CANDLEWOOD COUNTRY CLUB
🇺🇸 Whittier, CA, USA
Designed by Harry Rainville

Candlewood Country Club sits in Whittier, a city in the Puente Hills region of southeastern Los Angeles County. The course was designed by Harry Rainville, a Southern California architect active primarily in the mid-20th century who created several layouts in the region during the post-war golf boom. Rainville's work typically emphasized playability for a broad membership while working within the natural contours of the local terrain.
The Whittier area features rolling hills and native California vegetation, and courses in this part of Los Angeles County generally incorporate elevation changes and canyon features into their routing. Candlewood likely reflects these regional characteristics, with holes that move through varied topography and require thoughtful club selection given the slopes and sightlines typical of foothill golf in Southern California.
As a country club in an established suburban community, Candlewood serves a local membership and functions as a social and recreational center for the area. The club has maintained its course over the decades, adapting to modern playing standards while preserving the essential character of Rainville's original design. The setting offers views of the surrounding hills and, on clear days, the broader Los Angeles basin, providing a sense of remove from the urban density below while remaining accessible to the metropolitan area.
Reviews
The LA private club scene is dominated by remarkable golden age courses but for most of us, membership at Riviera, LACC or Bel-Air is, and will forever be, unattainable. There are a handful of Everyman clubs in the area and that is where Candlewood fits in. The club was facing serious financial challenge through the 2010s to the point that the club was selling afternoon tee times on Golf Now. However, the sale of a plot of land and the COVID golf boom did much to replenish the coffers and over the past few years the Golf Now is gone and there has been a marked improvement in course conditions including a full bunker renovation. The course is characterized my small, fast, sloping greens and tight tree lined fairways. While short at roughly 6200 yards from the tips, dog legs and a number of uphill approach shots make the par 70 lay out play longer than the scorecard. There’s nothing spectacular about the golf course but there are a lot of solid holes. I’ve always enjoyed the short par 4s 9, 17 and 18. More than anything, Candlewood has a fun, diverse membership with plenty of games and a lot of good players including some of the best junior and college golfers in SoCal.
FAQ
Ratings, design, and course details pulled from Course Vaults.
Candlewood at Candlewood Country Club has a Course Vaults score of 6.8 out of 10 based on 2 explicit golfer ratings.
Candlewood was designed by Harry Rainville.
Candlewood at Candlewood Country Club is listed as private on Course Vaults; guest access is typically restricted.
Par at Candlewood is 70.
Candlewood plays 6,194 yards from the back tees on Course Vaults.
The slope rating at Candlewood is 136.