The clubhouse and the 18th green framed under the branch of an old oak at Palos Verdes Golf Club

Journal · TournamentsFir Hills Seri Pak Championship · Palos Verdes Golf Club · March 2024

The LPGA at Palos Verdes.

For one week a year a 1920s George C. Thomas Jr. course on the cliffs above Santa Monica Bay hands itself to the LPGA Tour. Three hundred and thirty-five frames in eleven hours on finals day; these are the sixty that tell it in order — from the welcome gates to the trophy on the clubhouse bar.

Event: Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship · LPGA Tour
Host club: Palos Verdes Golf Club, Palos Verdes Estates, California
Final round: Sunday 24 March 2024
Champion: Nelly Korda — 275 (−9), won in a playoff
Purse: $2,000,000 · $300,000 to the winner
Coverage: One photographer · 7am–6pm · 335 frames delivered · 60 shown here

Arrival

Palos Verdes Golf Club opens a 1920s George C. Thomas Jr. course to a professional field for one week a year. This is what a spectator walks past on the way in — and what the course looks like with nobody on it.

The tournament welcome board at Palos Verdes Golf Club, with the printed hole-by-hole course map and the full sponsor wall for the 2024 Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship — 01 · lpga24-252

Twin WELCOME pylons at the spectator entrance to Palos Verdes Golf Club, shuttle carts waiting on the gravel behind them — 02 · lpga24-254

THANK YOU pylons flanking the clubhouse drive at Palos Verdes Golf Club as the course empties on the final evening — 03 · lpga24-257

A white wooden signpost on the sand path directing players to the club yard, the 10th green and the 10th tee at Palos Verdes Golf Club — 04 · lpga24-125

The Spanish Colonial clubhouse at Palos Verdes Golf Club in flat morning light, a group gathering on the lawn below the terrace — 05 · lpga24-1

A Palos Verdes fairway running away between eucalyptus and coastal scrub before the gallery arrives — 06 · lpga24-77

Still water on the course with tournament signage and the marshal's tent reflected behind it — 07 · lpga24-203

The WELCOME TO THE PUTTING GREEN board standing alone on the practice green before the first player arrives — 08 · lpga24-204

Warm-up

The range at a tour event is the only place where the field turns up in one frame. Nobody is watching yet, and it shows.

Caddie bibs at close range on the practice tee, a player mid-backswing between them — 10 · lpga24-10

A player stretching with a club held overhead behind her shoulders in the cold morning air before her round — 11 · lpga24-13

A player framed clean against open white sky on her way between holes — 12 · lpga24-57

Two players and their caddies waiting with the bags on a tee at Palos Verdes Golf Club — 13 · lpga24-40

III

Championship golf

Palos Verdes is short by tour standards and does not care. It defends with slope, wind off the Pacific and greens that run away from the hole.

An iron shot caught exactly at impact, turf lifting off the face at Palos Verdes Golf Club — 14 · lpga24-48

Full follow-through with turf still in the air, the player watching the ball out — 15 · lpga24-49

A player in pink following through over a clipped hedge line, club wrapped behind her shoulders — 16 · lpga24-88

Sand exploding from a greenside bunker at Palos Verdes Golf Club as the player drives the club through — 17 · lpga24-89

The finish of a bunker recovery, sand still hanging in the light — 18 · lpga24-90

A drive struck over a bank of flowering ice plant at Palos Verdes Golf Club — 19 · lpga24-100

A driver swing framed low through red blossoms on the coastal bank — 20 · lpga24-103

A tee shot at Palos Verdes Golf Club with the Peninsula hillside and its houses stacked behind the green — 21 · lpga24-108

A player driving with the long tile roofline of the resort below the course behind her — 22 · lpga24-113

A tee shot framed between the Fir Hills sponsor boards and a television camera on the tee — 23 · lpga24-118

A backlit explosion of sand as a player plays out of a fairway bunker, ball already gone — 24 · lpga24-144

A player almost lost inside her own sand spray on a greenside recovery — 25 · lpga24-145

A tee shot seen between two spectators standing at the ropes, the peninsula falling away behind — 26 · lpga24-61

A player crouched to read her line on a green cut into the canyon edge at Palos Verdes Golf Club — 27 · lpga24-51

The gallery

A championship at a member club has nowhere to put people except the property itself. They line the paths, sit on the banks and stack four deep behind the hedges.

A long line of spectators walking the edge of the fairway behind the last group — 28 · lpga24-154

The gallery strung single file along a dirt path cut into the green hillside at Palos Verdes Golf Club — 29 · lpga24-184

The crowd line curving along the canyon path, hundreds deep, seen from across the hole — 30 · lpga24-186

Spectators packed along the ropes around the practice putting green — 31 · lpga24-205

A greenside bunker shot played in front of a bank of spectators seated shoulder to shoulder on the slope — 32 · lpga24-207

Spectators stacked several rows deep behind a clipped hedge, phones up, watching the green — 33 · lpga24-218

Spectators applauding at the ropes as a group walks off — 34 · lpga24-56

A small bird perched on the gallery rope over an empty fairway between groups — 35 · lpga24-137

Two caddies walking a path framed by white coastal blossom at Palos Verdes Golf Club — 36 · lpga24-167

The village

The commercial side of a tour stop is built in a week and gone in a day. It is also most of what a spectator actually walks through.

Spectators collecting wristbands at the Fir Hills ticket tent inside the gates — 37 · lpga24-138

Shuttle buses and a painted food truck parked on the hard ground at the spectator entrance — 38 · lpga24-259

The Mijenta Cantina hospitality tent set up along the spectator route — 39 · lpga24-260

40 · lpga24-265

41 · lpga24-266

Two Lucid sedans displayed on the grass above the ocean with the trophy on a plinth between them — 42 · lpga24-267

A converted horse trailer serving a whiskey tasting under a neon sign on the spectator route — 43 · lpga24-277

Sunday

Nelly Korda won it in a playoff — her third victory in three consecutive starts, on the way to tying the LPGA record at five. The last hour of a tournament looks the same at every level: people hug, and somebody drinks out of the cup.

A player and her caddie holding on to each other on the green after the final putt, crowd behind them — 44 · lpga24-233

A player laughing on the 18th green with the putter still in her hand — 45 · lpga24-236

Players and caddies embracing as they come off the last green at Palos Verdes Golf Club — 46 · lpga24-251

A long two-armed hug in front of a standing gallery after the finish — 47 · lpga24-272

The winner's caddie bib in the scrum of officials and family gathered behind the 18th green — 48 · lpga24-278

Nelly Korda presented with the oversized winner's cheque for three hundred thousand dollars as 2024 champion of the Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship — 49 · lpga24-282

Nelly Korda holding the Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship trophy on the 18th green at Palos Verdes Golf Club — 50 · lpga24-288

The champion lifting the trophy above her shoulder, looking up at it — 51 · lpga24-290

The champion laughing as she drinks from the trophy — 52 · lpga24-297

The champion with her team and family on the green, trophy between them — 53 · lpga24-295

VII

The club's evening

Then the ropes come down, the grandstands go on a truck, and the property goes back to being a golf club. The last frame of the day was made at the bar, at two minutes past six.

The Palos Verdes Golf Club clubhouse seen across the 18th green with the gallery banked along the hillside below it — 54 · lpga24-307

The full hillside above the 18th at Palos Verdes Golf Club covered in spectators for the finish — 55 · lpga24-309

Every terrace and balcony of the clubhouse full of members and spectators watching the closing hole — 57 · lpga24-312

The crowd banked on the hillside below the pro shop patio at Palos Verdes Golf Club — 58 · lpga24-261

Palos Verdes Golf Club officials in club blazers gathered along the clubhouse bar with the championship trophy in front of them — 59 · lpga24-331

Glasses raised along the clubhouse bar at Palos Verdes Golf Club, the trophy on the marble between them — 60 · lpga24-334

A tour stop at a member club.

Palos Verdes Golf Club is a 1920s George C. Thomas Jr. course on the cliffs above Santa Monica Bay, and for one week a year it hands itself over to the LPGA Tour. In 2024 that week was the Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship, and it finished with Nelly Korda winning a playoff for her third straight victory in three starts — part of the run that tied the all-time LPGA record at five.

Clubhouse Creative covered the final round for the club — one photographer, 7am to just after 6pm. The brief was not tour coverage — the wires had that — but the thing a host club actually needs afterwards: what the property looked like carrying a championship, where the crowds went, how the village was laid out, and who was standing at the bar when it was over. 335 frames were delivered. The sixty above are the selected edit, in the order the day happened.

Questions about this event and tournament coverage.

Which LPGA tournament was played at Palos Verdes Golf Club in 2024?

The Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship, an LPGA Tour event hosted by Palos Verdes Golf Club in Palos Verdes Estates, California. The tournament has been played at Palos Verdes since 2023; earlier editions ran at Wilshire Country Club under the LA Open name.

Who won the 2024 Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship?

Nelly Korda, at 275 (−9), in a playoff. It was her third consecutive LPGA victory in three starts, part of the run that tied the all-time LPGA record of five straight wins. The winner's share was $300,000 from a $2,000,000 purse.

Who photographed the LPGA at Palos Verdes Golf Club?

Brian Khou of Clubhouse Creative, a Long Beach photography and video studio, shot the final round for Palos Verdes Golf Club — eleven hours on 24 March 2024, from 7am to just after 6pm. 335 frames were delivered; the 60 on this page are a selected edit.

Do you photograph professional golf tournaments and club championships?

Yes. Clubhouse Creative covers tournaments, member events and charity days at private clubs across Long Beach, the South Bay, Palos Verdes and Orange County — including LPGA week at Palos Verdes Golf Club and charity tournaments such as TheGIVE at Virginia Country Club.

What does tournament photography cost?

Event and editorial photography starts at $450, videography at $600, and a social half-day at $950. Multi-day tournament coverage is quoted on the schedule — the number of groups, ceremonies and sponsor obligations matters more than the hours.

How quickly are tournament photos delivered?

A graded set of selects goes out the same evening so the club has something to post while the event is still live, with the full gallery following after.