Photograph courtesy of Dick Hanley Photography, New York City

Joe Kirkwood imitates a beginner trying to hit a golf ball.

Best of Picture from the Past

Trick-shot golfer once played at La Rinconada

By John S. Baggerly

Two former Los Gatos residents are responsible for today's offering: Jack Colmar and Ted Fletcher. Colmar, now of Long Beach, the first golfer to break par at La Rinconada Golf Course--under 69--supplied art and literature on trick-shot artist Joe Kirkwood, who put on his "show" in 1987 at La Rinconada's eighth tee.

Sacramento resident Fletcher remembers being on the fifth tee at La Rinconada in 1942 when someone shouted from the clubhouse, "Pearl Harbor has been bombed!" No one in his foursome knew where Pearl Harbor was.

Fletcher is a frequent oceanside vacationer in Santa Cruz and enjoys playing golf at home and along the coast. He was told the other month by De Laveaga management that its Santa Cruz course had been reserved for an entire day by C. B. Hannegan's of Los Gatos.

Hannegan's, for those who don't know, is a popular dining spot and watering hole at 208 Bachman Ave., owned and operated by John Hannegan and Chris Benson.

Fletcher learned that the Hannegan/ Benson party not only reserved the course for the day but also paid the club diner what it would have made during a full day of public play.

Regular readers remember that this spring John Hannegan and Patty Lazaneo were married at St. Mary's Catholic Church, with a bagpipe procession from Hannegan's to the church and a bagpipe parade through downtown after the ceremony.

Today's photograph and others like it appear in Links of Life by Joe Kirkwood, with an introduction by Lowell Thomas. For the cover, Kirkwood donned dignified knickers, sweater, tie and two-tone shoes.

In 1987, Kirkwood was making a farewell tour through Southern California when Jim Harnett, a retired real estate promoter during the Florida land boom, enticed his old friend Kirkwood northward to Los Gatos. He would later exhibit his unbelievable trick shots at La Rinconada's eighth tee.

Kirkwood's tricks included quickly hitting two balls, one a hook and the other a slice. It appeared that the two balls would collide in flight, but they did not. A trick he later said was his most difficult was when he portrayed a duffer, first fanning the ball, then topping it barely off the tee, topping it progressively further and finally hitting a perfect shot down the middle.

Kirkwood was born in Australia and showed such skill as a boy fashioning golf clubs with a knife that the owner of the farm he grew up on built a small course for him.

His career flashed forward to the point at which his fame as one of golf's greatest trick-shot artists overshadowed the fact that he once finished third in a British Open and challenged for the U. S. Open title five times between 192l and 1934.

He and Walter Hagan, a top pro, once made a much-photographed world tour. Photos included Kirkwood hitting a ball off an elephant's head, snakes on courses and topless girls in Bali.

His book includes acknowledgements by Lowell Thomas, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard M. Nixon. The book is available from booksellers or by writing Links of Life, P. O. Box 12654, Oklahoma City, Okla., 73112.

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John Baggerly is now semi-retired. This column is from the Los Gatos Weekly-Times archives.

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