Rancho Park Golf Course is a municipal

golf course A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, tee box, a #Fairway and rough, fairway, the #Fairway and rough, rough and other hazard (golf), hazards, and ...

in the

western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, located in southern

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

in the city of

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. Owned and operated by the city's Department of Recreation and Parks, the par-71 course in the

Cheviot Hills The Cheviot Hills (), or sometimes The Cheviots, are a range of uplands straddling the Anglo-Scottish border between Northumberland and the Scottish Borders. The English section is within the Northumberland National Park. The range includes ...

neighborhood was designed by

William P. Bell William Park Bell (April 19, 1886 – June 21, 1953) was a noted golf course architect, active from the 1920s into the early 1950s. Biography Born in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, Billy Bell studied agriculture at Duff's Business Institute in Pittsbur ...

& William H. Johnson in 1947. The fairways are

Bermuda Grass ''Cynodon dactylon'', commonly known as Bermuda grass, also known as couch grass in Australia and New Zealand, is a grass found worldwide. It is native to Europe, Africa, Australia and much of Asia. It has been introduced to the Americas. Contra ...

and the greens are

Bent Grass ''Agrostis'' (bent or bentgrass) is a large and very nearly cosmopolitan genus of plants in the grass family, found in nearly all the countries in the world. It has been bred as a GMO creeping bent grass. Species , Plants of the World Onlin ...

. It hosted the

Los Angeles Open The Genesis Invitational is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour in Southern California, first played in 1926 as the Los Angeles Open. Other previous names include Genesis Open, Northern Trust Open and Nissan Open. Played annually in ...

on the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also known as the PGA Tour, the PGA Tour Champion ...

seventeen times, and also was the site of events on the

Senior PGA Tour PGA Tour Champions (formerly the Senior PGA Tour and the Champions Tour) is a men's professional senior golf tour, open to golfers age 50 and over, administered as a branch of the PGA Tour. History and format The Senior PGA Championship, f ...

and

LPGA Tour The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) is an American organization for female golfers. The organization is headquartered at LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Florida, and is best known for running the LPGA Tour, a series of weekly ...

History

The site was originally a private club named Rancho Country Club. The club ran into some tax problems and the

federal government A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

took ownership to satisfy the tax debt and leased it back to the club. Several citizens spearheaded an effort to make the site into a city park. Their efforts were rewarded in 1945 with the creation of Cheviot Hills Park, a park that included the golf course,

tennis court A tennis court is the venue where the sport of tennis is played. It is a firm rectangular surface with a low net stretched across the centre. The same surface can be used to play both Types of tennis match, doubles and singles matches. A variet ...

s, and

baseball field A baseball field, also called a ball field or baseball diamond, is the field upon which the game of baseball is played. The term can also be used as a metonym for a baseball park. The term sandlot is sometimes used, although this usually refer ...

s.
Hillcrest Country Club is adjacent to the northeast, separated by Motor Avenue. The Los Angeles Open moved to Rancho Park in 1956 and stayed through 1972 (except for 1968) and hosted a final time in 1983. A bronze plaque is located on the 508-yard par-5 ninth hole (currently the 18th hole) along the course's western boundary. It commemorates an incident in the first round of the L.A. Open in 1961; reigning Masters and U.S. Open champion

Arnold Palmer Arnold Daniel Palmer (September 10, 1929 – September 25, 2016) was an American professional golfer who is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most charismatic players in the sport's history. Since embarking on a professional career in ...

carded a twelve after a great tee shot was followed by four consecutive shots

out of bounds In sports, out of bounds (or out-of-bounds) refers to being outside the playing boundaries of the field. The legality of going out of bounds (intentionally or not), and the ease of prevention, vary by sport. Sports that use this term include Am ...

. ''Picture of the on-site plaque and commentary confirm 2nd–5th shots were OB. Various published sources disagree on details.'' The hole narrows near the green, squeezing in between the driving range on the right and Patricia Avenue on the left; he hit the first two to the right, then two left. Five years later, Palmer tied the course record with 62 in the third round to take a seven-shot lead, then held on to win by a stroke, the second of his three victories here (1963, 1966, 1967).

Charlie Sifford Charles Luther Sifford (June 2, 1922 – February 3, 2015) was an American professional golfer who was the first African American to play on the PGA Tour. He won the Greater Hartford Open in 1967 and the Los Angeles Open in 1969. He also won the ...

was the first African-American to earn a PGA card in

1961 Events January * January 1 – Monetary reform in the Soviet Union, 1961, Monetary reform in the Soviet Union. * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and cons ...

; he won the L.A. Open on the course in

1969 1969 ( MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1969th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 969th year of the 2nd millennium, the 69th year of the 20th century, and the ...

on the first playoff hole for his second tour win. It happened on January 12, during the New York Jets' historic upset win in

Super Bowl III Super Bowl III was an American football championship game played on January 12, 1969, at the Miami Orange Bowl, Orange Bowl in Miami, Miami, Florida. It was the third AFL–NFL Championship Game in professional American football, and the fi ...

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

Jack Nicklaus Jack William Nicklaus (; born January 21, 1940), nicknamed "the Golden Bear", is an American retired professional golfer and List of golf courses designed by Jack Nicklaus, golf course designer. He is widely considered to be one of the greate ...

earned his first tour paycheck at Rancho Park as a 21-year-old rookie in early

1962 The year saw the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is often considered the closest the world came to a Nuclear warfare, nuclear confrontation during the Cold War. Events January * January 1 – Samoa, Western Samoa becomes independent from Ne ...

; he was over twenty strokes back in the $45,000 event and earned less than thirty four dollars. He never won the L.A. Open; his best finish was a solo runner-up in

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd ...

Riviera Country Club The Riviera Country Club is a private club with a championship golf course as well tennis courts in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of the Westside of Los Angeles, California. The Riviera was designed by golf course architects George C. T ...

with an uncharacteristic stumble in the final holes. Also age 21,

Nancy Lopez Nancy Marie Lopez (born January 6, 1957) is an American former professional golfer. She became a member of the LPGA Tour in 1977 LPGA Tour, 1977 and won 48 LPGA Tour events, including three women's major golf championships, major championships. ...

gained her second career win at Rancho Park in the Sunstar Classic, the second of nine victories for her in

. She successfully defended in

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

with a birdie on the final hole to win by a stroke. The

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

event was won by

JoAnne Carner JoAnne Gunderson Carner (born April 4, 1939) is an American former professional golfer. Her 43 victories on the LPGA Tour led to her induction in the World Golf Hall of Fame. She is the only woman to have won the U.S. Girls' Junior, U.S. Women ...

, shortened to 54 holes after the first round was cancelled by heavy rain.

Tour events hosted

(17) - 1956– 67,

– 72, and

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

: Security Pacific / Ralph's Senior Classic (5) -

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

– 94 *

: Sunstar Classic (3) -

– 80

References

External links

* {{official, http://golf.lacity.org/cdp_rancho.htm
Rancho Park Golf Club
– course history
Rancho Park Golf Academy
Golf clubs and courses in Los Angeles Rancho Park, Los Angeles Westside (Los Angeles County) Golf clubs and courses designed by William P. Bell 1947 establishments in California