One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
A South LA public golf course returns with a new look
A look at the refreshed Maggie Hathaway Golf Course.
(
Courtesy the Maggie Junior Golf & Community Foundation
)
Topline:
The Maggie Hathaway Golf Course, one of the only places for the sport in South Los Angeles, is reopening for play on Saturday after a major renovation.
Why the change? The course was getting run down. According to the county, it hadn’t improved much since opening in 1962. When the U.S. Open came to L.A. in 2023, organizers decided to give back by funding a renovation plan for the course. It closed in January 2025.
What’s different: The $20 million renovation includes an expanded driving range and practice green. The practice facilities have also been refreshed, and there’s new landscaping overall. A new clubhouse, which will include a community room with a youth enrichment lab, is also coming soon in the next phase of the upgrade.
Why the course matters: The nine-hole public course is named after Maggie Mae Hathaway, an avid golfer and popular sports columnist for the L.A. Sentinel in the 1950s. She advocated for integrating golf and is credited with breaking down race barriers at public golf courses. She died in 2001.
Go deeper:
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
