Does anybody recognize this golf course?

[Brian Chapin]

This photo comes from a collection of digital photo's of Leo Diegel that we have at Paramount.  We don't have the originals, but that is not what I am interested in. 

Does anyone recognize the golf course?  The hole behind them looks pretty interesting!  I have often wondered where this was taken.

[Michael Wharton-Palmer]

great looking green site..looks like a Thomas style green.

[Ed Oden]

Nothing sets the mood for golf quite like a ukulele.

[Dan Boerger]

That is one classic photo! Be very curious to find out the course.

[Steve Lapper]

I am 75% certain this is a rare photo of almost lost 19th hole at LACC North. Of course, Gil or Geoff Shackleford would have to confirm this. They restored an area that looks near identical to this photo just to right of the approach to the 17th green.

If not, it is an early photo taken at nearby Bel-Air!

Either way, very, very cool hole!

[Michael Dugger]

I would be surprised if that's not LACC.  It looks like the extra hole that Hanse et al revived.

[Terry Lavin]

I'll go with LACC as well and thanks so much for posting.  I haven't thought about Tiny Tim in years!

[Kalen Braley]

I don't know if its just the lighting or what...

But it looks like there is a whole mess of bunkers on the hillside behind that hole...

Sean must be freaking out right about now!! 

[Sean_A]

I don't know if its just the lighting or what...

But it looks like there is a whole mess of bunkers on the hillside behind that hole...

Sean must be freaking out right about now!! 

I thought it best to pop two pinkies before cleaning the specs.

Ciao

[Mark McKeever]

That is some heavy bunkering long of the green!  Wild looking hole!

Mark

[Sean Leary]

The green looks kinda like the extra hole at LACC but where the tee is doesn't jive with that..  17 would be going right to left in the pic, with 2 abutting it so this tee going on another hole is facing 90 degrees the wrong way.

Also I don't remember the old pics having that many bunkers.  Paging Jon Spaulding...

[Jim Nugent]

Bel Air? 

[Robert Mercer Deruntz]

That may be the 5th at Bel Air.  The old sycamore was still in the spot next to the bench in the mid to late 70's.  A high school classmate lived in the white house across from the 5th tee.  When his house was first built, in the early 30' s, there were lunch parties followed by playing a whiskey route of 5-7, 3-4 --there were pictures in his basement of these parties

[Robert Mercer Deruntz]

This cannot be LACC for two reasons: first, the Hollywood crowd was not welcome there, and secondly, the hill is way too tall compared to the hill behind the old 17th. 

[R_Paulis]

It has the feel of Ojai and there are hills in some sections of the course... The current bunkering doesn't match the photo, but there are well documented course changes.

[Brian Chapin]

Not sure if this will help, but here is another picture from the collection that seems to have been taken at the same time.

[Jeff_Brauer]

First thought was that it could be 18 at Bel Aire, although I would think you could see the bridge for the 10th behind it, unless concealed by a clever photo angle.  Maybe David, Jim and Bryan could figure it all out!

[Josh Smith]

This last one looks like Bel Air to me.  Looks like the hill where a member told me Tarzan used to be filmed or something like that.

[Brian Chapin]

I just got a phone call from a very kind man, who after speaking with some of his friends seems certain that the photo is indeed the old 5th hole at Bel-Air.

This man is not a member of the website but apparently "lurks" from time to time.  I won't publish his name here, but would like to say thank you to him and his colleagues who took the time to figure it out and then track me down.

The only remaining mystery is the identity of the golfer.  I was under the impression that it is Leo Diegel, but he thinks it may actually be Walter Hagen.

Also, does anyone have a photo of the fifth hole at Bel-Air as it exists today?

[Mark McKeever]

The first picture looks a lot more like hole 6 than hole 5 at Bel Air no?

Mark

[Marty Bonnar]

Seems hats on backwards is NOT a new thing in the US....reprobates.
V COOL golfbag though!
 
F.

[Bryan Izatt]

Brian,

I would also go with the Bel Air Country Club, 6th tee and 5th green in the background.  The topography looks right, although the bank behind the green has been leveled for a back tee for the 6th

I suspect the pictures are stills from the movie Match Play from 1930.  It was about two golf pros who challenge Andy and Marjorie to a game according to IMDB.  It was a comedy short starring Leo Diegel and Walter Hagen along with two actors Andy Clyde and Marjorie Beebe.  The ukelele guy in the first picture is probably Clyde and the woman is Beebe.  The other picture includes Hagen and Diegel.  There is only one golf bag suggesting that it was a staged event, probably as part of the movie.

[David Kelly]

Brian,

I would also go with the Bel Air Country Club, 6th tee and 5th green in the background.  The topography looks right, although the bank behind the green has been leveled for a back tee for the 6th

I suspect the pictures are stills from the movie Match Play from 1930.  It was about two golf pros who challenge Andy and Marjorie to a game according to IMDB.  It was a comedy short starring Leo Diegel and Walter Hagen along with two actors Andy Clyde and Marjorie Beebe.  The ukelele guy in the first picture is probably Clyde and the woman is Beebe.  The other picture includes Hagen and Diegel.  There is only one golf bag suggesting that it was a staged event, probably as part of the movie.

No, the first picture is definitely Cliff "Ukulele Ike" Edwards, Dorothy Jordan and Leo Diegel.  The second picture shows the same three people but I can't tell who the caddy is, if he is anyone. I would go with Bel-Air #5 green as well.

Andy Clyde was skinny and wore a mustache and always played people who was older than he was.  He is in the middle of the picture and has the tam on, which was from the short, "Match Play."

Marjorie Beebe, Leo Diegel, Andy Clyde, Walter Hagen, Bud Jamison

[Bill_McBride]

I vaguely remember that par 3 from a match vs. UCLA in the early '60's.  I think it played a bit uphill.  Don't remember all those bunkers on the hill behind however. 

[David Kelly]

Brian C.,

Just did some more checking and in December, 1930, M-G-M announced that Leo Diegel was going to star in a film called, "Fore" with Johnny Mack Brown, Dorothy Jordan and Cliff Edwards.  Apparently the film never got made or released but that is where the photos came from I would think.  I think you can also see a time stamp that says, DEC 30 on the bottom of the first photograph. 

Third paragraph:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1368&dat=19301224&id=kl9QAAAAIBAJ&sjid=8w4EAAAAIBAJ&pg=6485,4002432