Southern Hills Country Club

Southern Hills Country Club traces its origins to the mid-1930s, when a group of Tulsa businessmen set out to build a country club that could offer golf alongside a wider range of activities for members and their families. An initial idea to merge two existing Tulsa clubs — one a dining club, the other a golf club — was abandoned, leaving the founders in search of land.

The solution came from Tulsa oilman and philanthropist Waite Phillips, who owned roughly 700 acres of rolling farmland south of the city and saw its potential as the site of a club. After negotiations with founding members W.K. Warren, S.C. Canary, J.A. Padon and Otis McClintock, Phillips agreed to donate about 300 acres on the condition that the group raise $150,000 within two weeks and invest it in development over the following two years.