Category: Golf History

Happy 100th Birthday to Warren G. Harding Memorial Golf Course in Griffith Park

Griffith Park. August 11, 1923
Harding opening dedication plaque. (Still waiting for it to be moved to Harding!)

A week later than planned, due to the sudden death of the President of the United States, Warren G. Harding, the new all-grass Griffith Park Municipal Golf Course No. 2, opened to the public on August 11, 1923, with a heartfelt ceremony led by Mrs Anne Trabue, chairwoman of the Municipal Golf Club advisory board. Trabue thanked Thomas and S.C.G.A. president Ed Tufts, and the many people who contributed to it’s realization, telling of the “hopes of a grass course in former years, and how the long-cherished dream finally became a reality”.

George C. Thomas Jr., the architect of the links, was presented with this Perpetual Golf Pass by Southern California Golf Association president Ed Tufts for his design work.

George C. Thomas Jr., designed the new all-grass Municipal No. 2 layout with the assistance of Mrs. Anne Trabue and the golf expert and philosopher, Max Behr. Edward B. Tufts of the Los Angeles Country Club was the chairman of the Griffith Park green committee.

Thomas’s 36-hole plan was to replace Tom Bendelow’s 1914, 18-hole, Griffith Park Municipal Links, but an uproar forced a compromise, and only 18 new holes were built, leaving the old sand green links intact.

The new eighteen holes were constructed by Griffith Park superintendent Carl Worthen and his crew. The all-grass 6423 yard Municipal No. 2 golf course was laid out on land known as the Griffith Reservation, which was purchased by the city of Los Angeles in 1920, after the death of Griffith Park donor, Griffith Jenkins Griffith. The sandy wash beside the Los Angeles River made for an excellent layout.

Hunter, Thomas, Tufts, Johnson, and Macbeth at the No. 2 opening.

The opening ceremony was followed by an exhibition match featuring Los Angeles golf legends Willie Hunter, Norman Macbeth, A.D.S. Johnson, Chick Fraser, Mel Smith, Hutt Martin and Vic Dalberto.

George Thomas hit the first ball, and with partner Willie Hunter, went on to win the match against Macbeth and Johnson, 1 up.

A year after Municipal No. 2’s delayed opening, on July 4, 1924, the aptly nicknamed “Riverside” course, was renamed the Warren G. Harding Memorial, in honor of the very popular President.

Harding Memorial Golf Course dedication to President Harding. July 4, 1924

For more information see: 100 Years of Golf in Griffith Park, 1914-2014cover for 100 years from lulu - product_thumbnail

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L.A. Country Club’s 1915 Tom Morris Memorial Winning Golf Team

Old Tom Morris, “A Golfer and a man”

In 1908, Peter Dawson of Towiemore-Glenlivet Distillery, Glascow, Scotland, offered a trophy in Memorial to the Grand Old Man of Golf, Old Tom Morris, to be played for in a team competition by member clubs of the Western Golf Association on Tom’s birthday (June 16, 1821).

The Peter Dawson Tom Morris Memorial Trophy
“Presented to the Western Golf Association of America by Peter Dawson, Glasgow, in tribute to the memory of Old Tom Morris.
A Golfer and a man.”

“Each team plays against the Par of its course, with all local rules suspended and no caddies.”

The teams were made up of eight of the best players at each club playing to scratch (without handicap), with the winning club scoring the lowest total of the eight scores against the Par of the course. There was also an individual medal given to the player with the lowest individual score against their club’s par. Any team winning three times kept the trophy.

The format of the competition forced many clubs to properly rate their individual golf holes and arrive at a total Par score for the course.

The great benefit of the competition was comparing scores against 75 other clubs of the association in a competition of their best golfers, held on the same day, which was truly brilliant, and certainly helped standardize golf course Par in America!

As it was, the Los Angeles team at Pico & Western were disqualified in 1909 for “not understanding the rules.” In 1910 they won it, but were disqualified for using a substitute that was not on their entry list.

In 1911, LACC moved to Beverly, and playing on a young course they finished 8th. In 1912 they finally won it, and repeated in 1913! Norman Macbeth won the individual medal both years.

In 1915, against 75 other teams, the LACC team, without Macbeth, scored 25 down to par and won the competition for the third time!

The Los Angeles Country Club team were: Scotty Armstrong, Jack Niven, Bob Cash, Jack Jevne, George Schneider, Judge Frederickson, Everett Seaver and Frank Edwards (sub). Captain John Wilson chose not to play and manage the team.

The winning 1915 Los Angeles Country Club Tom Morris Memorial Champion Team

Peter Dawson sent them the trophy!

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George Von Elm. 1926 U.S. Amateur champion, among other titles!

Edward B. Tufts: the competition boss of So Cal.

In addition to his pivotal role at LA Country Club and the SCGA, Ed Tufts was also the head of the Pacific Coast Golf Association and later the California Golf Association, and that was in addition to his civic commitments. Renaissance man!

The Herbert Warren Wind Golf Book Award for 2021

A Matter of Course

Congratulations to Derek Markham for winning the U.S.G.A.’s Herbert Warren Wind Book Award for 2021, for “A Matter of Course: The Life of William Herbert Fowler, 1856-1941, Golf Course Architect”!

My contribution to Fowler’s American Adventures came with much assistance from Philip Truett, who co-published the book with Derek!

https://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/articles/2022/01/rice-markham-dobie-honored-2022-usga-awards.html

British P.G.A. rejects “Bounding Billy,” the beginning of the end. (1903)

It must have seemed like the beginning of the end. The forces of commerce and profit in America had been delivering a constant barrage of “improvements” designed to make golf easier to play. By 1902, the new American “patent” rubber balls from Haskell and Kempshall had come to Great Britain, and the professionals knew the “Bounding Billy,” as it was called, would change the way they played the game, not to mention the need to redesign their clubs, and cause an unacceptable attack on golf course agronomics and hole design.

Unlike in the second half of the 19th century, when the resilient, reusable and cheap, Gutta Percha “gutty” came along, the new rubber ball would create an entirely new platform for the ball to dominate the business of the traditional game, and would continue to affect every aspect of it for centuries. The golf industry had found its holy grail!

The Haskell Golf Ball Advert – March 1903

In early 1903, at the height of the new rubber ball explosion, Britain’s top golf professionals voted on whether to allow it to be used in competition.

“Bounding Billy” is not in favor with the English golf professionals. At the first annual meeting of the Professional Golfers’ Association a motion proposed by James Braid and seconded by C. R. Smith, that gutta percha balls only be used in tournaments held by the association was carried by 33 votes to 9.

Among those who spoke in favor of the “guttie” was Harry Vardon, who said that it affords a better test of the golfer’s skill than the rubber-cored ball. With the latter a player has two chances. If he tops his ball instead of lofting it, the ball may yet reach the green.

Though the decision applies only to professional events held by the association, it is believed that the members of the committee on rules of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews hold the same sentiments.

Of course it has been asserted that the manufacturers of the gutta percha ball influenced the conclusion reached by the professional golfers, and also, of course, this has been strenuously denied. Such things are always said and always denied.
(March 1903, Western Field, On the Links by Arthur Inkersley)

The Golf Ball

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England, Canada, and California’s Willie Lock – Through The Green

Through The Green

It is a wonderful honour for me to have my short story of legendary English golf professional Willie Lock published in the British Golf Collectors Society‘s June edition of Through The Green! And for those who are still patently unaware, his name was LOCK.

While researching English golf course architect William Herbert Fowler’s work in California in the 1920’s for Derek Markham’s A Matter of Course, Willie’s name kept coming up, forcing me to investigate a lost legend in English, Canadian, and Californian golf history. Willie had caddied for Fowler at Royal Devon before starting work as an apprentice under club making legend Charles Gibson.

From Royal Devon to Ganton, to Rosedale in Toronto, Riverside (CA), Los Angeles and San Francisco, Willie Lock was instrumental in raising the art of golf professional to a new level. Lock was a master club maker, having made Ted Ray’s famous driver when he was at Ganton. One of Willie’s most famous golf courses – San Francisco Golf & Country Club – is credited to Albert Tillinghast. According to his peers and golf writers of the day, Tillinghast blessed Lock’s plans when he visited the site when the course was already two years into construction.

Willie Lock was also credited with initiating the shift of golf tournaments to Red Cross benefits during World War I, as well as serving as President of the Northern California Professional Golfers Association.

©2021 golfhistoricalsociety – JIB JONES.

Real Golfers No. 1: George Glennie

Thomson, Melville, Dougall, Glennie, Pirie, Gilmour, Fairlie, Morris

A Calotype of great players of the day at St Andrews circa 1855.

No. 1 – In the center is Mr. George Glennie, head and shoulders over the other gentlemen players in match play. I never knew a kinder-hearted and more sterling man. Early trained as an engineer, he went to Blackheath, where he was instrumental in putting fresh life into the old club. I hope to have a whole article on my very worthy friend, for the last match of any importance which I played was in 1874, with him as my partner, against Messers. Leslie Balfour Melville and Henry Lamb. The whole golfing world knows the name of George Glennie. He broke the medal record in St Andrews, for the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, in 1855, when he scored 88. This was not beaten till I gained the university Medal eleven years afterwords in 86. But there never was a steadier player, and never was there a more charming partner.

An excerpt from October 20, 1899, Golf Illustrated (UK). Golf and Golfers of the Old School, by Dr. J. G. McPherson.

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