100 Years of Golf In The Park

October 22, 2014

The SCGA helps Griffith Park GC celebrate its centennial.

Photos

By Eric Smith

When he’s not playing in a local band, Steve Seifert likes to play at least one round a month at Griffith Park Golf Club.

As he towered over an 8-foot putt on Oct. 18 on the practice green, the stakes weren’t incredibly high for the North Hollywood resident —Seifert was just taking part in a fun miniature golf session.

But given the atmosphere around the club that day, Seifert was more than thrilled when he scored a hole-in-one on his opening attempt, especially after clearing a few wood chips out of his putting line.

“The band is on a break so I wanted to come over here and see what was going on,”Seifert said. “I’m just glad I made that shot …I’ve putted on this green many times.

“But this 100th anniversary is great because there’s not many courses that have history like this.”

Seifert wasn’t the only one to takes part in the festivities on a historic day at Griffith Park, a gorgeous afternoon in which hundreds of people celebrated 100 years of municipal golf in Los Angeles.

The park’s original course was built in 1914 (and a second was added in 1923), making the municipal grounds the oldest west of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. The club’s current design features a pair of challenging courses —the 7,000-yard Wilson and the 6,660-yard Harding.

“This was a godsend when it opened,”said John Jones, the historian at nearby Rancho Park GC and the de-facto expert on golf in Griffith Park. “It was for everybody.”

While the current clubhouse was built in 1936, plenty of history unfolded on the park’s grounds before then.

Back when the greens were made of sand and oil, legendary baseball player Babe Ruth found out on the 18th hole he had been traded from the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees in 1920.

And one of Hollywood’s earliest stars, Charlie Chaplan, was a regular golfer while Babe Didrikson became the first woman to play in a PGA event when she teed it up at the 1938 L.A. Open at Griffith Park.

But the club wasn’t just for celebrities and A-listers. The first bus line in Los Angeles ran to Griffith Park so the masses could partake in the game.

“The history of golf is uncharted territory,”Jones said. “Not many people know about the history.

“You have to really appreciate the dedication of the people before us that made this possible.”

Huy Dang, the president of Griffith Park GC, added: “The history is just so impressive. Where else can you say the Great Bambino got traded on 18? That just speaks to the history of this place.”

In the present day, a committee of eight club enthusiasts met once a week since January to make sure the celebration ran smoothly.

“It’s been like planning a wedding,”committee member Jensen Lee said with a laugh. “It was probably seven months of planning.

“But this is certainly a big deal. You have to take a moment and sit back and think that this started before we were all born.”

The all-day event featured a mix of activities for those young and old.

While it seemed like everyone took part in a quick nine-hole round of mini golf, most of the youngsters were attracted by a drive, chip and putt competition sponsored by the SCPGA.

Golfers teed off and had their drives measured before facing some pressure with their short game. Each youngster had three attempts at chipping and putting, with the goal to make it in the cup or rack up points with a bull’s-eye scoring system. Girls were split into two age groups while the boys were separated by three divisions.

At just seven years old, Kristina Xu was one of the youngest participants in her age group. But the hopeful future golf pro did just fine, racking up 117 points to take first place.

“I thought I had a good score,”said Xu, who listed Paula Creamer as he favorite player. “The chipping (was the toughest) because there was a tough break to the right.”

The adults had fun, too, as 144 golfers broke into foursomes for a round of 18 on the centennial celebration.

The quartet of Justin Beeber, Liam Cavanaugh, Richard Whorton and Bobby Cavanaugh took first with a score of 152. The second-place squad tallied a total of 153 while Dang and his group was third with a 153.

Was the club president bummed to take third on his own stomping grounds?

“A little bit,”said a sheepish Dang. “But I wasn’t actually expecting to play today because I was a last-minute fill in.

“We actually didn’t think we were going to score so well.”

Yet as Dang took a quick breather after presenting a dazzling plaque honoring the celebration, the club president reflected on the historic milestone.

“We wanted to express our gratitude,”Dang said. “This is a great place for not only golfers, but for families, too.

“We’re very fortunate to celebrate this day.”

Added Lee: “This happens once in a lifetime. We’re lucky that we could all be here to celebrate.”



If your username is set as your email address, it will appear as your name when the comment is posted.

kevincarmony

Handicap Index: 18.1
Friday, October 24, 2014

This was a great event.  The historian mentioned in the article, John J.I.B. Jones, has written a great little booklet about the history of Griffith Park for the Golf Historical Society, which I read.  I found the history of the place to be quite fascinating, especially seeing the photos and maps of how the courses have changed over the last 100 years.