Chapter 1 -- Handicapping: From Index Cards to Computers

Perhaps the most far-reaching program that the SCGA would institute would be association-wide handicapping, which began in the 1960s.

Prior to that time, each club kept its own handicap records, often on minutely detailed index cards (no latter-day pun intended) and often overseen by a single person who would be the club's handicap chairman for years.

But as the number of clubs began to grow rapidly through the 1950s and beyond, the problems also began to escalate. For one thing, not every club (especially new ones) was able to find someone who was willing to devote the hundreds of hours each month necessary to keep records. Equally important, clubs were becoming increasingly unwilling to accept handicaps from other clubs. By establishing an association-wide handicapping system, the SCGA sought to address both of those issues.

As computers began to become available (although the giant machines were for use only in large companies), several firms began offering "computerized" handicaps in Southern California ("mechanically calculated handicaps" might be a more accurate term). The SCGA's handicap committee, headed by Director Charles Laws (who would become SCGA president in 1964), not only undertook a review of those companies but also explored whether the SCGA should simply employ people to calculate handicaps on its own.

The study took several years. As to the question of whether the SCGA should take handicap calculations in-house, Laws would make a statement to the board that was both accurate for its time and remarkably prescient of the future (except for the dollars): board minutes indicate that Laws and his committee "hesitated to recommend the Association's investing 15 or 20 thousand dollars in a system that might be obsolete in two weeks or two months."

Instead, in 1964, the SCGA signed its first contract with Integrated Data Company, one of the first firms to calculate handicaps using data processing. Under the arrangement, IDC began calculating handicaps for all SCGA clubs whose members were using the SCGA Handicap System.

In order to facilitate the posting of "away" scores, the SCGA developed a green "Away Score Posting Sheet" which soon became a familiar site at all golf course facilities.

The quest for uniformity in handicapping was well under way, but not without some difficulty. Several associations in the eastern United States did not use equitable stroke control in calculating handicaps and the USGA attempted to eliminate it nationwide. But the SCGA, led by another former president Lynn Smith, held fast to its position and eventually, equitable stroke control became a nationwide concept, as did the concept of using the low 10 out of the last 20 scores to compute handicaps.

In 1972, the Northern California Golf Association joined forces with the SCGA to create a statewide handicapping system, an agreement that was in place until 1990 when the NCGA elected to transfer handicapping to the USGA Golf Handicap and Information Network (GHIN).

Chapter 2 -- The Newell Pinch era begins

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Throughout the Southern California Golf Association's 100-year history, many fine architects have worked their magic to create the mosaic of Southern California golf courses.

Two of the most significant were also the second great father-son team of designers: Robert Trent Jones, Sr. and his Robert Trent Jones, Jr. (the first father-son duo were the Bells, William Park and William Francis, who were profiled in the third SCGA history installment).

Few people have influenced golf course architecture as much as Robert Trent Jones, Sr.; indeed, the term "golf course architect" was coined for him. Born in 1906, Jones moved to the United States with his parents in 1911. A scratch golfer as a teenager (he set a record in the Rochester, NY, City Championship), Jones later attended Cornell University, personally selecting a group of courses that would prepare him for a career in golf course design.

In 1930, Jones went to work for the noted Canadian designer Stanley Thompson and helped Thompson on many of his great designs, including courses at Jasper Park Lodge and Banff Springs Hotel. While there, Jones developed his design philosophy that each hole should be a "hard par or easy bogey." His courses often feature large, undulating greens, gracefully sculptured bunkers and long tee boxes.

Jones' first Southern California course was one of his finest: Pauma Valley CC in the northeastern portion of San Diego County. Later, he designed such gems as Mission Viejo CC, Birnam Wood GC, Calabasas Park GC and Valencia CC, along with Spyglass Hill GC and Silverado CC's South Course in Northern California. He also remodeled a number of Southern California courses, including El Caballero CC and San Gabriel CC.

From the SCGA's perspective, perhaps the most important course he designed was Murrieta GC in 1970; in 1994, the SCGA purchased the golf course on behalf of its members and renamed it The SCGA Members' Club at Rancho California.

While some of Jones' course designs were solo efforts, many (including The SCGA Members' Club) were in collaboration with his older son, Robert Trent Jones, Jr. However, Bobby (as he's often called, to differentiate him from his father) has carved out a highly successful career in his own right.

Born in 1939, Bobby also received an Ivy League education (at Yale) and joined his father's design firm in 1960. Eventually, he formed his own company, Robert Trent Jones II in Palo Alto, and he has designed many of the world's best-known golf courses, including several in Southern California.

Among the latter are both courses at Coto de Caza, The Links at Monarch Beach, Rancho La Quinta CC (site of The Skins Game for several years) and Spring Valley Lake CC. Jones also designed Poppy Hills GC, the first members' course of the Northern California Golf Association, and joined with Tom Watson and Sandy Tatum to design The Links at Spanish Bay on the Monterey Peninsula.

Robert Trent Jones, Jr.'s design philosophy shows some traces of his father but also has dramatic differences. Bobby's greens are often severely undulated forcing the golfer to be precise in approach shots or risk a three-putt green.

"The green is not the target," Bobby has often said, "the flagstick is the target."