Los Angeles Open – Golf Historical Society

Jack Nicklaus at Rancho Park

Jack Nicklaus was 21 years old when he played in his first golf tournament as a professional, on January 4, 1962, at the season opening Los Angeles Open at Rancho Park golf course in west Los Angeles.

The 1949 William Johnson and William P. Bell Rancho golf course was designed as a championship tournament layout from the start, with ample spectator paths, viewing mounds, and parking, but with an inadequate clubhouse (left open to the public on tournament days), and very poor practice facilities.

Never the less, Rancho hosted the L.A. Open 18 times between 1956 and 1983. Rancho also hosted the Los Angeles City Championship, USGA, LPGA, Senior PGA, SCGA & PLGA). Arnold Palmer won all three of his L.A. Opens at Rancho.

Nicklaus, always a golf record and trophy hunter, who thought the oldest professional tournament on tour should be “classier”, wanted a change from it’s “Muny” location and a return to Riviera Country Club, where Hogan had won the U.S. Open in 1948, as well as the L.A. Open in 1947 and 1948.

Jack made the cut in his debut, but ended up with a 289 in a three way tie for $100 last place, with Billy Maxwell and Don Massengale. His cheque was for $33.33. He took a 9 on Arnie Palmer’s infamous par five 9th (#18), by hitting two shots out of bounds, during the pro-am.

1962 01 08 - Jack Nicklaus - Check from LA Open - LAJCC - Rancho Twenty three year old Phil Rodgers won the 1962 tournament with a 67-71-68-62 – 268, nine shots in front of the field, and a record low for the L.A. Open’s played at Rancho. (Lanny Wadkins 264 at Riviera in 1985 is the record low for all L.A. Open’s)

1962 also marked the year that the Rancho Golf Course was renamed the Rancho Park Golf Course after successful lobbying of the Recreation and Parks Commission by the Rancho Park Chamber of Commerce.

In 1967 Jack came to Rancho after winning the Crosby at Pebble Beach, fighting a hook. He aimed right to compensate, but mostly mostly ended up in the trees.

Jack Nicklaus’ record in the Los Angeles Open at Rancho Park Golf Course:

1962 – T50th ($33.33) 74-70-72-73 – 289 (Phil Rogers 268)
1963 – T24th ($525) 71-74-68-69 – 282 (Arnold Palmer 274)
1967 – T58th ($0) 71-74-68-69 – 286 (Arnold Palmer 269)

This page and it’s contents are the property of J.I.B. Jones/Golf Historical Society
Copyright ©2010-2016

Golf Historical Society

100 Years of Golf in Griffith Park (book)

by J.I.B. Jones

The First edition, third printing, of the paperback book; 100 Years of Golf in Griffith Park, 1914-2014, is now available to purchase on lulu for $12.00.

cover for 100 years from lulu - product_thumbnail 100 Years of Golf in Griffith Park, 1914-2014 by J.I.B. Jones

This page and it’s contents are the property of J.I.B. Jones/Golf Historical Society
Copyright ©2010-2020

Golf Historical Society

The 12th L. A. Open at Griffith Park (1937)

by J.I.B. Jones

The twelfth annual Los Angeles Open Golf Tournament was held at Griffith Park in January 1937, on the all-grass George C. Thomas designed Wilson (1927) golf course, the first time a public links was used for the main event of this classic.

Wilson Memorial golf course as used for LA Open 1937-1939 — Wilson Memorial golf course; Thomas, Johnson, Bell. As used for L.A. Open 1937-1939.

The 1937 L.A. Open was saved from cancellation by the Los Angeles Times, who along with the Junior Chamber of Commerce, the local S.C.P.G.A., and the city Parks department, came to the rescue and financed the event at the last minute! Title play was over four days, and began on Friday January 8, and ended on Monday the 11th.

The other George C. Thomas Jr., designed Griffith golf course, Harding (1923), was used for a fund raising pro-am that was played on Thursday. This allowed public golfers to keep their “weekend tee times” on the Harding course, while the stars competed for the $8,000 purse on Wilson!

William Johnson and William “Billy” Bell, lengthened and strengthened George Thomas’s original 1923-1927 Wilson and Harding designs for the Open. New irrigation, fairways, traps, and new severely undulating greens, were built between 1935-1937, and have mostly stood the test of time! Along with a new clubhouse, the improvements were paid for with Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) labor and funds.

1937 LA Open - 18th Green Wilson - Cooper, Chisholm — Harry Cooper and Mark Fry on 18th green of Wilson. Scotty Chisholm on one knee!

In unusually cold and frosty conditions, Harry Cooper won the 12th Open title and $2,500, with a 274, the lowest score yet in any L.A. Open. With every winner since 1926 except Bobby Cruickshank entered, and Olin Dutra too sick to start, the 1937 event included the best of the touring professionals, and a sprinkling of local professionals and amateurs, 150 of whom attempted to qualify at Baldwin Hills GC (Fox Hills GC West), California CC (Culver City), Fox Hills GC East, Sunset Fields GC #1 (Crenshaw Plaza), Sunset Fields GC #2 (Crenshaw Plaza), and Rancho GC, on January 6, 1937.

Harry Cooper after winning the 1937 L.A. Open at Griffith Park. — Harry Cooper after winning the 1937 L.A. Open

The “bombardiers of the links” included: Ralph Guldahl, Jimmy Thomson, Lawson Little, Horton Smith, Macdonald Smith, George Von Elm, Vic Ghezzi, Craig Wood, Jimmy Hines, Charley Guest, Willie Hunter, Denny Shute, Paul Runyan, Henry Picard, Johnny Revolta, George Schneiter (medalist), Paul & Lloyd Mangrum, John Bulla, Byron Nelson, Leo Diegel, Bruce McCormick (amateur), Newt & Harry Bassler, Angel de la Torre, Sam Snead, Mortie Dutra, Faye Coleman, Bud Oakley, Fred Morrison, Dick Metz, Eddie Loos, Joe Robinson, Harry Pressler, Harold McSpaden,and others.

1937 01 10 - ticket for Sunday - 12th Los Angeles Open - Griffith Park - Entry Ticket

1937 was the last year before fourteen clubs became the maximum allowed after 1938.

Henry Picard drove the ball 310 yards on the 4th hole of Wilson during the tournament!

Highlights of the 1937 Los Angeles Open at Griffith Park on YouTube:

The Golf Field House in Griffith Park (1918)

by J.I.B. Jones

The eighteen hole Griffith Park Municipal Golf Links opened in 1914.

1920 photo of the east facing Griffith Park Golf Field House

The original English style Golf Field House was funded through the Los Angeles city council and the Parks department budgets, and opened to golfers in May of 1918.

1933 field house with burn area and valley of death marked by the arrow.

Above is a photograph with the 1933 fire burn area marked on the hillside behind the field house, and with the arrow pointing into Mineral Springs canyon, where 33 unemployed volunteers died when they were sent down into the fire to fight it. The flames did not reach the clubhouse.

When money to build a bigger and better clubhouse became available with Federal infrastructure funds in the 1930’s, the W.P.A. built a new clubhouse, designed in the Spanish Mission style that tourists were expecting when they came to the land of Ramona! The new building was placed directly in front of the old “weatherbeaten and out-of-date field house,” which was then scrapped.

1935 sketch of the east facade of the new mission style Griffith Park golf clubhouse.

Today’s flag pole stands where the old clubhouse once stood. Could its grass island also be a homage to the round sand/oil greens of the old Municipal Links?

Babe Didrikson Zaharias at the L.A. Open

by J.I.B. Jones

1937_babe_didrikson_swing_sm

Babe Didrikson, circa 1937

In the summer of 1933, Babe (what a girl!) Didrikson joined the Rancho Golf Club in Los Angeles and played in many club and local women’s amateur competitions until 1935, when the U.S.G.A. deemed Didrikson a professional. As she was unable to find professional women to compete against, she was forced to enter professional male golf tournaments, and play in exhibitions. In 1935-36 she toured with superstar Gene Sarazen, Johnny Dawson, and other stars of sports and movies.

Babe Didrikson Zaharias and Gene Sarazen by Joseph Janney Steinmetz

Babe’s first professional men’s golf tournament was the Southern California Open, in 1936, at the Oakmont Country Club in Glendale, California, which she entered as an amateur. This was the first event of the Southern California 1936-1937 winter professional golf campaign, later known as the Gold Trail. Babe did not have to qualify to enter, but she missed the 36 hole cut. George Von Elm won the trophy.

Didrikson tried and failed to qualify in the amateur division for the 1937 L.A. Open, at Griffith Park, but in 1938, a year with no qualifying, she entered as an amateur, and played the first two rounds with her future husband, George Zaharias. George shot 83 and Babe 84. Babe also failed to qualify for the 1944 L.A. Open at Wilshire C.C..

In 1942 the USGA finally accepted her as an amateur, and she went on to win the Women’s U.S. Amateur in 1946, the British Ladies Amateur in 1947, and three Western Opens.

Babe was a founding member of the Women’s Professional Golf Association in 1944, and the Ladies Professional Golf Association in 1950.

In 1945, the L.A. Open was not a regular tour event, and was played for War Bonds by both professionals and a sprinkling of amateurs. Babe qualified for the amateur division at Fox Hills golf course. She played three rounds in the Open at Riviera C.C., missing the low 61, final round cut. She also qualified and played in War Bond tournaments in Phoenix and Tuscon.

Babe Didrikson never entered or played in the Los Angeles Open as a professional golfer. She played as an amateur in competitive golf competition from 1933 until 1947, after which she “turned” pro. Her years in the wilderness from 1933 to 1942, due to the U.S.G.A.’s policy of treating any professional athlete as a professional golfer, has continued to confuse historians for decades.