Two different private clubs sit behind the gates at Lake Sherwood, and this year one of them changed owners, changed its name, and started ripping out its pool deck while the other one didn't move an inch. If you've heard neighbors talking about "the Caruso thing at the country club," that's the mix-up worth clearing up, because it's not the country club at all.
The club that actually changed hands is the one most residents still call Sherwood Lake Club, the par-3 course and clubhouse tucked off Williamsburg Way that longtime owner David H. Murdock built decades ago alongside the rest of the Sherwood community. Murdock, the former Dole Food chief executive who shaped much of Lake Sherwood in the 1980s, developed both clubs when he laid out the neighborhood. But by the time he died in June 2025, their ownership had drifted apart. Sherwood Country Club, the invitation-only championship course with roughly 375 golf memberships, had long since become member owned. Sherwood Lake Club stayed in Murdock's hands. That's the reason only one of the two clubs was available to sell when he passed, and it's why what happened next affected one gate and not the other.
A deal that closed faster than most escrows
According to reporting in The Real Deal, the sale came together almost by accident. Rick Caruso, the developer behind The Grove, the Americana at Brand, and the Commons at Calabasas, got a call from a broker on a Friday afternoon telling him the Lake Club was available. He hadn't seen the property. He knew Sherwood socially, he had friends who lived there, but he'd never toured the club itself. Twenty minutes on the phone later, he told his team to get the deal closed over the weekend. Papers were signed the following Tuesday.
That pace matters for a place like Lake Sherwood, where change usually moves at the speed of an HOA meeting. A club that had operated under one family's ownership for most of its existence turned over in four days.
What's physically different
Caruso's team broke ground almost immediately. The plans, confirmed through the company's own newsroom, call for a full renovation of the 18,000 square foot clubhouse: a new Italian-leaning restaurant and bar, an updated gym, and a pool relocated to open up more outdoor space. The par-3 course itself isn't changing. It's still the same Jack Nicklaus "Bear's Best" design, built from some of Nicklaus's own favorite hole concepts from around the world, and it remains one of only two courses of its kind anywhere and the only one in the United States. What's changing is everything wrapped around it.
Caruso has been explicit that the intent is to make the place feel more like a family gathering spot than a golf-only club. In a July interview with the Hollywood Reporter, he described wanting a wellness center overlooking the course, a casual poolside grill, and a full culinary program anchored by a chef the company hadn't yet named as of that conversation. He also confirmed the club is being folded into the same brand as his Miramar Beach Club in Montecito, which is why the property now carries the Miramar name instead of Sherwood's.
The part that actually changes who you'll see at the clubhouse
Here's the detail that got less attention than the pool renovation but matters more for day to day life inside the gates. According to Caruso's own newsroom materials, members of the Miramar Club in Montecito will also have access to the Lake Sherwood property. And the company is tying the club into its ongoing expansion at the Commons at Calabasas, where premium units in a planned eight story luxury apartment building are slated to come with a Miramar membership attached.
That means the clubhouse crowd at the old Sherwood Lake Club is no longer limited to homeowners on lake adjacent lots the way it used to be under the old Class A and Class B membership structure. It's being wired into a membership network that already includes a beach club two hours up the coast and, soon, a residential tower thirty minutes down the 101. For a private amenity that residents have long thought of as their own backyard club, that's a real shift in who might be teeing off next to you on a Saturday morning, even if the course itself hasn't changed a single hole.
What's confirmed and what isn't, as of this fall
A few things are locked in. A few aren't yet, and it's worth keeping the two lists separate rather than treating every headline as settled fact.
Confirmed: the sale closed in early 2026. The club has been renamed Miramar Lake Club. The clubhouse renovation, pool relocation, and restaurant concept are underway. Caruso has publicly targeted a fall 2026 opening.
Not yet announced: the identity of the restaurant's chef. Specific membership pricing or terms. An exact opening date beyond "this fall."
If you drive past the club this month expecting a ribbon cutting, you may be early. The company has been careful to say "later this year" rather than commit to a calendar date, and past Caruso projects have generally taken their time to get details right before opening the doors.
Two clubs, side by side
| Sherwood Country Club | Miramar Lake Club (formerly Sherwood Lake Club) | |
|---|---|---|
| Ownership | Private, member owned | Owned by Caruso |
| Course | 18 hole championship course, Jack Nicklaus design | 18 hole par 3 course, Jack Nicklaus "Bear's Best" design |
| Access | Invitation only, roughly 375 golf memberships | Membership tied to Caruso's broader Miramar network |
| Notable history | Hosted the Shark Shootout (1989 to 1999) and Tiger Woods's World Challenge (2000 to 2013); ranked California's 21st best course by Golf Digest for 2025-26 | Long known locally as the first "Bear's Best" par-3 layout in the country |
| Involved in the 2026 sale | No | Yes |
Sherwood Country Club was not part of this transaction and nothing about its membership, its course, or its calendar has changed. If you're hearing renovation noise or seeing new landscaping trucks near the lake this fall, it's coming from the other club.
What this looks like on the ground
For residents, the visible signs so far have been the ordinary texture of a construction project: fencing around the old pool footprint, new signage going up at the entrance off Williamsburg Way, and a name on the gate that doesn't match what longtime members still call it out of habit. Caruso has said the goal is a place he'd want in his own neighborhood, casual enough for a family lunch by the pool but polished enough to carry the Miramar name. Whether that lands the way he's describing it won't be clear until the doors actually open and residents get a look at the finished restaurant and the reworked pool deck for themselves.
What's certain is that the club at the center of Lake Sherwood's Saturday routine has a new name, a new owner, and a wider circle of members who'll be walking through the same gates you do. The course hasn't changed. Almost everything around it has.
If you're curious about how a change like this tends to ripple through a small, tightly held market like Lake Sherwood, or you just want someone who's tracking it closely to keep you posted as more details come out this fall, Cris Epstein would love to connect.
