The 18th tee of Rancho Park golf course, at the re-dedication of the Arnold Palmer plaque, May 17.
On Wednesday last, a new Arnold Palmer plaque was dedicated, commemorating his score of 12, on Rancho Park’s par-five 18th hole, during the first round of the 1961 L.A. Open. The original plaque was dedicated in 1963, and later stolen. A replacement “stone” was installed by the Recreation and Parks Department.
This beautiful new plaque, designed by graphic artist and Rancho Park golf club champion, Ed Passarelli, is the permanent replacement, being a combination of a re-creation of the original plaque, plus a map of the hole, with a description of the strokes taken by Mr Palmer, plus an embossed photograph.
The idea for replacing the replacement of the original plaque, and the execution of the plan to use it to raise money for junior golf, was all Phil Baugh, of the First Tee of Los Angeles.
Arnold would be proud.
After her speech, golf legend Amy Alcott, tee’d up a ball, and played the 18th hole, with a gallery of supporters and guests, she made some beautiful strokes, easily scoring a par 5, with never an inclination of the “heart warming” 3-woods that Arnold experienced in January 1961!
From left to right in the photo:
Amy Alcott – LPGA & World Golf Hall of Fame member
John Jones – Rancho Park GC Historian & Grammy Award winner
Phil Bough – ED LAJCC Charity Foundation/The First Tee of Los Angeles
Ed Passarelli – Plaque Designer
Laura Bauernfiend – Golf Manager, LA City Rec. & Parks
Alas, I did not write the article. But yes, you are correct; the 1962 PGA championship was moved from Brentwood C.C., to Aronimink, Pennsylvania, after Atty. Gen. Mosk’s intervention in 1961. The PGA president didn’t even think there was anything wrong with the clause, but the general membership voted to remove it, after the Southern California section, four sections from New York, and the Georgia-Alabama section, sponsored the resolution. I should mention that the “Caucasian clause” was only added to the PGA’s constitution in 1943, and that it was meant for Asians, as well as African Americans, and anyone else, not from North or South America.
Thanks for asking about the King of Romania (Rumania, at that time). Considering my extensive collection of material on Brentwood Country Club, I had never found any mention of King Carol in any contemporary publications, and I am fairly sure that he had no direct involvement in the ownership of the Brentwood Country Club.
After Brentwood CC declared bankruptcy in 1937, the course was put up for sale. The receivers leased it, month to month, to Al and Bill Bryant, who operated it as a public golf course.
In 1944, an investment syndicate, led by Rumanian industrialist, Edgar Ausnit, who was born Jewish, and who had fled Rumania in 1940, and was the chairman of the Rumanian-U.S. Chamber of Commerce in New York, purchased the Brentwood property from the bond-holding mortgage company.
While it is possible that King Carol was a secret investor in the Ausnit group, during World War II, it was highly illegal and treasonous to do business with the ex-King of Rumania, who, at that time, were an oppressive, fascist, anti-Jewish, Axis country.
Ausnit’s, Brentwood Country Club Properties, Inc., doubled its money, when they sold the land to the Brentwood Founders Land Co., in 1947. The new owners, led by Edward Zuckerman, wanted to sub-divide, but they changed their minds, when Paul Zimmerman, of the L.A. Times, gave a powerful speech about the importance of saving golf courses, at an Ionic Masonic Lodge meeting in Los Angeles.
The new, and private, Brentwood Country Club opened in July, 1948.
For the sixth Los Angeles Open at Rancho (Park) in 1960, Tournament Director Gene Whitlock allowed the golf course to be re-routed. For the previous five years, the course was played with the nines reversed, but in 1960, while still starting on the back-nine 10th tee, the round finished on today’s par-five 4th hole!
The round started on our 10 (#1), but after 17 (#8), they played 9 (#9), and then played 5 (#10,) through 8 (#13), followed by 18 (#14), 1 (#15), 2 (#16), 3 (#17), and finally 4 (#18)!
The 1960 LA Open Re-Routed Rancho golf course map
The long walk from the 8th green (#13), to the 18th tee (#14) must have been fun!
“There are shots from that first tee (#15), that go into the gallery at the 4th #(18), and those bleachers alongside 4th (#18) green are going to get a lot of the second shots on that hole.” said Dow Finsterwald in the Los Angeles Times.
Harvey Raynor of the P.G.A., said that the field was the best ever assembled for a Professional Golfer’s event, with 58 winners of PGA tournaments playing.
1960 was the year that California Attorney General Stanley Mosk told the PGA to remove their caucasian-only-clause, if they were going to hold tournaments on public golf courses in the State. Mosk learned about the rule while playing golf with band leader Billy Eckstine and future L.A. Open winner Charlie Sifford, next door, at Hillcrest Country Club.
Ohio University graduate Dow Finsterwald went on to win the rain delayed 1960 Open with 280, after Hillcrest C.C. teaching pro Eric Monti collapsed and shot 80 in the fourth round, having led the first three days!
1960 LA Open and 1958 P.G.A. Champion, Dow Finsterwald, practicing at Rancho in 1958.
Other moments of madness in 1960 involved the USGA changing “stroke and distance” to “distance only” for a Ball Out of Bounds.
I wonder if the eleven holes on Rancho with out of bounds helped sway their decision? Too bad they didn’t keep the rule for 1961 when Arnold Palmer took his 12 at the 18th!
During 1960, clubs could also enact a local rule allowing players to take a drop near the point that the ball went into a hazard or out of bounds, and add a stoke. The Southern California Golf Association continued the distance-only rule through 1961.
And to make matters more interesting, 1960 was the year of the lively new balls that allowed Mr Palmer to reach the 346-yd. first green at Cherry Hills in the U.S. Open, and also when a seven-handicapper, on the old Roosevelt links in Griffith Park, drove three par-4 greens, and put “a billion and half dollars worth of golf courses in the country” in peril. Sound like today? It was reported at the time that Mr. Palmer actually won the 1960 Masters with a banned ball…
On the brighter side, 29-year old Barbara Eden was LA Open Queen for 1960! Here she is in Jimmy Thompson’s pro shop with L.A. Junior Chamber of Commerce President Bob Meyer.
1960 L.A. Open Queen Barbara Eden and LAJCC President Robert Meyer.
The Rancho Park golf club, and the golfers of Los Angeles and the World, are sad to hear of the passing of our greatest champion, Mr. Arnold Palmer, on September 25, 2016.
Arnold Palmer will always be remembered on our fairways for his booming drives and personality. With his “army” on his side (“they arrive at dawn to cheer on their general”), Arnold won the Los Angeles Open at Rancho three times: 1963, where he came from three strokes behind to win : 1966, where he shot a course record 62 : 1967, where he won by five strokes.
But, before those wins, the number-one golfer in America scored his infamous 12 on the fence-lined 18th hole at Rancho in January 1961, and missed the 36-hole cut. This single hole had a lot to say about the man, who, when asked how he did it, said, “I missed the putt for an 11”.
A plaque was placed on the tee of the 18th in 1963, to “commemorate” the humility of our greatest golfer, and every time he played the course he stopped and had a look at his plaque. In later years he said, “It is difficult for me to play that hole without thinking about the 12…it’s the first thing you see when you walk onto the tee.”
53 year old Arnold Palmer played his last Los Angeles Open at Rancho Park in 1983, where he was followed by thousands of fans, one even falling out of a tree. On the final day he was ten under par, and one shot out of the lead, but his putter let him down and he finished 10th.
Mr. Palmer returned to Rancho in 1990 for the L.A. Senior Open, and to take a final bow for his L.A. army. When asked about the 12, he said he would play it the same way he had done in 1961.
“I think you could say there was no lasting effect. I won the next two tournaments on the tour and then had three winning tournaments at Rancho in future years. I’ve always enjoyed playing there.” His last Los Angeles open at Rancho was in 1992, when he scored 74, 69 and 67.
This year we have been working with Mr. Palmer and the First Tee of Los Angeles to restore and remount the plaque at the 18th tee. The original bronze plaque was stolen many years ago, and a reproduction of the original, along with a relief of Arnold, and the names of the donors, will be installed at the time of the Los Angeles Open next February.
The Recreation and Parks Department of Los Angeles have a website that has every tree at every park in Los Angeles on a map.
You Zoom in on the park, and click on individual trees, many of which have detail information and photos of the species, including the cost and benefit of each tree in dollars!
