Lawn bowling at Bowling Green Park

Most people who walk down Embarcadero Road past Waverley Street never notice the bowling green. It sits behind an ivy-covered fence next to Gamble Garden, a flat rectangle of close-cut grass with a modest clubhouse at one end. On draw game afternoons, groups of players in sun hats roll heavy, lopsided balls across it in long curving lines. It looks old-fashioned. It is also one of the friendliest and cheapest ways to try a new sport in Palo Alto.

The green is part of Bowling Green Park, a 2-acre city park at 474 Embarcadero Road. The city maintains the green. The Palo Alto Lawn Bowls Club, founded in 1933, runs the games and the clubhouse. This guide covers how to try it, what membership involves, the park's history and how to get there.

Bowling Green Park

The city describes Bowling Green Park as a 2-acre park with a lawn bowling green and a clubhouse for members. Outside the fence, an open grassy area is available for anyone to use. The city's park page tags it as a park with athletic fields and lists drinking fountains among its features. Like other city parks, it is open from sunrise to sunset.

The clubhouse and green are locked when no one is using them. Members have keys. Non-members can come in when the gates are open for games or lessons. The club's facilities include restrooms with changing space, a kitchen, indoor and outdoor seating and a small library of books about the game.

How to try lawn bowling

The club publishes a simple path for beginners on its Getting Started page:

1. Drop in for a free lesson. Come at 12 noon on a day when practice is scheduled. The club lists Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. During daylight saving time there is also a 5 p.m. session on Wednesdays. A coach will be at the green to introduce the game. No booking is needed.
2. Or book a private lesson. If the drop-in times do not work, the club offers free lessons at a time arranged with one of its coaches. Contact details are on the club's site. A coach can take two to four people at once, so bring a friend or partner.
3. Join a draw game when a coach says you are ready. Draw games are the club's regular social games, with teams mixed by skill level.
4. Apply for membership if you want to keep playing.

What to bring: comfortable clothes and smooth, flat-soled shoes. You do not need traditional bowling whites. The club lends bowls. You will be outside for a couple of hours, so a hat, sunglasses and sunscreen help. The club also suggests a small towel, because grass clippings and moisture cling to the bowls at some times of day.

The club suggests a minimum age of 12. There is no upper limit. The club says some members bowl into their 80s and 90s. You need decent balance and the ability to bend and roll a bowl of about three pounds up to 100 feet across grass.

How the game works

Lawn bowls is played on a flat grass green divided into parallel lanes called rinks. Palo Alto's green has eight. Each player rolls bowls toward a small white target ball, the jack. The bowls are slightly asymmetrical, or biased, so they curve as they slow down. That curve is the whole art of the game. The side with bowls closest to the jack scores points for that round, called an end. Players then bowl back the other way. A typical game runs 10 to 14 ends.

The club's bowls measure roughly 4.5 to 5 inches across and weigh about 2.75 to 3.5 pounds. Special drainage lets the green dry within a few hours of a typical rain, so play continues most of the year except while it is actually raining.

Draw games

Draw games are how newcomers meet regulars. Fifteen minutes before the start, every bowler who wants to play puts a personal chip on a board. Chips come in three colors for three skill levels. The organizers then draw teams at random within each level so every team gets a mix. A game takes about two hours.

Daylight saving time ends on Sunday, November 1, 2026, so the winter schedule applies from then until spring. The club notes that tournaments, rentals, green maintenance and weather can change the schedule. Check the club's home page before you go.

Membership and costs

The club is member run, with volunteers doing all the work and a ten-member board. Membership includes national and regional affiliation with Bowls USA and its Pacific Inter-Mountain Division. Joining takes three steps: submit a request on the club's site, attend a coaching session and get approved by the board.

The club's published dues:

• New regular membership: $180, with a name badge and a gate key.
• Renewing regular membership: $160, due December 1 for the next 12 months.
• Dual membership: $105, for bowlers whose main club is elsewhere.
• Student membership: $40, ages 12 to 18, with an adult member present.
• Associate membership: $30, social only, no bowling.

New regular and dual dues are prorated from July. Visiting bowlers from other clubs can join Palo Alto's games at no cost.

A green built in the Depression

The green sits on the site of the old Peninsula Hospital, a three-story building put up in 1910 and razed in 1931 after Hoover Pavilion opened on Stanford land. The Civil Works Administration, a New Deal jobs program, built the green in 1933 and 1934. John McLaren, the superintendent of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, helped plan it. On opening day, March 10, 1935, ceremonial first bowls were rolled by club president Virginia Arnott, Mayor Earl C. Thomas and McLaren himself.

The club's own timeline adds detail. In April 2000 the green closed for five months for new sod, the first since 1935, along with new drainage, sprinklers and a walkway. The club closed in 2020 during the pandemic and returned to its regular schedule in 2022. It marked its 90th birthday on September 30, 2023 by raising a new flag on its historic flagpole.

Rivalries keep the calendar full. Since 1958 the club has played Berkeley each year for the Meat Axe trophy. Since 2004 it has played San Francisco in the Cable Car Classic. On August 21, 2026 it hosted the Silicon Valley Corporate Cup, an after-hours tournament for local company teams that raised money for Second Harvest of Silicon Valley.

Events and rentals

From April 1 to October 31 the club rents the green and clubhouse for a limited number of private events. The green holds about 42 guests, or up to 50 by arrangement. The price includes an instructor and loaner bowls. The club says the game is not suitable for children under 12. The clubhouse alone seats up to 60 theater style or 45 for dining, with another 30 on the patio. The club asks for 10 to 14 days of notice. With the 2026 season ending October 31, new requests are for spring 2027. Details are on the club's rentals page.

Getting there

The green is at 474 Embarcadero Road, between Waverley and Cowper streets. The club lists parking along the curb on Churchill Avenue and in two small lots off Churchill and off Embarcadero that it shares with Gamble Garden.

By bike, Bryant Street, the Ellen Fletcher Bicycle Boulevard, crosses Embarcadero Road a short distance west. It is the easiest way in from downtown or Midtown. The Palo Alto and California Avenue Caltrain stations are each a little under a mile away. VTA Route 21 runs on Middlefield Road, which crosses Embarcadero a few blocks east. Embarcadero carries heavy traffic, so cross at the signals.

What is nearby

The park sits at the northern edge of Old Palo Alto, with Professorville just across Embarcadero Road. Next door, Gamble Garden opens its formal gardens free during daylight hours. Rinconada Park, with its pool and redwood grove, is less than half a mile east. Because the game suits players well into old age, our page of resources for older adults is a good next stop for other ways to stay active in town. For more no-cost ideas, see our list of free things to do in Palo Alto.

Frequently asked questions