rancho golf club – Golf Historical Society

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)

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Golf Historical Society

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.

Tag: rancho golf club

Jack Nicklaus at Rancho Park

Babe Didrikson Zaharias at the L.A. Open