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When it comes to the history of golf in Southern California, there are certainly plenty of moments that qualify as being instrumental in shaping how we view the game today. Our 10 choices boiled down to events, openings, or other happenings that most helped golf flourish in the Southland. Here are 10 moments that put the game on the map in Southern California. 1. Railroad leads to golf tracks In 1885, the railroad came to Southern California, quickly igniting the region’s first population explosion. Over the next 15 years, the populations of Los Angeles and San Diego quadrupled, and the communities of Redlands and Riverside, located along railroad lines, became tourist stops for Midwesterners and East Coast residents lured by the hot, dry climate and mountain views. In 1891, a Riverside newspaper reported that a small golf course — called Orange Camp — had been built near the city. Other courses in Riverside, Boyle Heights, Pasadena, Catalina Island and San Diego’s Balboa Park also were doing brisk business by 1898. The first organized golf club was Redlands Country Club, established in 1896 near North Cajon. 2. 1899: Time to get organized By the late 1890s, there were golf clubs in Santa Monica, Riverside, Los Angeles, Redlands and Pasadena, and a few principals realized it was time to standardize procedures and policies. A regional group needed to be formed to organize tournaments, regulate club championships and serve as a resource center for all golfers. The Southern California Golf Association was formed to fill the void. The SCGA is one of the nation’s oldest and largest regional golf associations, counting more than 170,000 members from Santa Barbara to Baja, California. The organization provides approved handicaps for golfers, measures and rates more than 400 courses and sponsors one of the most comprehensive tournament programs in the United States. 3. 1914: Playing by the rules Imagine a new golf course receiving this kind of review: “Players are flocking in their hundreds to enjoy the luxury of golf on their own city links, only to find that there is no sort of organization, no method, no management and everyone playing into everybody else all over the course. … All is chaos, and wild cries of ‘fore’ in conjunction with still wilder calls of indignation greet on all sides.” At least no one had to pay for the privilege of playing Los Angeles’s first municipal course in Griffith Park — Harding Memorial — which opened in November 1914. But thanks to the efforts of the SCGA’s Edward Tufts and the Los Angeles City Council, order soon arrived, with a clubhouse, rules of etiquette enforced and a reservation policy enacted. 4. January, 1924: A match made in heaven When Gene Sarazen and Arthur Havers teed it up on a chilly January morning at Hillcrest County Club, it was the biggest golf match in Southern California history in terms of international and professional exposure. Sarazen, an American, and Havers, an Englishman, were two of the world’s top golfers. Havers was coming off a win at the British Open and Sarazen, though only 22, had won the U.S. Open in 1922 and the PGA Championship in both 1922 and 1923. In order to capitalize on their fame and emerging rivalry, the two decided to hold a 36-hole match-play tournament in San Francisco, followed by another 36 holes in Los Angeles. They settled on Hillcrest as an appropriate venue, since the rolling fairways could accommodate a large gallery, which saw Sarazen defeat Havers, 5 and 4. The success of the event proved that Southern California could host, promote and attract spectators to a professional golf event. Two years later, the Los Angeles Junior Chamber of Commerce underwrote a $10,000 tournament at Los Angeles Country Club, reported as the largest professional purse in golf history at the time. It was the first Los Angeles Open. 5. February, 1937: The crooner’s clambake International recording and film star Bing Crosby started adding his name to golf tournaments in the 1930s. But his decision to throw his reputation and money behind a certain event was a major step in sealing the bond between Hollywood and golf and creating the star-studded pro-ams that would become an integral part of the fabric of the PGA Tour. Crosby, a member at Lakeside Country Club in Los Angeles, announced in late 1936 that he would host the Bing Crosby Invitational at Rancho Santa Fe Golf Course, near a small ranch he owned. The low 30 players in the 1937 Los Angeles Open were exempt, as were all former U.S. Open and PGA Tour champions. Qualifying took place at Lakeside. Crosby had big plans for the event, but rain wreaked havoc on the tournament, which was reduced to 18 holes. Sam Snead won the waterlogged affair and took home $742.50 from the $3,000 purse. Crosby’s popularity and love for the game, along with his connection to Lakeside pros, ensured the event’s viability. By 1942, it was known as the Crosby Clambake, and though it has been identified with the Monterey Peninsula since it moved there in 1947, its success led other entertainers to lend their name to tournaments, which created a needed infusion of cash and exposure before television contracts became an economic force. Crosby also helped ensure that San Diego County remained on the radar of professional golf, which helped entice the PGA Tour back to San Diego in 1952. 6. February, 1951: Home course advantage Johnny Dawson’s legacy in Southern California was complete long before 1950. One of the best amateur golfers in state history (he’s the only person to win four SCGA amateur titles), Dawson also was a noted course designer who helped create Mission Valley Golf Club and O’Donnell Golf Club in Palm Springs. But his greatest contribution to golf is linked to Thunderbird Golf Club, the first 18-hole course built in Palm Springs. The private club was popular with celebrities and was the site of the Bob Hope Desert Classic for years. Dawson’s legacy, however, wasn’t on the fairways. It was built adjacent to the fairways in the form of housing. Dawson and a group of friends bought a 740-acre ranch as a place to retire and then built cottages along the fairways that people could buy or rent. The concept sparked Palm Springs’ first golf boom, and many places in the country continue to use golf as a key marketing strategy to attract tourists and residents. 7. 1952: Junior achievement for San Diego As Norrie West, the official chronicler of San Diego golf, recounts in “100 Years of Golf in San Diego County,” the creation of San Diego’s prolific junior golf program stemmed from John Brown’s desire to avoid gridlock on the freeway. Brown told Presidio Hills professional Al Abrego that he was tired of driving kids to Los Angeles County to play in tournaments, so he created the San Diego Junior Golf Association. He and executive secretary Lou Smith guided the organization into one of the most successful junior programs in the country, with future stars such as Craig Stadler, Phil Mickelson and Scott Simpson learning the game and honing their skills in tournaments and at clinics sponsored by the group. 8. November, 1960: Public golf gets saved In the 1950s, approximately 100 Southern California golf courses closed because of the post-World War II population boom. While more people meant more rounds of golf, it also meant higher taxes, since privately owned golf courses were taxed by the state and county governments based on surrounding commercial or real estate value. If a course had existed for 20 years but was now surrounded by homes, it was taxed appropriately. That “all but destroyed golf in Southern California,” said the SCGA’s Bob Thomas, adding that the group spearheaded Proposition 6, which sought to amend the state constitution to allow golf courses to be taxed on their recreational value. Bob Hope was the chairman for the “Yes on 6” faction, and local pros such as Billy Casper and Miller Barber swung clubs with movie stars such as Mickey Rooney and Danny Thomas to raise awareness and money. The strategy worked, and the proposition passed. The immediate result was that courses were again economically viable and didn’t have to charge exorbitant green fees to survive. The long-term result continues to be seen today. 9. July, 1989: High-end, daily-fee courses debut Believe it or not, Southern California — particularly Orange County — had a lack of public courses in the late 1980s. The National Golf Foundation reported in 1991 that the county ranked 269th out of 317 in terms of golfers and available public facilities. But that all changed in July 1989, when the Irvine Company unveiled Tustin Ranch Golf Club. About 330 golfers played the $11 million, Ted Robinson-designed course on its first day of operation, and though some balked at the green fees — $45 during the week and $60 on weekends — they all had good things to say about the course, which was the first 18-hole track to open in Orange County since the Links at Monarch Beach in 1985. That was merely the beginning, as the Santa Margarita Company opened Tijeras Creek the following year and the Irvine Company opened Pelican Hill in 1991, with green fees hovering around $100. The rest of the ’90s saw a deluge of high-end, daily-fee courses spring up in the county — including Oak Creek and Coyote Hills — all designed to give public players a sense of what it’s like to play at a private course. 10. Spring, 1991: Tiger unleashed Tiger Woods achieved national celebrity as a 2-year-old on “The Mike Douglas Show” when he impressed the host and other guests with his playful golf swing. His first impact on the Orange County golf scene came 13 years later before he played in his first prep event at Dad Miller Golf Course in Anaheim. Network and cable television crews showed up to follow the Western High School freshman around the course. The media furor over a high school phenom’s first tournament was the beginning of the public’s obsession with Woods. His ability to perform under the microscope has impacted the game in many ways, but his local impact extends far beyond the golf course through the philanthropic work of the foundation that bears his name and was guided, in large part, by his late father, Earl. |
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