tee sat atop a tall bluff facing the street.
Chevron USA, which owned the land on which the course was built, threw a monkey wrench into its future when it announced plans to build an industrial development on part of the course’s land.
The course was reduced to just three holes, the driving range, snack bar and pro shop in August 1987 to make way for the project.
Chevron had made provisions for the course’s future, offering 25 acres just south of it to the city for a new nine-hole facility. But plans for the new links stalled due to legal entanglements and red tape, and the old Patmar’s building became a casualty.
In 1989, its condition had deteriorated, and it no longer could be used as the pro shop. The El Segundo Historical Society wanted to have it moved to downtown, but the tangled status of the new project led to delays that resulted in its eventual demolition in 1993.
Meanwhile, the golf course project itself officially was shelved in 1990 due to the bureaucratic logjam, and there was some concern that it never would come to fruition.
The city went back and forth on the feasibility and scope of the project, until it finally began to regain steam in 1993. New, ambitious plans were developed, and, that May, the city awarded the $4 million contract to build the new city-owned golf facility to Environmental Golf Inc./Valley Crest Landscape Inc.
English golf architect Martin Hawtree was brought in to design the course, which now included three lakes in its layout. The city first voted to name the course the El Segundo Executive Golf Course, but as the course neared completion, its name was changed to another that had been suggested: The Lakes at El Segundo.
Official dedication of the new course took place on June 25, 1994, though local residents and those employed in El Segundo were allowed to play rounds during the week preceding the ceremony. Because of its new location, its address changed to 400 S. Sepulveda Blvd.
By 2012, the city had decided that The Lakes needed updating in order to bring in more revenue, and it began negotiations with the TopGolf firm to remodel its driving range.
Daily Breeze reporter Megan Barnes described TopGolf in 2016 as “known for its bowling-like take on driving ranges, letting players hit microchipped golf balls to flashy targets with sensors that tally points measured by accuracy in real-time. The facilities also have full-service restaurants, bars, meeting areas and event spaces.”
TopGolf’s entertainment-oriented take on revitalizing golf courses stirred bitter, often fractious debates among city council members and residents. The heated discussion and argument included a profane outburst from TopGolf opponent Councilman Dave Atkinson as he stormed out of a January 2015 meeting.
Finally, after seven years of debate, the city awarded TopGolf a contract to convert The Lakes into one of its golf entertainment facilities in 2019. After a pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic, TopGolf resumed work on the project last fall.
In January 2021, the firm announced that the high-tech driving range and redesigned nine-hole golf course would open as Southern California’s first TopGolf facility by the summer of 2022.
The final day of play at The Lakes of El Segundo before its closure for the renovations was Feb. 14, 2021.
Sources:
Daily Breeze archives.
El Segundo Herald archives.
Lakes at El Segundo website.
Los Angeles Times archives.
The Southern California Golf Guide, by Daniel Wexler, MTIII Golf Media, El Segundo, 2017.
“TopGolf is taking over a golf course — here’s why that could work so well,” by Dylan Dethier, Golf.com website, Feb. 8, 2021.
TopGolf website.
TopGolf promotional video:
