There is a lot of golf history out there and a lot of different ways to find it. Sure, you can read books and pick up all kinds of interesting information. Tournament golf on television is another source of info although you have to be tuned in at the exact moments the talking heads relate their stories of interest.
Sometimes the golf course is the place for a history lesson. Last week, my son and I played Lost Tracks Golf Club in Bend, Oregon. The course was built on the site of a former Chinese immigrant lumber and railway camp and items from that time some 130 years ago still frame the golf course.
To get a very thorough history of Northern California golf, one can go to a most fascinating setting, namely the MacKenzie Grill at the Haggin Oaks Golf Course in Sacramento. Haggin Oaks is a 36-hole municipal golf course complex that was designed by Alister MacKenzie in 1933 as a Depression-era public works project. Its first head professional, Tommy LoPresti, was there for close to 50 years. The grill exudes golf history and came up with a most unique way of presenting it.
Upon entering the MacKenzie Grill, one is immediately drawn to the pictures of famous people on the wall. Among those pictures in golf attire playing Haggin Oaks are former heavyweight champ Max Baer, home run king Babe Ruth, entertainers Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, golf architect Alister MacKenzie as well as some of his hand drawn designs, and well-known pros from the past and present. There is a really neat picture of LoPresti and tour pro Bob Lunn from the 1970 Crosby at Cypress Point.
While the walls are filled with cool pictures, the real history lesson is on the tables. The grill has perhaps 30 tables and can seat close to 200 people. Each and every table has laminated pictures, programs and news articles underneath the glasswork. Each table has a theme and it took me about three hours to soak it all in (my son was at the 36-hole U.S. Junior Qualifier and I had a lot of dead time on my hands).
Several of the tables are dedicated to the old Sacramento Open, a regular stop on the PGA tour during the 1930s. There are programs, fliers, ads, articles and the results of each year”s tourney. For instance, in the 1935 Sacramento Open, Harold McSpaden shot a 4-under-par 284 and took home the first-place paycheck of $600. Walter Hagen was one shot back and made $400 for second place. Gene Sarazen finished eighth and probably didn”t make expenses that week as he earned all of $72. Johnny Revolta came in 19th and pocketed $22. The golfers who made the 36-hole cut and finished all 72 holes outside the top 20 didn”t cash a check, a normal procedure in those days.
Other editions of the Sacramento Open tell interesting tales. Ben Hogan earned his first ever paycheck in 1938 by coming in third and cashing $350. Sam Snead came in 16th and made $42.50. Jack Grout, best known as Jack Nicklaus” golf instructor, tied for 20th and made $8.33. Jimmy Demaret finished 23rd and made absolutely nothing.
Another table revolves around a Red Cross exhibition that was held in 1942 during World War II. The celebrity foursome included Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Babe Ruth and California Governor Culbert Olson. An estimated 10,000 people ponied up 25 cents to watch the stars play that day and contribute to a good cause.
There is a table dedicated to J.B. Haggin. Haggin wasn”t a golfer, but instead he was a noted horseman who owned Rancho Del Paso. He lived from 1822-1914. The Haggin Oaks Golf Courses as well as the Sacramento Softball Complex, a trap shooting range, and equestrian trails sit on the site of what was once the horse farm at Rancho Del Paso.
The State Fair Amateur has been held over Labor Day weekend at Haggin Oaks for more than 70 years. A gathering of California”s top 300 amateur golfers, the tournament history takes up several tables in the MacKenzie Grill. Ken Venturi won the 1950 State Fair. Al Geiberger won it in 1955. Dick Lotz won back-to-back titles in 1961-62. George Archer captured it the following year. Bob E. Smith beat Ron Cerrudo to win the 1965 State Fair. Jerry Barr of Clearlake and this columnist played in the State Fair for over 20 years although neither one of us ever won it and we”re never mentioned on any of the table memorabilia. Go figure.
There is a local table section that includes Bill Ogden Jr., Billy Glasson, Alice Miller, Bo Eastwood, Scott McCarron, Phil and Ray Arrino, Jamille Jose and a young Sacramento girl named Natalie Gulbis. Yes, Natalie has changed a lot since her teenage years on area public golf courses.
Irishman Michael McDonagh has a table dedicated to him in the MacKenzie Grill. I knew of him as the greenskeeper at Haggin Oaks for more than 40 years, but I didn”t know that he designed Sacramento-area courses Arcade Creek and Bing Maloney, or that he started out doing grunt labor for MacKenzie under the direction of his design foreman, Jack Fleming.
Several tables were dedicated to Haggin Oaks longtime pro Tommy LoPreti as well as his most successful student, Bob Lunn. When I caddied for Lunn on the PGA Tour during the summer of 1970, it was because my boss, Charley Penna, wanted me to loop for his close friend, LoPresti”s prot?g?. Although I knew all about Lunn”s 10-plus years of success on tour during the 1960s and 1970s, it was a nice walk down memory lane.
Lunn burst on the national scene after winning the 1963 U.S. Public Links at, of all places, Haggin Oaks. He also won six times on tour. He was even on the cover of Sports Illustrated on Feb. 17, 1969.
I”m sure I missed even more during my recent visit to Haggin Oaks although Jack Grout”s $8.33 payday certainly makes it understandable why he left the tour to run a country club in Columbus, Ohio. After all, there”s a lot of history underneath those ketchup bottles and napkin holders.
