For according to the 1931 edition of the highly reliable American Annual Golf Guide, Los Angeles County boasted a total of 14 first-rate 18-hole golf courses that no longer exist. That’s 14 full-sized layouts – public and private – that have dissolved into housing, airports, shopping malls and the like. Most of these courses were of real merit, several of the best being built by George Thomas and/or Billy Bell, the legendary architects responsible for such landmark courses as Riviera, Bel-Air and the Los Angeles Country Club.

What’s missing then, is an impressive body of work. Indeed, we can fairly say that a good number of prominent American cities have never had as many fine courses in total as the Los Angeles area has lost.

On land partially occupied by today’s Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, the public Sunset Fields Golf Club featured 36 Bell-designed holes. Though not considered quite the equal of nearby Fox Hills, Sunset Fields was, nonetheless, an outstanding public facility.

—Wexler, Daniel. “Lost World.” Los Angeles Times, 20 February 2003