Birnam Wood Golf Club

Birnam Wood Golf Club is a private club set in Montecito, just outside Santa Barbara. Its Shakespearean name, drawn from Macbeth, came from the Scotsman who conceived the club in the mid-1960s, and stands in curious contrast to the sunny Southern California setting of mild climate and open landscape in which the course sits.

The club dates to 1967 and grew out of the efforts of Robert McLean, who had come to the Santa Barbara area a few years earlier. The land itself was once part of Las Fuentes Rancho, the "Ranch of the Flowing Springs," a sizeable lemon orchard developed by the Crocker-Sperry Company, and the McLean family home, a sprawling Spanish-style residence, overlooked the property.