The main clubhouse of this iconic club is 10 miles from the course

“Iconic” is tossed around like fairway grass on a windy day, but the Olympic Club qualifies. A dozen USGA championships have been hosted, and the 2033 Ryder Cup is coming up. That glorious clubhouse framing the tricky par-4 finishing hole…

Well, that’s not Olympic mainly clubhouse. The main digs are the City Clubhouse, 10 miles away, in San Francisco’s famed Union Square district. The Olympic Club is not just a golf club. It is an athletics club, the oldest in America, founded on May 6, 1860, five months before the first Open Championship was held in Scotland.

James J. Corbett, “Gentleman Jim” of the prizefighting world, joined Olympic in 1884, 40 years before the club opened its Lake and Ocean courses. Corbett later became heavyweight champion and taught boxing at the club, which is kind of like having Greg LeMond as your SoulCycle instructor. Speaking of cycling, it has traditionally been one of the strong points of the Olympic Games, including the coach of the 1924 US Olympic cycling team (Ernest Ohrt) and later several professional road racers.

Then there was the member who set the shot put world record in 1909 (Ralph Rose); the innovative college basketball superstar who developed an early version of the jump shot (Hank Luisetti); the 1950 US Open tennis champion (Arthur Larsen). There is no time here to list the achievements of the club teams in basketball, cycling, athletics, football and rugby, but rest assured that these too are of historic proportions.

The current City Clubhouse is not the original, which was destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. It houses a fitness center, cardio solarium, squash and handball courts, circuit training facilities, two basketball courts and a pair of swimming pools.

Less strenuous amenities include a pub, dining room, meeting and banquet rooms, guest rooms and a rooftop terrace. Or you can jump in a car and be at the first tee in half an hour, depending on traffic.