Era: 1936–1939 · Los Angeles golf history
Before their monthly tournament at Lakewood Country Club, the Century golfers sat down to breakfast and chose officers. The secretary’s duties were being divided, with a treasurer taking a separate role. A tournament committee was selected too. Those small details appear in the February 1, 1939, Rafu Shimpo.
It is an ordinary scene that makes a distant golf community recognizable: somebody had to organize the competition, keep the accounts and get everyone to the course. Read alongside reports in The Japanese American News, the notice reveals a Los Angeles club playing an organized schedule in the years before World War II.
1936: an inaugural tournament at Western Avenue
On October 25, 1936, The Japanese American News carried a Los Angeles dispatch announcing an inaugural tournament for the recently organized club, now called Century Golf Club. The plan was 18 holes of medal play at Western Avenue Golf Links on Sunday, November 1, with the first foursome due off at 7:30 a.m.
The notice devoted space to the prizes. A jeweler had donated the winner’s plaque, a golf shop supplied the second-place trophy, and Century itself provided the third. Other prizes extended further down the field and included the best net score in each foursome. The trophies were on display at the jewelry shop.
Membership was being offered to young men, with a reduced fee available until October 27. Together, the tournament plan and the recruitment offer show a club introducing itself to prospective players. This is an announcement of what organizers intended to hold; it does not supply the result of that November event or an exact founding date.
1939: the club had a monthly rhythm
The Rafu Shimpo’s February 1 report places the club at Lakewood Country Club for a monthly tournament and the breakfast meeting. Its focus on officers and committee work provides another view of Century’s activity, independent of The Japanese American News. It also adds a second named venue to the surviving record.
Read the complete February 1 newspaper page in the city’s archival reproduction (PDF page 47).
Later that year, The Japanese American News of August 30, 1939 reported that Tulie Miura, formerly of Sacramento, had shot 79 in a Century monthly tournament at Western Avenue. The Los Angeles dispatch was dated August 29 and described play on the preceding Sunday.
The brief records a score, without declaring Miura the winner. Together, the Lakewood and Western Avenue reports document the club’s recurring competitions in 1939.
The Western Avenue connection survives
Western Avenue is the name that connects this trail of newspaper notices to a course Los Angeles golfers can identify today. The county’s 2019 Chester Washington landmark-review packet includes a historical evaluation recording the change from La Avenida Golf Course to Western Avenue Golf Course in 1931. The packet’s draft resolution identifies Western Avenue as the former name of Chester Washington and dates the later renaming to 1982.
The current county course listing gives Chester L. Washington Golf Course’s address as 1818 Charlie Sifford Drive. For a golfer encountering that course today, the Century notices add a specific earlier layer: a club announcing a tournament there in 1936 and appearing again in the 1939 results column.
The practice green and clubhouse at today’s Chester Washington Golf Course, formerly Western Avenue. The surviving course connects the newspaper notices to a place local golfers still know.
What these notices can tell us
A tournament visit and membership in a course’s resident club are different things. These reports document Century’s events; they do not establish the venues’ general admission policies or prove equal access for every community. They also leave the club’s full membership, finances and later history unresolved.
Within those limits, a small but concrete history emerges. Two Japanese American newspapers preserved the appointments, invitations and scores that made up Century’s golfing life. Following those details brings the story of Los Angeles golf down to the scale of a foursome and the volunteers who kept its next tournament on the calendar.
Read the original pages
The Japanese American News, October 25, 1936 — PDF page 4, “L. A. Golf Club Plans Tourney.” UC Berkeley Library, East Asian Library collection.
Rafu Shimpo, February 1, 1939 — reproduced on PDF page 47 of a Los Angeles City Planning historic-cultural monument packet; the newspaper date is 1939, the planning document is later.
The Japanese American News, August 30, 1939 — PDF page 2, the Tulie Miura golf brief. UC Berkeley Library, East Asian Library collection.
Los Angeles County’s 2019 landmark-review packet — PDF pages 4 and 68 for the course-name chronology.
Continue with our history of golf in Los Angeles.