Photo, 1966, from the Collection of Don Ballard

“GOLF” in bigger letters than the name of the hotel

You might think that being across the street from the world-famous park and sharing its name would be all it would take to make this hotel a popular place for vacationers and conventioneers. That’s not how the owner sees it. He wants you to have a great time at the hotel itself, especially if your definition of a great time includes golf.

Golfers, you’ve come to the right place.

Excerpt from 1964 souvenir map of Disneyland © 1964 Walt Disney Productions

A corner of the 1964 souvenir map

Can you find four places to hit a golf ball with a golf club on this map?

Three are easy to find. One is a bit harder. Read on, and you’ll know what to look for.

Photo, 1960, from the Collection of Don Ballard

18-hole Putting Green as it looked in 1960

From the Collection of Don Ballard

Putting Green from the Sierra Tower

Test your putting prowess at the “championship” 18-hole putting green. It’s right next to the olympic size swimming pool and the shuffleboard courts.

Postcard, from the Collection of Don Ballard

18-hole, par 3 Golf Course

Enjoy the challenging 18-hole, all grass, par 3 golf course with its ponds, waterfalls, and meandering streams. Seven water holes and sand traps galore await your six, seven, eight and nine iron shots. In fact, hole 17 is on an island in the middle of a lake. It’s a challenge to the very best golfer, as well as fun and excitement for the amateur.

Brochure image, 1962, from the Collection of Don Ballard

50-tee Driving Range

From the Collection of Don Ballard

With the Sierra Tower and Marina Tower in the background

Practice your drives and correct your hooks on the 50-tee, 250-yard driving range.

For family fun, there’s the 18-hole Miniature Golf Course—the Magic Kingdom Golf Course—with landmarks of Disneyland Park.

From the Collection of Don Ballard

Miniature Golf Course

Photos, circa 1970s, courtesy of Rodney Bills of the M54 blog

Posing at the Matterhorn

Image from a 1967-68 brochure, from the Collection of Don Ballard

18th hole: Mickey’s Lagoon

Photos, circa 1970s, courtesy of Rodney Bills of the M54 blog

Posing with Mickey at the 18th hole

Score card, 1964, From the Collection of Don Ballard

Magic Kingdom Golf Course score card

Each hole of the Miniature Golf Course is based on something that you’ll find at the park across the street. Hole 5 features the Matterhorn. The Rocket to the Moon awaits you at hole 7. There’s also eerie Skull Rock, but you’ll have to wait until hole 13 for that one.

From the Collection of Don Ballard

Pleasant relaxation

If you enjoy golf, you’ve checked in to the right hotel—the hotel with the 40-acre Golf Centre. Everything is lighted for your pleasure, so you can play day or evening.

Although the Disneyland Hotel had a putting green since 1956, the hotel’s three major golf features were announced in 1960 and opened in 1961. Here’s what the Los Angeles Times wrote about the plans on November 6, 1960:

Hotel to Build $500,000 Golf Course, Driving Range

Jack Wrather, president of the Disneyland Hotel, announced that construction will start in the near future on a $500,000 18-hole three-par golf course together with a 50-position driving range and pro shop and a unique 18-hole miniature golf course adjacent to the Disneyland Hotel.

The new project covers 10 acres of the present hotel property and an additional 30 acres obtained from Disneyland, Inc.

According to Wrather, this will be one of the largest three-par golf courses on the West Coast and is part of an overall plan to develop the Disneyland Hotel as not only a major hotel but as one of the leading convention centers in the United States.

The Disneyland Hotel, presently with 306 rooms and dining and banquet facilities seating a total of 1,750 persons, will upon completion of the golf course project, cover 60 acres, making it one of the largest hotel operations in the world.

The announcement meant that the hotel that Jack Wrather had been fond of calling “the little motel in the middle of the orange grove” would have the orange groves to its west and north removed.

Photo, 1961, from the Collection of Don Ballard

Golf Course construction in 1961

What had once been an orange grove between the hotel and Walnut Avenue became the project’s largest part, the 18-hole golf course.

Aerial photo, 1961, from the Collection of Don Ballard

Aerial view in 1961

While the three new golf features opened in 1961, the rest of the Disneyland Hotel was a campus of two-story buildings. That would soon change.

Aerial photo, 1963, from the Collection of Don Ballard

Yellow is Driving Range; Red is Miniature Golf; Blue is Putting Green; Green is Golf Course

Aerial photo, 1961, from the Collection of Don Ballard

Miniature Golf (center left) and Driving Range (bottom)

Today, the Disneyland Hotel is dominated by three large towers. The first of these towers, originally simply called the Tower Building, opened in 1961. Rooms had beautiful views of the golf course to the west and the olympic size pool to the east.

The tower is still there today. It’s now the northern half of the Adventure Tower.

From the Collection of Don Ballard

150-room Tower Building (1962 photo)

Even though the tower came just a year after the opening of the golf course, it was the beginning of the end for that course.

From the Collection of Don Ballard

Tower Building expanded to 300 rooms (1966 photo)

In 1965, construction of an addition to the Tower Building was underway. The hotel’s expansion also added more restaurant, retail, and conference capacity.

The hotel needed far more parking.

So, in 1965, new parking lots in two corners of the golf course meant that the 18-hole course became a 9-hole course. In a few more years, those remaining holes would disappear too.

Photo, 1969, from the Collection of Don Ballard

Construction of Marina Tower and Water World marina in 1969

By 1969, the golf course was gone. A second tower, to be called Marina Tower, was under construction around the corner from the first tower, now renamed Sierra Tower. A marina would be built in what had been the center of the golf course.

The hotel continued to expand. Two of the biggest expansions—the Convention Center (1972) and the Bonita Tower (1978)—were also built where golfers had once swung their clubs at golf balls.

The driving range and miniature golf course were shut down in 1978. The putting green, which had been the first golf feature, survived the longest—until the early 1980s.

The footprint of today’s Disneyland Hotel essentially covers the old golf course and the original tower. The low-slung buildings to the east of the tower—the original Disneyland Hotel—were demolished in 1999 to make way for Downtown Disney.

The Disneyland Hotel is still a great place to stay—but not to golf.

Photo, circa 1961, from the Collection of Don Ballard

Bonita Granville Wrather and Jack Wrather enjoying their golf course in 1961

Thank you to Don Ballard for the historical images of golf at the Disneyland Hotel and his assistance with this article.

Don Ballard is the author of two books about the history of the Disneyland Hotel:

• Disneyland Hotel: The Early Years 1954-1988 (hardcover)
• Disneyland Hotel 1954-1959: The Little Motel in the Middle of the Orange Grove (paperback)

To see rare historical photos of the Disneyland Hotel and to learn more about these books (including how to buy), visit www.MagicalHotel.com.

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Updated November 17, 2017.

Photos from the Collection of Don Ballard courtesy of the Wrather family and/or the Wrather Archives at Loyola Marymount University, courtesy of Chris Wrather and the family of Jack Wrather, with thanks to Don Ballard; some images originally copyright Wrather Corporation, which was acquired by The Walt Disney Company.