PLAYGROUND OF THE STARS

Soon after the first tees were stuck in the ground, which was right after some of the finest courses in the nation were put on the map, the game of golf in the Los Angeles area took off like a 300-yard drive.

Some of the most important names in the history of golf--not to mention a few other fields--made their mark in and around Los Angeles.

What they left behind is a legacy rich in tradition, steeped in lore and even quite amusing, by any sport’s standards.

The greatest moments in golf this century? Here’s a list of the top 10, completely subjective, totally unguaranteed.

Feel free to disagree.

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1. Ben Hogan plays the 1950 Los Angeles Open at Riviera.

In a normal situation, Hogan’s playing an L.A. Open at Riviera would hardly be news, but this one was different.

Hogan had nearly died in an auto accident a year before and Riviera was his first tournament since the wreck on a lonesome stretch of Texas highway when his car was struck by a bus.

Hogan had played only three times since his accident and arrived at Union Station unsure whether he would be physically able to perform.

He played five practice rounds at Riviera. After the fifth, on Jan. 3, 1950, during which he drove the 10th green, Hogan said he was going to be able to play.

Hogan hobbled to the first tee on the first day and shot a 73 with three three-putts. After the round, he soaked his legs in the bathtub and wrapped them in elastic bandages.

Hogan came back with a 69 in the second round, but third-round scores were washed out because of rain after only 22 players completed their round. One of them was Jerry Barber, who had a 73 and seemed on the verge of opening a very big lead.

But with the round canceled, Hogan had new life. He shot a 69 in the third round Sunday and another 69 in the fourth round Monday. Sam Snead finished birdie- birdie to get even with Hogan after 72 holes.

Rain postponed the scheduled 18-hole playoff Tuesday until after the Crosby. It was finally held Jan. 18, but not before it was again delayed for a day because of a women’s event, which the women refused to postpone.

Snead shot a 72 and Hogan, who had hit his tee shot on No. 1 out of bounds, a 76.

Afterward, Hogan was abrupt in his comments.

Said Snead: “You were plenty unlucky today, Ben.”

Said Hogan: “Unlucky, hell, that was just damn bad golf.”

At that moment, most knew that Hogan was acting more like himself.

And even though he lost, the Hogan mystique was never stronger.

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2. Hogan wins the 1948 U.S Open at Riviera.

This was the birth of Hogan’s Alley at Riviera (even though Hogan had also won the 1947 and ’48 L.A. Open at Riviera).

The first of Hogan’s four U.S. Open titles was one for the books. His rounds of 67-72-68-69 beat Ralph Guldahl’s 72-hole U.S. Open scoring record by five shots, and his three rounds in the 60s were a first.

As a footnote to history, Ted Rhodes became the first black player at the U.S. Open since 1913. He tied for 51st.

Hogan’s wreck happened eight months later. He was unable to defend his U.S. Open title in 1949 at Medinah, which Cary Middlecoff won. But Hogan won the next two U.S. Opens, in 1950 and 1951.

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3. Hogan wins the L.A. Open at Riviera in 1947 and 1948.

This was before Hogan’s victories were becoming so very monotonous.

In 1947, he won by three shots over Tony Penna.

And in 1948, his nine-under 275 was an L.A. Open record for Riviera that was not broken for 28 years, until Hale Irwin’s 272 in 1976.

Hogan said afterward that he was gratified because he changed his swing and it had paid off.

“Winning the Los Angeles Open gave me lots of satisfaction,” he said. “It was more than a golf victory for me.”

In June, when he won the U.S. Open on the same track, he would say much the same thing.

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4. Tiger Woods, 16, plays first pro event.

Every great player has to start somewhere, and for Woods, it was the 1992 Nissan Los Angeles Open at Riviera.

Woods was a sophomore at Western High in Anaheim when he received a sponsor’s exemption into the event as an amateur. It was his first professional tournament.

Woods birdied the first hole but wound up missing the cut at 72-75. Fred Couples won in a playoff with Davis Love III.

Afterward, Woods was asked what he had learned.

“I learned I am not that good,” Woods said. “Give me some time to grow up and I’ll be back.”

Of course, in a few years, Woods was that good. And he was back.

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5. Hooray for Hollywood!

Golf and Hollywood were certainly a match made on the sound stage.

It was star power on star courses.

From Lakeside to Bel-Air to Riviera to Hillcrest, once a group of the city’s famous residents--the leading men and women of the motion picture industry--discovered golf, a new era was opened up.

Golf anyone? Sure. There were Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Mary Pickford at Lakeside, then moving over to Riviera. Harold Lloyd and Mack Sennett followed, then W.C. Fields and Oliver Hardy.

Humphrey Bogart, Dean Martin, Don Ameche, Victor Mature, Johnny Weissmuller, Kate Hepburn, Gary Cooper, Ray Bolger, Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney, Dinah Shore. They all played. So did Randolph Scott, who was probably the town’s top Hollywood golfer.

Silent film comic legend Lloyd had a course put in his backyard. It was designed by Alistair MacKenzie, who also designed a little course in Georgia called Augusta National.

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6. An even dozen for Arnie

In 1961, Arnold Palmer was already well on his way to a Hall of Fame career.

He was coming off a great year in 1960 when he won eight times, including the Masters and the U.S. Open. So Palmer came to Rancho Park in search of his 22nd tournament victory in less than seven years.

He didn’t find it.

Instead, Palmer made a 12 on the par-five ninth hole on the first day.

Palmer hit a good drive, but hit his second shot out of bounds. He hit three more out of bounds, then hit over the green on his 10th shot. He chipped on for 11 and tapped in for 12.

Asked later how he made 12, Palmer quipped “missed a chip for an 11.”

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7. A Babe on the fairway

Babe Didrickson Zaharias was voted female athlete of the first half of the 20th century by the Associated Press and made her name in track and field and basketball.

Growing up in Beaumont, Texas, she didn’t know much about golf, but all that changed after sportswriter Grantland Rice suggested she think seriously about it in 1935, when Zaharias was 21.

She went on to win 31 pro events, and in 1938, she was the first woman to play a professional men’s event: the Los Angeles Open at Griffith Park.

Zaharias missed the cut, but she forever altered the equation of women and golf and how they should relate.

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8. Jim Murray

Simply the best modern writer on the subject of golf. Murray’s deep and abiding love of the game (not to mention how it worked on his sense of humor) are evident in his musings, essays and missives.

Here are some examples:

Murray on the sport itself: “Golf is not a game, it’s a sentence.”

On golf-crazy Sweden: “It’s a great place to hang meat.”

On deliberate play: “If a golfer fell off the Empire State Building, it would take him a week to hit the ground. He would be checking the yardage all the way down.”

On a Tommy Bolt tantrum: “It made Mt. St. Helens look like a smog alert.”

On Palmer: “Other golfers had failures. Arnold had catastrophes.”

On John Daly: “Watching Daly make six can be more memorable than a lot of guys making two.”

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9. George Thomas, architect

He designed Riviera Country Club. And the North Course at Los Angeles Country Club. And Bel-Air. And Ojai. And the Harding Course at Griffith Park.

In fact, along with Billy Bell, Thomas is responsible for some of the finest golf course architecture in the U.S.

A Philadelphian, Thomas came to Los Angeles in 1920. If Riviera is his finest achievement, then Griffith Park was one of his finest efforts--he spent his own money to finish the layout after the city ran out of money.

Thomas and Bell also designed a 36-hole course on a space now occupied by the Fox Hills mall in Culver City. Thomas wrote what is considered one of the finest books ever golf course architecture: “Golf Architecture in America.”

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10. Order the champagne

Tony Lema, who was from Oakland, made a lasting name for himself Oct. 28, 1962, in the Orange County Open at Mesa Verde Country Club in Costa Mesa.

After his third-round 64 gave him a two-shot lead over Bob Rosburg, Lema was busy drinking beer with some sportswriters when he announced he would buy champagne for everybody if he won the next day.

Lema did just that, outlasting Rosburg in a three-hole playoff.

So Lema ordered the champagne and was rewarded with a nickname: Champagne Tony.

Later, Lema would say he wanted to make every interview “lively, witty, sincere, hilarious, sentimental, dramatic, colorful and spontaneous.”

Hey, there’s nothing wrong with that, is there? Those words ought to last 100 years.