After 90 Years, It’s About Time These Two Met : La Jolla Country Club, Trans-Miss Tournament Grew Up With Golf in the U.S.

In the summer of 1899, several people etched a six-hole golf course in rocky and weedy terrain near Prospect Street in La Jolla, then a sleepy beach town of about 1,000.

A couple years later in Omaha, the groundwork was laid for a new golf association. Soon after, 15 charter clubs got together for an amateur match-play tournament, and the Trans-Mississippi Golf Assn. Championship was born.

Ninety years and 86 tournaments later, the La Jolla Country Club--which survived its meager beginnings, the Depression and a vote to move the club--and the Trans-Miss--the oldest amateur match-play tournament in the country--have finally met.

The La Jolla Country Club is the first Southern California host for the tournament. Two rounds of medal play have cut the 156-player field to 64 for the first round of match play today. Two rounds will be played Friday, the quarter- and semifinals Saturday and the final at 8 a.m. Sunday.

As the competitors walk along manicured fairways with views of the Pacific from every hole, it will be a much different path than the one carved out 90 years ago.

The Trans-Miss uses proceeds from the tournament, dues and individual contributions to fund 30 scholarships for students who want to pursue a college major in turf management and seek careers in areas such as course supervision and turf research.

When golf was still new to La Jolla, the only thing green on the course were the golfers. By 1913, a nine-hole course with sand-and-oil greens and nine tees had been built at a cost of $500. The greens were round, approximately 26 feet in diameter.

The late Tom Meanley, who played the course from its beginning and into his 80s, said that when a player’s ball reached an oiled green, he could ask that the path to the hole be swept with a pole that had a piece of carpet attached. Each hole had a bucket of water so players could dip their ball to wash off the sand and oil.

While the La Jolla course was being expanded to nine holes, H.G. Legg was becoming the most dominant player in the history of the Trans-Miss. Legg, from Minnesota, won four consecutive titles starting in 1909, won again in 1916 and finished second four times.

In 1926, La Jolla golf course members voted to build a club house and expand to 18 holes with grass greens. One year later, the La Jolla Country Club went from an informal group to an incorporated organization with an initiation fee of $200.

But just as the club was becoming the social hub for an expanding community, the stock market crash of 1929 put the organization in peril.

As the Depression wore on, the club’s debts grew, and men who had never even mowed their own lawns brought mowers to the golf course and trimmed the fairways while women members weeded the greens.

The course survived the financial turmoil of the 1930s and played host to some of golf’s most famous names after the country entered World War II. While the Trans-Miss halted play from 1943-45, some of the country’s best players found themselves stationed in San Diego. Sam Snead, Jimmy Demaret and Jack Burke Jr. were among those that played at the La Jolla Country Club during the war.

Golfing soldiers weren’t the only ones making the course famous during the early ‘40s. A newspaper item from January 26, 1942, noted that Mrs. S. F. Littler had a hole-in-one on the sixth hole. Mrs. Littler was accompanied by her husband and her two sons--Jack and Gene.

The final paragraph said: “Gene made the round an equally important occasion by bagging a 97, his first score under 100.”

Gene was just 12 but went on to consistently score under 100--he won 29 PGA Tour events from 1954 to 1977.

Both the Trans-Miss and La Jolla Country Club went through a pivotal year in 1959.

Club members were asked to vote on a proposal to purchase 350 acres in Carmel Valley at $1,000 an acre--$1,500 under the market value. The owner of the land thought that the club would increase the value of his remaining 650 acres.

The club board figured that 150 acres could be used for a new, longer course, and the remaining 200 acres could be resold at a considerable profit to help finance land and development costs.

In the book “La Jolla Country Club . . . a historical memoir,” George Fall said, “In a strange but wise twist, Tom (Lanphier) and the Board concluded that the majority opinion was to remain in La Jolla.”

What was strange was that of the 236 respondents, 87 members voted to build the new club and sell the La Jolla Country Club site--more votes than any of four other proposals received. The board may have reached its conclusion when 107 members combined to vote for two proposals: one was for the club to remain in La Jolla and the other was to continue with the Carmel Valley development but not move from the La Jolla site for at least two years.

In any case, the club stayed put, and a $1,200 membership in 1959 was worth $7,500 a few months later. It costs $60,000 today--once you’ve made it off the waiting list.

While members of the La Jolla Country Club were deciding their future, a young golfer at the Trans-Miss was beginning to make his reputation.

A shot made by 19-year-old Jack Nicklaus in the 1959 final against Deane Beman, now the commissioner of the PGA, is still discussed in reverent tones by those involved with the tournament.

It seems Nicklaus was in two feet of grass after his first shot on the 561-yard, par-five 12th hole at Woodhill Country Club in Wayzata, Minn. Nicklaus had a one-hole lead over Beman but was in deep trouble. Not only was he in deep rough, but there were towering pine trees 50 yards away, obstructing his line to the green.

Everyone expected Nicklaus to chip out to the middle of the fairway, but he instead grabbed a four-iron and ripped through the grass. His ball landed just in front of the green, 235 yards away. He chipped on and two-putted for par and finished with a 3-and-2 victory and his second consecutive Trans-Miss title.

“We were stunned when he pulled out his four-iron,” said Bud Chapman, who was later commissioned to do a painting of the famed shot. “Like everybody else, I thought he’d just chip onto the fairway. Usually when somebody makes a great shot, the crowd bursts into applause. But after that shot there was just dead silence.”

Nicklaus wasn’t the only future pro to win the tournament. Others include George Archer, Ben Crenshaw and Bob Tway.

The tournament was changed to a mid-amateur (25 years and older) format in 1987 because collegians had won 14 of the previous 15 titles.

“The format was changed because we were getting away from the purpose of the tournament, which was to promote friendly competition among member clubs,” said Ralph Turtinen, Trans-Miss executive secretary. “The tournament is more for the businessman who plays two or three times a week. College players are playing every day.”

The change probably would have suited Anson Mills, a La Jolla attorney, just fine.

Mills was a resident when those six golf holes first appeared on the rough terrain near the Green Dragon Colony, an artists enclave in La Jolla.

Mills wrote in his diary: “May 24, 1897--traded my clarinet for a boat. Learned to play golf. July 22, 1899--some young people have laid out a golf links. May 13, 1900--a meeting was held in the Reading Room, and a golf club was organized. Oct. 19, 1900--played golf today. A remarkable game. Anyone has to try it but once to become a victim of habit.”