Tradition Is Par for the Course

The L.A. Open is just about the most venerable of the regular city tour tournaments this side of the “majors.” In fact, it even predates one of those. It was another eight years before the first Masters was played.

It stands alone as a one-city event. The Western Open is older by the calendar but that hoary event was played all over the continent, including one time in Los Angeles. It was also played in Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Salt Lake City, Houston, Detroit, Phoenix, St. Paul and every other place a train stopped.

The L.A. Open always had a prestige commensurate with its seniority. For many years, it was the first tournament of the year, the tour’s harbinger. Long before the Rams, Raiders, Dodgers, Angels, Lakers and Clippers put Los Angeles on the map, the L.A. Open had beaten them to it. It came along when movies were silent, cars had to be cranked and phones didn’t have dials--and when you got a call the whole neighborhood listened in.

In a way it started corporate sponsorship. It had trouble getting start-up money, so it hit up Los Angeles Times’ publisher Harry Chandler, who took in his counterpart on the old Examiner, Guy Barham, to bankroll the tournament.

The sponsoring Junior Chamber of Commerce was light-years ahead of its time. The L.A. Open was the first tournament in history to put up $10,000, which for 1926 was unheard of. It was decades before even the U.S. Open caught up with that kind of purse, in 1947. Even then, it paid only $2,000 to the winner. In 1926, the L.A. Open paid $3,500 to the winner.

None of this deterred the sponsors of the first L.A. Open. Theirs was such an audacious move that it not only put L.A. on the map, but golf itself. They were to stage the first $100-a-plate dinner ever held in this country (emceed by Will Rogers). They attracted coverage from the Eastern press--famed sportswriters like Damon Runyon and Grantland Rice came West, attracted by the open-handed purses posted by the organizers.

The golf was as elite as the promotion. The leader board--and by the way, it is believed that the L.A. Open was the first place this innovation was to emerge--read like a Who’s Who of Golf. No “Unknown Wins Open” for L.A. Instead, Lighthorse Harry Cooper won the first, Bobby Cruikshank the second and then, when their time came, Ben Hogan, Sam Snead and Byron Nelson took turns winning it. After them, Arnold Palmer, Billy Casper, Gene Littler and Ken Venturi moved in. The first black player ever to win a tour tournament did it in L.A., Charlie Sifford. The L.A. Open was integrated long before the tour was. You qualified for L.A., your race was irrelevant. In 1948, the black player, Bill Spiller, led after the first round.

It was to be 26 years before even its own winner’s share was to rise above the $3,500 that was paid the first year. Not till 1952 did it climb to $4,000. The most Arnold Palmer ever got for winning in L.A. was $20,000 in 1967. He got $9,000 for winning in 1963 and $11,000 for winning in 1966. Tom Kite got $180,000 for his victory last year.

Like any tournament, it had its mixture of joy and melancholy. Hogan’s comeback try in 1950 saw him sitting in the clubhouse with an apparently safe lead only to have Snead come storming from behind with birdies on Nos. 17 and 18 to tie the tournament and win the playoff.

The L.A. Open has spun out of the grasp of several players but none more so than the pro from Hillcrest, Eric Monti. He was a club pro with an elegant game who was leading the tournament in 1955 after three rounds with a solid 205, the only guy in the field with three rounds in the 60s, when he crashed and burned in the final round with a 77. But that was nothing compared to what happened to him in 1960, when he was again leading after three rounds with a 205--and ballooned to an 80 in the last round.

In 1959, Art Wall thought he had the tournament in the locker with a brilliant 207 after three rounds. Then Venturi, who was capable of those things, shot a 63 on the final day to make up 10 shots and win by two.

Foreign players have not fared very well here. Seve Ballesteros couldn’t solve Riviera’s barrancas. Neither could Nick Faldo. Sandy Lyle finished second one year, but not even the great Aussies could make it here. T.C. Chen was the only foreigner to win, making L.A. the first (and only) Open ever to be won by a player from China.

Unknowns did begin to make their presence felt but that was by the 1970s and ‘80s, when they were beginning to make their presence felt. Pat Fitzsimons, Tom Purtzer, Doug Tewell and Ted Schulz won, for some their first tour victory, others their only one. Chip Beck won his first tournament in L.A.

Still, the unknown soldiers could not fend off the old warriors and the game’s elite for long. L.A. was also won twice by Tom Watson, Lanny Wadkins and Fred Couples.

Walter Hagen never won here. Neither did Jack Nicklaus, although he played sporadically.

It has been a citadel of golf, among other things the first tournament to forge a link with area charities, now a staple of the PGA Tour. It is still the grandfather of tournaments, the Rose Bowl of golf, and the 144 players who tee it up in the 69th L.A. Open this week are basking in a great tradition and a daunting past to live up to. Just to hit the ball where Hogan did, to win where Snead, Nelson, Palmer and Lloyd Mangrum did, should be honor enough to last a lifetime for any golfer.