America's Oldest Lawn Bowling Club Keeps Game Alive In Golden Gate Park

America's Oldest Lawn Bowling Club Keeps Game Alive In Golden Gate ParkHoodline/Caitlin Harrington
Caitlin Harrington
Published on April 20, 2015

Dressed in traditional whites, members of the San Francisco Lawn Bowling Club gathered in Golden Gate Park for their monthly social last Tuesday. Several chatted outside and drew teams before heading into the historic 100-year-old clubhouse for lunch and birthday cake. “You can see it’s a very social, friendly group,” said Bill Ryan, head of the Greens committee and a club member for 25 years.

Founded in 1901, the San Francisco Lawn Bowling Club is America’s oldest municipal lawn bowling club. Members use three greens on either side of Bowling Green Drive next to Sharon Meadow in Golden Gate Park. Greens are open to members Tuesdays through Sundays, and free public lessons are offered on Wednesdays at noon. White linens aren’t required, but flat-soled shoes are a must. (The greens will be closed for coring April 16-30.)

A Scottish fraternal organization called the St. Andrew’s Society founded the SFLBC, which was initially known as the San Francisco Scottish Bowling Club. Superintendent John McLaren, a Scottish native who designed and managed Golden Gate Park, laid out a bowling green in October of 1901. Notable members included James “Sunny Jim” Rolph, who later became San Francisco mayor and governor of California.

Lawn bowling, a sport with ancient origins, has been played for hundreds of years in the United Kingdom. The world’s oldest club was founded in 1299 in England, and Scotland is home to the modern organized game.

“It’s a combination of a sport and a game,” said Ryan. “It takes a certain amount of skill, and yet there’s a certain amount of strategy.” Controlling the trajectory of the weighted bowl is the key to success. "The bowl's curve," said Ryan, is "what makes the skill of the game." Despite appearing spherical, bowls are slightly smaller on one side, which causes them to arc as they lose momentum.

The object of the game is to get bowls as close as possible to the jack, a small white ball thrown out at the beginning of play. A point is scored for the closest bowl and additional points are given for each bowl closer than the opponent’s nearest. The game may be played in singles, doubles, triples, or quads, with triples most common at the SFLBC.

Bowling greens in Golden Gate Park are 120 feet on each side and are divided into eight rinks, which means eight games can be played at a time. Keeping the greens at a high level is “a lot of work,” said Ryan. They’re mowed regularly, dethatched at intervals and irrigated as needed. Water used to irrigate the park is mostly recycled and non-potable, so the drought hasn’t yet affected the greens.

In 1912, the Women’s Golden Gate Lawn Bowling club was formed, and in 1913 a second green was completed, designated the women’s green (now called Green #2). A third green was built in 1928, and in 1976, the women’s club merged with the SFLBC, which now holds single-sex and and mixed tournaments. The greens reopened last November after closing for renovations funded by a 2008 Parks bond grant program.

“This is a good game for women,” said longtime bowler Bill Campbell. “The fact that your opponent’s a foot taller than you and outweighs you by 75 pounds doesn’t really mean that much.” Campbell is the club’s longest-standing member, having joined in 1964. He’s traveled the country extensively for bowl tournaments and was inducted into the USA Bowls Hall of Fame in 2013.

Although the club skews older, members encourage younger people to join. With approximately 100 members ranging in age from their 20s through their 90s, “it’s a game you can play for many years,” said Campbell. “You can play into your advanced years, which is beneficial.”

Many members visit the park for casual games, while others are locally and nationally competitive, going up against other Bay Area teams from Oakland, Palo Alto and Walnut Creek. When we visited, a few members had just returned from the Southwest Division Open in Arcadia, CA, and last year, an SFLBC member represented the club in the national championship.

“You can play at any level you want, whether it’s social, club, tournaments, or at a national level,” said Ryan. “If you’re a serious bowler, you can bowl all over the country.”

In 1915, SFLBC members each contributed $500 for the construction of an Edwardian style clubhouse, nicknamed “the house that Jack built,” after McLaren. Along with the three greens, the clubhouse is now registered as San Francisco City Landmark #181.

If you're interested in checking out lawn bowling for yourself, mark your calendar for May, when the greens will reopen and the free Wednesday lessons will resume.