Before I get my rant going I want to congratulate the 2009 Senior Stroke Play for finally coming to a conclusion. Using Thursday's tournament scores to settle it, John Jones won the "NET" Chapionship a three-way playoff between himself, Ahmad Keliddari and Tom Hill.  Spence Beard won the Senior Stroke Play Gross Championship outright.


To the right: Clarence Yim, Senior's Stroke Play NET winner John Jones, and Sam Ikeda.


A June Sunday  by Ken Morrisey   (6/29)

Tired of not teeing off on time? Well this was the tournament for you. The tournament was re-scheduled by the city after it needed the early June weekends for the L.A. City Championships. Not only did it move the tournament to the end of June, but they went off an old email from last October that originally had us teeing off at 6:30. Communication problems happen.

Attempting to help the city fill the tee times, and ease the double booking at the end of the tournament, Gonzo was rushing everyone out as fast as possible. A task made more difficult with the practice putting green being the one by the parking lot. Still many teed off “before” their scheduled tee time! A first for a Rancho tournament.

The winner of the A flight, Brad Shipley (72), won a card-off for the Low Gross prize with Michael Saghian (72) on the merits of the last 3 holes. Eagle on #17 and birdie on #18 did the trick. Nice finish! Second place went to our current Golfer of the Year, Matt Zaal (73), who had 6 birdies! Michael Atherton (75) came in third place. Todd Wade (76) finished fourth, and George Brady (77) got fifth place ahead of a pack (5) of 78's.

Low Net winner in the A flight was Michael Saghian (net 68) with 3 birdies and only one over for the round. Great round! Second place went to Hawaiian-styled Mark Malick (net 69). Our beer consultant, Jeff Bosten (net 70) staggered into third. Fourth went to Jim Travis (net 71) and fifth went to Doug Pall (net 72).

After doing so well in last Thursday's tournament Gonzo decided to have the B flight hit from the Black tees this time. Funny how those back tees put pressure on your short game.

Low Gross winner in the B flight was our check-in volunteer Bob Hewey (81). Second place went to “not so big” Pat Carrier (83) who is losing strokes along with his weight. There was a three-way tie for third through fifth place. Winner of the card-off was our club vice-president, Clarence Yim (84), followed by Jeffery Allen in fourth and Kam Intarachot in fifth.

The Low Net winner in the B flight was tall Tom Wohlstadter (net 69). A card-off for second place was won by John Fairbank (net 71) with Antonio Morales (net 71) getting third. John Jones (net 72) won fourth place as well as his matchplay title, while Thor Tandberg (net 73) came back from his European tour to win fifth.

The C flight winner was “skins mailer” Michael Africa (83, a.k.a. net 61). Mike's game had everything but a putter. OMG he can putt now!!! A tie for second between our Tournament Chairman, Gonzo (84) and Harmik Gharapetian (84) went to Gonzo because . . . . he's our Tournament Chairman. No, actually Gonzo had the lower back nine thanks to Harmik messing up his favorite hole (#14). Vacationing in Europe seems to have helped his game. Fourth place went to yours truly (86) who is scheduled for chipping lessons (what's new?), and fifth place went to Jerry Carstens (87) winning a card-off over Devesh Purohit.

Low Net in the C flight went to Christian Donahue (net 66). Seven net birdies and a net eagle. Second went to “the Milkshake Kid” Bill Mickelson (net 67). Bill was 2 under on the four par three's! Third was captured by Jason Kho (net 68). Casey Harrington (net 71) won a card-off for fourth place over Ken “feeling lucky” Philipson (fifth place). Casey Harrington was helped by a eagle on #18. Three nice shots! Devesh tied, but just missed out again :(

Skins

The big skins winner was our tournament winner Brad Shipley winning all the A fight 'net' skins ($270) with his eagle on #17. Brad's total skins winning was $337. Matt Zaal had $134 and David Trovato won $67. In the B flight Kam Intarachot, Barrett Ryan and John Fairbank were the big winners with $92 each. And in the C flight Mickelson, Casey Harrington, and Christian Donahue each bagged $122.

Also note there are a lot less squirrels now that the city found lids for the trash cans attached to the ball washers. Huge improvement. Those little varmints are still around, but more are hanging up in the trees.

Small Prize Fund

In a mistake by yours truly the club under-collected green fees (did not charged enough) for the last two tournaments. This has been reflected in the unusually small prize fund for the last couple of tournaments. It was a combination of miscommunication and my lack of training on the software. My sincere apologies to all the winners.

The problem has been corrected and the prize fund should be back up to normal in the future. Unfortunately this coincides with the city's new raise in rates (July 1st), which has been added onto our tournament entry fees; $4 more for away tournaments, $7 more for home tournament (on weekdays), and $9 more for home tournaments on weekends. Hopefully they will rescind this price raise in the future. Stop shaking your heads. I see a lot of bumper stickers with “hope” on them.

We've also slightly changed the signup format. No “early bird” special. You're now 'expected' to sign up “early”. That is, up to 10 days before we've locked in the tee times with the city. After that there will be a $5 late fee . . . . “if” there are any openings. You should contact Gonzo directly if it's less than 10 days before the tournament.

2010 Men's City Championship by the Golfer  (6/30)

Chick Ruiz made a special thanks to our club and the seniors and ladies club's of Rancho for supporting the men's city championship this year, by volunteering and really coming to bat when we were asked to do so. Thank you very much. Well done to everyone who helped! It meant a lot to the staff at Golf Division and the golf competitors who were full of praise for our course and how well the tournament was run.

The New City Champion is Andrew Perez who won by one stroke from Tyler Weworski after shooting 72, 65, 64,70, for a 271 total. That's great golf!

To put it in perspective, the lowest score of any LA Open played at Rancho was Phil Rodgers 268 in 1962. At the last LA Open played at Rancho in 1983, Gil Morgan shot 270. The overall low record for the LA Open, 264, comes from Lanny Wadkins at Riviera in 1985.

From our club, Ahmad Keliddari won the D Flight!
Jung Woo (72,68,74,72 = 286) was 18th, and Eddie Repanich was 20th (74,69,73,72 = 288) in the championship flight and there were other club members in the top 20 including our Tournament Director Gonzo Paigan!
Congratulations to everyone! -
http://golf.lacity.org/golf_championships/2010/2010_mens_choice.htm


What June Gloom?   By Ken Morrisey  (6/26)

Who wouldn't want weather like this? Not fog, but a cool marine-layer haze kept the temperature in the high 60's. When that burned off it was replaced by a pleasing breeze. Summers don't get better than this. Ask people from the valley. Perfect weather for golf!

Our Thursday Monthly Tournament got off on time. Our first group, “the rabbits”, were walking. However one of the players, Jeremiah Harrington, had back problems and wasn't able to finish the first hole. I can only imagine how frustrating (and painful) that had to be.

A tie for first in our Thursday tournament was settled by a card-off. The winner of the back nine, and winner of our June Monthly Tournament, was Michael Gaines (73). His birdie on 18 along with his steady play was just what the doctor ordered. In second place via the card-off was our club champion Casey Gabler (73). After an unusually slow start (bogeys on the first three holes) Casey sank 3 birdies to shoot even par on the front, however he wasn't able to keep up that pace. Ex-club champion, who is now channeling Jack Nicklaus (74), also bogeyed the first three holes and finished a shot behind in third. Another player 3 over after 3 was Ken Knott (75) who finished just 2 shots behind in fourth place. John Philipson had one birdie and finished fifth.

Low Net Winner in the A flight was Charlie Slipasvang (net 71). A rare birdie on #2 helped Charlie shoot his handicap. A tie for second place went to Steve Cooper (net 72). Steve finished strong with 3 birdies on the final 4 holes! Third place went to Peter Follett (also net 72) whose gross 74 was only one putt away from finishing in first place! A card-off for fourth place had Riley Chan (net 73) acing out Adam Langsbard (fifth place).

The Low Gross B flight winner was Sean Akhavi (77) with his best Rancho score ever! Birdie a couple par 5's, nothing worse than bogey, that's the formula to winning golf! Only one shot behind, in this hotly contested flight, were Roy Kim (78) and John Wolfsohn (78). Roy won the card-off for second place by birdieing the last two holes. Great way to finish! Terry Lefkowitz (80) won the card-off over our Handicap Chairman, Fritz Breidenbach, who finished in fifth.

Low Net winner in the B flight was Barrett Ryan with a net 64 !!! Eight net birdies and a net eagle will do that. Fantastic round! Keep it up. Luke Rex (net 67) was the only other player in the tournament to shoot under net 70! Unfortunately Luke was in Barrett's flight :( There also was a four way tie for the remaining 3 spots, third through fifth. Based on their back-nine scores Ed Ferguson won third place, Jesse Bonner won fourth place, John Jones won fifth place, and last month's winner, Ahmad Keliddari just finished out of the money.

Finally breaking through, the winner of Low Gross in the C flight was Greg “always-in-the-money” Borrud (87). Welcome to the Tournament of Champions. That birdie on #18 was the difference. Winning a card-off for second place was Richard Agay (88), Richard Wagner (also 88) placed third. Both had a little trouble right at the end. Leonard Bourget (89) finished in fourth place, while Tom Foerstel (90) won a card-off over Tony Jones for fifth place.

In a three way battle for Low Net in the C flight the winner was Murat Sehidoglu (net 70). Although Murat was 5 over after 2 holes he righted the ship and finished with three pars which proved to be the difference. John Ziegler (net 70) placed second and Paul Oviedo (net 70) place third. Finishing in fourth place Paul Mc Minn (net 71) could have won easily except for taking a nine on the last hole. Watch out for Paul in the future. John Bourget (net 73) won a card-off for fifth place over Tony Jones (again) and Bill Mickelson.

Skins were fairly spread out again this tournament. Though there were many winners the big winner in the A flight was Roark Sandberg with $102. In the B flight it was Fritz winning $100, and the C flight big winner was Ben Everill with $72. There were also a lot of tight CTP's but Chuck Taylor was the best at 2'10” on hole three.

There were a few pictures taken near the start of the tournament. Check them out in our photo section. Also to be noted, with the help of Mission Beverages, the bar at Rancho Gardens will be serving draft beer in the future. This, along with the new huge plasma screen, could make analyzing rounds more enjoyable.

You need to act on three signups now.
   1) There is a par-3 tournament before the general membership meeting on Tuesday, July 6th at 4pm followed by a free meal. What a deal!
   2) There is our July Monthly tournament on Thursday, July 8
   3) There is one week left to sign up for our individually scheduled matchplay This is a major tournament with huge prizes and Golfer of the Year points doubles. Plan play around your schedule (within the three week period). See Match rules for more details

Sign up today.






Herbert Fowler at Pebble Beach by John Jones, RPGC historian

I was fortunate to have spent a few days at the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach this year. Wednesday was particularly spectacular with 68 degree (20 c) sunshine and 25 mile per hour wind. My goal was to take pictures of the golf course for my research on the origins of golf in California, and of course to see some great golf. I thought Dustin Johnson had it sewn up. Congratulations to McDowell.

Of interest to Rancho members is that Herbert Fowler made many alterations and improvements to Pebble Beach at the same time as he was designing the North & South courses of the Los Angeles Country Club and the old Rancho course. The fairway of today's 13th, the Fowler hole at Rancho Park, is all that remains of his 1921 design.

Between 1919 and 1923 Herbert Fowler was hopping between San Francisco, Monterey and Los Angeles remodeling and designing many of the great courses of California including the Presidio of San Francisco, Lincoln Park, Olympic Club, Crystal Springs Country Club, Sequoyah Country Club, Victoria Club, LACC North & South, Rancho Golf Club, Del Monte and Pebble Beach. While here in California he invested heavily in real estate. Fowler was also a long time director of the Royal and Ancient.

Herbert spent two seasons at Monterey, completely remodeling the old Del Monte golf course, nine holes at a time, between 1920 and 1921. According to Hay Chapman, Fowler's 1921 alterations to the Pebble Beach links included:

New back tees added to holes 2,6,9,10,11,13 & 18.
New greens built for holes 1,7,9 & 12.
New traps added to holes 1 & 17.
Hole 5 was also straightened.


In 1922 Fowler's "most radical alteration was the building of a new raised green in front of the Lodge. With a raised tee, calling for an accurate shot with the ocean as a hazard, it makes a 535 yard hole. The fairway has been widened and it will be a big improvement over the eighteenth of last year", and creating what everyone calls the finest finishing hole in golf.


Copyright 2010 J.Jones




Away Tournament at Encino by Ken Morrisey   (6/14)

Though I didn't play, this was a beautiful morning for golf. Gonzo and Bob Hewey had check-in running smoothly as usual. I noticed the new construction around the starters window. If anyone can remember the last time we had some new construction at Rancho please let me know.

Winning Low Gross in the A flight was Jay Lappen (74) who was only two over. We hadn't seen Jay since March. Good to have him back. An eagle on #4 helped Michael Atherton (75) finish just one stroke behind. In prepping for his run at the L.A. City Championships Forrest Ramirez (78) won a card-off for third place over Riley Chan (fourth place).

First place Low Net in the A flight went to Robert Shrier (net 67). Only one over on the back reveals Robert's true talent. Steady Steve Skelton (net 70) finished in second place with no doubles. Shooting slightly below his handicap Jesse Bonner (net 71) won a card-off for third over Marty Signore (fourth place).

The B flight winner was determined by a card-off. On a stronger back nine Arnold Hansen (83) won the tiebreaker over David Akhavi (83). First time we've seen Arnold this year. Welcome to the Tournament of Champions. Still on the mend from back surgery Dave Wexler (86) won the back nine card-off over Wil Lafayette (86). Dave got third place, Wil finished fourth.

The B flight Low Net winner, in his Ohio State colors, was Mike Cervenak (net 66). It's been a while since Mike has broken 90 (89). The birdie helped. In second place was Michael Shindler (net 68). He also had a birdie. Third place was won by a UCLA Alumni, Geoff Rivas (net 69). His birdie came on the last hole! Ahmad Keliddari (net 71) won fourth place.

The par three greens at Encino are huge. Yet they are far enough away so, even after hitting them, you are usually left with a long putt. Such was the case this day, as all but one 'Closest-to-The-Pin' putt was over 11 feet. None were made. However we did have 22 birdies in the A flight (and an eagle) and 5 birdies in the B flight.

Skins were spread around so most of the winners won around $75-80. Michael Shindler was the big winner with $105.

Our reputation has spread to other courses. Inquiring about a missing jacket the starters let me have it about how far we were behind with our tee off times. Having sent out a marshall to see how bad the damage was I heard his report come in over the walkie-talkie. The Rancho players were right behind the public and there were no gaps within our groups. Glad we got vindicated this time. Thanks for keeping up.

The City Championships were played at Rancho this last weekend, hence the course is in great shape. I hope all who play in our upcoming Monthly Tournament bring their a game. Signups end today!



Rancho Park Golf Club 2010 Championship Rules Violations  by Malcolm Bersohn  (6/3)

There were several players disqualified during this year's club championship for rules infractions. Not all of these were known during the 3 days of the tournament. I received a number of E-mails up to one week after the tournament from players who with hindsight thought they might have violated a rule. I thank those players for their honesty and their honor for the rules. However, I would encourage everyone in the future to bring their concerns about possible rules violations to the scorer's table or to the tournament committee as soon as possible. In the hope of decreasing the number of DQ's in future tournaments, I will describe some of the disqualifications.

Three players were disqualified for failing to return to hit another ball from the original location after a ball was lost. They were all aware of the violations and wanted to avoid unnecessary delay when they were presumably already out of the running. The lesson is to always hit a provisional when there is any doubt as to the location of a ball, be it lost or out-of-bounds. It is also important to have a distinctive mark on the ball. It is not enough to have the only Titleist or Nike in the foursome. There will be other similar balls in use by players on adjacent holes, and there will always be stray balls on a course like Rancho. A distinctive marking removes doubt as to which ball has been found.

Rule 12-2. Identifying Ball
The responsibility for playing the proper ball rests with the player. Each player should put an identification mark on his ball.

A player was disqualified for practicing bunker shots at the 18th green. In stroke play, it is not allowed to practice on the course before playing or between rounds of a multi-round tournament (Rule 7-1). It is also not allowed to practice during a round with the exception of chipping or putting around the green last played (Rule 7-2). As a condition of competition at Rancho, we generally do not allow this exception to Rule 7-2 either.

In an unfortunate foursome, Player A was disqualified after playing a wrong ball, failing to add the 2 stroke penalty to his score for the hole, and signing an incorrect scorecard. If he had asked for advice before signing his card, he could have corrected the error and avoided disqualification. The wrong ball that Player A hit belonged to Player B in the same foursome. Since Player B could not find his first ball, he played a second ball, which was also lost, and then a third. Player A then realized his mistake and returned the first ball. Player B then played out the hole with his first ball and took no penalty. Since more than 5 minutes had elapsed in searching for his first ball, it was by definition "lost" and no longer in play regardless of the circumstances. He should have played his third ball. He was disqualified under rule 15-3.b:

Rule 15-3. b. Stroke Play
If a competitor makes a stroke or strokes at a wrong ball, he incurs a penalty of two strokes.
The competitor must correct his mistake by playing the correct ball or by proceeding under the Rules. If he fails to correct his mistake before making a stroke on the next teeing ground or, in the case of the last hole of the round, fails to declare his intention to correct his mistake before leaving the putting green, he is disqualified.

If there is doubt as to the correct action in a complicated situation like this, it is permissible to play two balls under rule 3-3 (copied below) and then to ask for a ruling when the round has been completed but before the scorecard is turned in. Rule 3-3 has not been invoked often enough in past tournaments. It can help to avoid irretrievable errors and to minimize arguments between competitors.

Rule 3-3. Doubt as to Procedure
a. Procedure 
In stroke play, if a competitor is doubtful of his rights or the correct procedure during the play of a hole, he may, without penalty, complete the hole with two balls.
After the doubtful situation has arisen and before taking further action, the competitor must announce to his marker or a fellow-competitor that he intends to play two balls and which ball he wishes to count if the Rules permit.

The competitor must report the facts of the situation to the Committee before returning his score card. If he fails to do so, he is disqualified.


Rules Committee Chairman,
Malcolm Bersohn

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2010 Club Championship   by Ken Morrisey  (5/26)

What recession? We had our biggest field ever with 137 players signing up! A couple of cancelations and a couple of no-shows brought that number down, but still in these economic times it was huge for a club championship.

Do I usually start these reports with how good the weather was? Well this time we had weather. Nothing unbearable but we had sun & clouds, warm & cold, wind & rain, and even hail! All the elements were in play.

We now have a new name on the Champion trophy, Casey Gabler (217). It wasn't a runaway, more of a come from behind. Casey started slowly and was 6 over after 10 holes. Yet he finished the remaining 44 holes in 2 under par! Tied for sixth after the first day he just climbed the leader board. In second place was ex-champion Jung Woo (220). Steady as always, trouble on hole #2 (5 over for the 3 days) kept him from winning this year. Last year's champion Eddie Repanich (222) finished in third place mainly because of one bad five hole stretch, where he was 9 over. Even with the tournament best 68 on the final day he was not able to dig himself out of the hole he put himself in. Eddie had a tournament leading 11 birdies.

Matt Zaal started off 3 under after the first 5 holes! Though he couldn't keep up that pace his fabulous start allowed him to win Low Net in the Championship flight. Matt shot net 220. Ken Knott (net 222) came in second with a net 71 on the final round. Chris Plummer (net 227) came back from a forgettable first round to shoot one over the final round and win a card-off over Michael Atherton for third place.

Sam Swisher (231) won The President's Flight Low Gross prize . . . by 9 shots! That's called smoking the competition! He was followed by Jeremiah Harrington (240) who had the best round in the flight, and on the closing day. JP Szabo (240) lost the card-off to Jeremiah's hot round.

Mark Malick (net 213) won first place Low Net in the President's flight, with three good days net 72, net 70, net 71. Shot his handicap in adverse weather conditions. Doug Pall (net 218) came from behind and won second place in a card-off over Mark MagGill. The tie-breaker always favor the closer.

The Vice President's flight and Secretary's flight seemingly got a break at the beginning of the tournament with the number one tee up close. However no one was able to take advantage of it with a birdie.

In the Vice President's Flight Jim Azama (250) won handily with three impressive rounds, 83, 83, 84 which also comes out as net 71, net 71, net 72. If you can shoot your handicap you will be in contention. Jim won both Low Gross and Low Net but our club awards only one prize to a player. Whenever a player wins both he is always awarded the Low Gross prize. Kamil Rehman (254) won a card-off over Shahid Khan for second place despite stumbling on the last hole. Shahid shot his handicap two of the three days.

Brian Byrne (net 216) won Low Net in the vice President's flight. With the cut at (net) 154 for his flight, Brian barely made it at 152. Yet he managed to fly by everyone with the round of his life, a net 64 on the final day! What a closer! Bobby Mitchel (net 219) came in second with steady play and nothing higher than double. Tom Wohlstadter (net 220) came back from a layoff to capture third.

In the Secretary's flight John Fairbank (258) won first place Low Gross by 5 shots. John was able to start off with the best round in the flight (80) and he finished with the flight's best round on Sunday. Second went to Robert Watson (263) who started the day 4 shots behind and just wasn't able to close the gap. Aussie Nick Tate (265) won third place just before he hopped a plane back to Australia. We hope to see Nick again about a year from now.

Ahmad Keliddari (net 214) won first place Low Net in the Secretary's flight. He had a couple of “Bounce Back Birdies”. Tom Foerstel (net 215) came in second finishing a three day up and down roller coaster, and Harmik Gharapetian (net 216) placing third by grinding it out.

I want to congratulate all the winners, but especially Casey Gabler. With an extremely strong field and tough conditions he prove himself a true champion. He now has his name engraved on the historical Rancho Park trophy as Club Champion.


On another note, we again had problems teeing off the first hole on time. The public has 6 minute tee times. With a couple of “empty” tee spots every hour it averages out to 7 1/2 minute tee times for the city. For our tournament we made it 8 minute tee times (with no empty spots). Even though we had several 3 man groups this was not enough as we constantly slip further and further behind till we were almost an hour behind teeing off at the end. This not only frustrated the final groups but enraged the public behind us who had made tee times and had to wait an hour. A bad situation for all.

As I was on the tee box taking pictures I don't remember anyone coming back to re-hit. This leads me to believe players are taking their time putting, which backs up the players in the fairway, which backs up the players on the tee. Tournament golf is slower than casual golf but we must resolve this problem if we are to have big turnouts in the future.

Knowing the rules

Tournament golf is different than “casual golf”. One of the ways it is different is we follow the rules strictly, as they would in the PGA. Arguments “this isn't the US Open” or “He was going to take a high score anyway” are arguments to weaken 'strictly follow the rules'. If you believe having fun is more important than strictly following the rules, and you can't have fun if your (or your buddy's) score is high, than maybe tournament golf is not for you. Luckily almost everyone in our club understands the rules take priority over ones feelings or intent.

We had several disqualifications this tournament and almost all of them were called by the players themselves. Once they learned they had inadvertently broken a rule they understood they must be DQ'd. This integrity golf players possess is what separates it from the other sports. I want to mention some of the rules that were broken not to disparage these players whom I admire, but to prevent any further rules violations.

Grant Lee shot well enough to finish in first place in the President's flight. Yet he was DQ'd after learning it's prohibited to practice on the tournament course between tournament rounds. During warmups he hit a few balls out of the sand trap on eighteen. We also had a few players hit balls while they were still in motion and failed to record the penalty stroke. They reported it themselves. We had a couple of players who couldn't find their second ball after a prolonged search and DQ'd themselves instead of holding up the tournament any further. And there was one who walked off after a blowup hole and a broken club. No “Bounce Back Birdie” for him.

This tournament had a little of everything; huge field, weather, Jim Blank had really great deals on shirts, around 88 players made the cut, the Heineken girls, raffle prizes, and good food after the round. All in all another well run tournament by our Major Tournament Chairman Todd Wade and all the volunteers including Marty Signore, John Stevens, Gonzo, Dave Wexler, Bob Schwarz, Robert Shapiro, Clarence Yim and yours truly.

That is not acceptable to our players nor to the public, many of whom were on the putting green cursing our club. I went to the window to see the managers and saw a lot of shaking heads. Our inability to tee off on schedule, let alone finish on time, means the loss of a complete hour of tee time money to Golf Division. And they are hurting for money at the moment. And my five hour and forty minute round, largely in a near howling wind, was spent standing around wishing we could start working together as a club and never let it get like it did today. We can all play much faster than this and unless we start making a really serious effort to change it we are going to lose our weekend playing privileges.

John Jones

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Happy Birthday Holmby - from John Jones  (5/19)

May 18, 2010 is the Armond Hammer - Holmby Park golf course's 81st birthday!


Originally part of the 4438 acre Rancho San Jose de Buenos Ayres, the farm raised cattle under Don Benito Wilson and then William Wolfskill until 1919 when Arthur Letts, Sr., "merchant prince of Los Amgeles" and the founder of Broadway Department Stores, bought the rancho as an investment". It was then known as Westwood and extended from Beverly Hills to Santa Monica.

The south eastern sestion of the ranch which included Century City and was next to the LA Country Club was known as Westwood Hills. Letts named the area around the park Holmby, after his birthplace in England.

It was the company of Letts' son in law Harold Janss who donated the park in 1926 to the city of Los Angeles and it was Park Commisioner Van Griffith, son of Griffith Park donor Griffith J Griffith, who was the "father of the new idea" of a bowling green and a "pony" golf course on the land. It is likely that William Bell and or George C Thomas designed the original layout which was revamped in 1940 under WIlliam Johnson.

In 1981 Holmgy Hills Park was threatened with closure by the city of Los Angeles parks department but was saved at the last minute by neighbors Hugh Hefnor and oil billionaire Armand Hammer. 


Happy Birthday Holmby Hills golf course!