Bel-Air Country Club Admits Aviator Knapp

The Bel-Air Country Club, one of the top golf clubs in the Los Angeles area, has admitted aviator Brooke Knapp as its only regular woman member, a club official said Thursday.

Knapp, whose 50-hour, 22-minute flight around the world in 1983 set a speed record for business jets, said Thursday she waited about a year to obtain membership card No. 448. She said she understands she is the club’s first woman regular member.

But club secretary-treasurer William Miller, in an interview confirming Knapp’s membership said, “She’s not the first woman we’ve had. She may be the only one at the moment, but we’ve had at least two or three in the past. We haven’t had any recently.”

Nonetheless, Miller said, the Bel-Air Country Club has a non-discriminatory membership policy in accord with the Los Angeles city ordinance adopted last year that bans discrimination of all kinds at most of the city’s large private clubs.

Miller said the club currently has 436 regular members and a few more than 300 associate, senior and non-resident members. He said current regular admission fees are $55,000 and monthly dues are $300.

The club official added that to his knowledge no other women have applied for regular membership, although under club rules widows of members can retain associate memberships by paying half the regular monthly dues.

About a year ago, one of the other big Westside country clubs, Hillcrest, changed its bylaws and admitted women.

Women have also recently been admitted to the downtown Jonathan Club and are on the approved waiting list at the downtown California Club. Neither is a golf club.

Knapp owns a home near the Bel-Air club’s 13th hole and for 16 years she had club privileges when she was married.

“My former husband was a regular member,” she explained Thursday. “I live on golf. I was applying to continue my life style as I had known it for 16 years. I wasn’t applying as a test case. It was a natural progression for me, and it seemed that way to the board as well. I probably knew more members than anyone else there.”

She added that she is thrilled that the club admitted her. “What’s the most exciting aspect of it is when they did decide to take in a woman member, they didn’t alter their bylaws in any way. In some ways, the other clubs have invited women and put certain restrictions on their membership,” she said.

“Bel Air has offered the complete regular membership package. I have the exact rights of any other member.”

The Los Angeles city attorney’s office recently had to sue to get the Brentwood Country Club to liberalize its rules as to when its women members could play golf and use some rooms at the clubs. The case ended in a settlement. The city attorney has also sued the Jonathan Club to open a dining room to women.