Noted golf course architect Sam Whiting designed the Nevada County Country Club golf course in 1926. Our course and Old Brockway at Kings Beach, Lake Tahoe, (which also dates to 1926), are the oldest courses in the region. A year earlier, in 1925, Whiting teamed with Willie Watson on the original design of Harding Park Golf Course in San Francisco. Whiting also designed San Francisco’s Olympic Club, the Sonoma Golf Club, and the Stockton Golf and Country Club in the late 1920’s. He later became the first president of the Northern California PGA.
The land on which NCCC is located was settled in the mid-1850s by Timothy Worthington. He came west from Cincinnati Ohio, and was soon joined by his brother, James. They cleared the land and raised horses here, racing the horses at the local Glenbrook Race Track. After Timothy died, James married Luvia Damon. Together, they renamed their property Pie Plant Ranch, operated it as a dairy, and built a pretty home (now the Clubhouse). James is credited with planting the beautiful magnolia trees, which still stand on the course today.
The property was used as a private residence until a group of local golf enthusiasts got together in the early 1920s to plan the Nevada County Country Club. Among the founders and early members were Elza Kilroy, who would become known as “Mr. Nevada City,” for his civic leadership; and his wife, Luvia, a descendent of the Worthingtons.
NCCC has been organized in its current form as a semi-private club since 1950.