ABOUT VICTORIA GOLF COURSE

A wealthy philanthropist – Douglas Kimmelman, in honor of his late wife who died from cancer, is seeking to build a world class tennis and soccer facility with a Tiger Woods Foundation Stem Facility on the front 9, driving range, golf practice facilities and clubhouse of LA County owned Links at Victoria GC.  The back 9 will convert public land currently devoted to recreation for the community, to the Creek at Dominguez Hills, a for profit, commercial development under the control of Plenitude Holdings, LLC, a NYC based real estate corporation who is the current operator/managing lessee of the Links of Victoria GC.  The for profit project by Plenitude is named “The Creek at Dominguez Hills”.   LA County gave Plenitude Holdings, a company without golf course management experience,  the lease to manage the Links at Victoria Golf Course and it is arguable that the facility is not receiving the level professional maintenance that would elevate the golf course into a gem in the South Bay.  This 52 year old golf course built on public land will disappear due to construction beginning in late 2020 after securing $50 of the $65 million needed for the Kimmelman half.  Note, the Links at Victoria GC is within LA County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas’ 2nd district, but many of the golfers using the golf course are residents of both the 2nd and LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn’s 4th districts. 

Prior to COVID19 and the resulting impact on 2020, the Links at Victoria GC still had the positive impact for the golf community.  Note, the following facts:

1. Hosted 43,000 rounds of golf a year, 
2. Produced positive revenue for LA County Parks and Recreation, 
3. Featured a driving range with golfers of all ages using the range from morning to night, 
4. The only public range where people hit from natural grass on the weekends, 
5. The largest grass short game practice facility of all the public golf courses,
6. Two large grass putting greens with slope.
7. 160 Towne Elementary school students were involved in a First Tee of LA program teaching both the values of golf – honesty, responsibility and perseverance – as well as golf skills
8. First Tee of LA Saturday clinics
9. LA County Jr. Golf Free Weeklong Clinics
10. The practice facility for Carson HS (who will probably need to end their golf program with the closure of the Links at Victoria), North Torrance HS, and Torrance HS
11. The home course of North Torrance HS to host Bay & Ocean League matches
12. The college teams of CSU-Dominguez Hills, Marymount California University and El Camino College will use this course for practice

In response to the loss of the golf course and the appearance that no elected official was reaching out to the golf community regarding the repurposing projects, the South Bay Youth Golf Coalition (SBYGC) was formed to advocate for youth golf.  The SBYGC is comprised of most of the South Bay high school golf coaches, college coaches, with representatives from junior golf programs, the Southern California Golf Association (SCGA) and the Southern California Professional Golf Association (SCPGA) to advocate for the need for open space dedicated to golf.  

The emergence of the SBYGC has led to meetings with the representatives from LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn’s office in both March 2019 and January 2020, but has not produced any further communication, commitments or action to support youth golf directly to the SBYGC.  Through the SCGA and the existence of the SBYGC, a meeting in Feb. 2020 occurred with the proposed entertainment driving range owner Flying Tee about the issues related to golf in the area, but has not yielded any written commitments about the future of golf practice facilities with grass or the accessibility or affordability of the driving range for youth golf.

The loss of the Links at Victoria GC will close the door to youth learning the game of golf from the surrounding, diverse cities of Carson, Gardena, Wilmington, Compton, Harbor City and Torrance.  The other South Bay courses feature heavy traffic not conducive for youth to learn to play the game.  Currently, the Creek at Dominguez Hills features The Flying Tee, a competitor to TopGolf, a company focused on constructing an entertainment golf ranges best suited for corporate parties as well as a zipline, a large gym to blare 50 tall digital billboards onto the 405, restaurants and stores.   The loss of the Links at Victoria GC will negatively impact young golfers and all golfers in the area.

Unfortunately, the media narrative for the repurposing of the Links at Victoria Golf Course does not mention the golf community and fails to recognize the negative impact on the youth in the area.