New Pepperdine Golf Clubhouse gives Waves a place to call home
By McKenzie Jackson · Mon Sep 28 2026
New $13 million facility provides men’s and women’s golf programs with their first dedicated on-campus home, featuring high-tech training spaces, locker rooms, and team gathering areas
Pepperdine Waves women’s golf team head coach Laurie Gibbs mostly saw her golfers once a day — for practice or a match — during past seasons because the team didn’t have a dedicated meeting spot on campus. That changed 10 days before the Waves teed off their fall season. Now, thanks to the opening of the new Pepperdine Golf Clubhouse on the second floor of Firestone Fieldhouse on the university’s campus, Gibbs, now in her 34th season as the team’s coach, is quickly growing accustomed to seeing her golfers throughout the day.
“What is so special is that all the girls are here — a lot,” Gibbs explained. “Now, they are studying here. We have a kitchen, so they can have food here. I’m in my office, but I can walk out and see players here, and they are maybe talking to a teammate or interacting with someone from the men’s team.”
Gibbs added that it is fun to see the players throughout the day.
“Normally, I wouldn’t have,” she said. “We’d have practice, and then I’d go home or to my office. I told my husband, ‘I feel like I’m home, and I have children that are in and out.’ That is what is really special.”
The $13 million Pepperdine Golf Clubhouse is the new campus home for the Waves men’s and women’s golf programs. The clubhouse’s ribbon-cutting on Sept. 4 marked the first time in the championship-winning programs’ decades-long histories that they have had home base on campus.
Previously, the golf squads had to use a putting green next to the tennis court and could hold practices in Alumni Park. There wasn’t a gathering place for the team, so the golfers often kept their equipment at home or in their car trunks.
Gibbs had an on-campus office previously but called the new clubhouse’s offices and conference room “a million times better.”
Pepperdine men’s golf coach Michael Beard said the clubhouse offers Pepperdine’s golfers tools and resources they need to succeed and build relationships with their teammates on campus.
“This is going to change the game for us, to be fully integrated with the rest of our athletic community on campus,” he said.
The 8,000-square-foot facility is a relaxing and training space for the golf teams.
It features team-branded locker rooms, player lounges, coaches’ offices, meeting spaces, and four hitting bays. There is also indoor golf performance technology that allows golfers to receive detailed feedback. The TrackMan iO hitting bays and one of the biggest TOURPUTT simulators in the country give players the chance to refine every aspect of their game.
Gibbs said the practice area, which includes a putting green, is amazing.
“It’s very high tech,” she explained. “We just had a full practice in there. We have four bays, so everyone was hitting or practicing putting. It’s just easy. Everything flows. You don’t feel too crowded. Plus, we were getting data on their swings.”
The locker room is great too, Gibbs added.
“We did team photos yesterday, so I got to put their uniforms in the locker room,” she said. “We have a place where we can all be and come in and out and practice whenever they want.”
Pepperdine Vice President of Planning, Operations, and Construction Ben Veendendal said the original vision was to build the clubhouse on a hillside in Alumni Park, but the location was switched to Firestone Fieldhouse because it keeps the golf teams in the university’s athletic village.
“We knew it was going to be a challenge to put it on top of a 50-year-old structure, but we were up for the challenge, and it was just the perfect amount of space,” he said. “It allowed us to bring to life a facility that was really outside of the alignment with the original architect of our campus. Putting it there allowed us to enhance the architectural value that more closely aligns with the main campus, so it was a win-win.”
Construction on the facility, which features high ceilings, big windows, and an elevator, took around two years. Veendendal said the areas of the clubhouse flow well together, and it achieves all the construction goals they had.
“It’s a game-changer,” he said. “The golfers never really had a place to call ‘home,’ a place to keep their golf clubs. It gives them a place to practice that isn’t 30 minutes through the canyon.”
Each program had storied, championship-filled history before the clubhouse.
The men’s team began their season last weekend with a 10th-place finish in the Sahalee Players Championship in Washington. The program boasts two national championships, 15 NCAA Championship appearances, and 24 West Coast Conference championships.
The women’s team began their season at the Dick McGuire Invitational in New Mexico with 22 WCC titles and 15 NCAA Championship appearances under its belt.
Several donors contributed to the construction of the clubhouse and 10 spaces in the building were named in their honor.
Gibbs said her players were emotional when they walked in the facility after the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
“When they walked in, it blew them away,” she said.
Pepperdine Director of Athletics Tanner Gardner called the clubhouse a “first-class home” and an “exciting milestone” for the school’s athletics community.
“We are incredibly grateful to the donors and supporters whose generosity made this facility possible, and we look forward to seeing the impact it will have for decades to come,” he said.
Gibbs said there aren’t too many facilities in college golf like the Pepperdine Golf Clubhouse.
“If other coaches walked in here, they would be envious,” she said. “I feel blessed to have a university that supports us so much. The players feel really supported.”
