Mickey Wright Invitational spent four years at San Luis Rey Golf Club

The August 2014 closure of the San Luis Rey Downs golf club meant that the 50th anniversary of the first Mickey Wright Invitational at the Bonsall course wouldn't be celebrated there.

The Mickey Wright Invitational was held at the San Luis Rey Golf Club (the word "Downs" was added later) from 1964 through 1967. The first tournament took place October 16-18, 1964.

Mickey Wright graduated from Hoover High School in San Diego and joined the Ladies Professional Golf Association in 1955. In 1963 she won 13 LPGA tournaments, a record for a single season. She retired in 1969, but her 82 career LPGA tournament wins would stand as the all-time record until Kathy Whitworth broke that mark in the 1980s.

Wright was a teenager in the late 1940s when she participated in a demonstration clinic at the Mission Valley Country Club in San Diego, where the Riverwalk golf course now stands. Mission Valley Country Club pro Fred Sherman provided some advice to Wright at that clinic, helping to develop her career.

Fred Sherman taught at half a dozen courses during his 63-year career as a San Diego County golf instructor. He began his coaching career at the Ambassador Golf Club in Los Angeles and worked with celebrities including Douglas Fairbanks Jr., W.C. Fields, Clark Gable, and Bob Hope. In 1933 he became the head professional at the San Diego Country Club in Chula Vista, where he had to reject Billy Casper for a caddying position because the future professional did not meet the child labor law's minimum age. Sherman taught Casper and future pro Gene Littler.

In the 1940s Sherman was one of the founders of the Mission Valley Country Club. In 1961 the Mission Valley Country Club was the site of the first Mickey Wright Invitational, and what was also called the Stardust course hosted the 1962 tournament. Wright would win both tournaments.

During 1961 Sherman worked on the lease for the San Luis Rey Country Club and personally joined the paid laborers in planting the eventual cottonwood trees along the fairways. Sherman and San Marcos contractor Bill Silberberger developed the course which opened in 1963. Sherman became the head pro at San Luis Rey and he also became the head pro at the Fallbrook Golf Club before closing his career − and his 89-year life − at the Escondido Country Club in 1996.

Sherman was not the only teaching pro at San Luis Rey. In October 1962 he announced that he had signed LPGA pro Ruth Jessen to represent the Bonsall course. At the time Jessen, who had been a Seattle resident, was second to Wright in LPGA earnings for the year. The plan was for Jessen to be based at San Luis Rey when she was not on the LPGA tour, and her duties at San Luis Rey included teaching golf.

The 1963 Mickey Wright Invitational was held at the La Jolla Country Club, and Wright was also the winner of that tournament. The Mickey Wright Invitational was moved to the San Luis Rey course for 1964 with Sherman as the tournament director. The golfers played on a 6,000-yard, par-72 course. The total purse in 1964 was $9,000. The 1964 tournament drew 33 professionals.

The pro-am tournament included a lady and two men amateurs paired with a professional. The open draw for partners was held at the San Luis Rey clubhouse on October 13, and a no-host "meet your pro" dinner took place October 14. The male amateurs included Fallbrook teenager and youth golf champion Bill Teasdall, who now owns the Murrieta Valley Golf Range and whose partners in 1964 included pro Martha McKee, and former Major League Baseball player − and 1964 Fallbrook Chamber of Commerce president − Duke Snider, whose pro partner was Donna Gilliam.

Althea Gibson was the first African-American to play on the women's tennis tour, and in 1963 she became the first black to join the Ladies Professional Golf Association. Gibson was part of the 1964 tournament and was paired in the pro-am with George Stahlman Sr., George Stahlman Jr., and Mrs. George Stahlman.

Wright entered the tournament with $21,500.50 in earnings for the year to lead the LPGA. Jessen had won the previous week's Santa Barbara Open, closing with a 67-shot round to earn $1,300 and increase her season earnings to a second-place $19,217.50.

The tournament was scheduled to begin October 15. Because the course was in the river bottom of the historic San Luis Rey River, the sandy bottom allowed for good drainage and rain alone wouldn't have postponed the tournament, but the presence of lightning October 15 forced the pro-am to be moved back to October 16 and October 17 and the pros to play two October 18 rounds.

Two golfers shot 70-stroke rounds October 16. Marilynn Smith started on the tenth hole and shot 35 on the back nine before matching that score on the front nine. Shirley Englehorn began the course on the front nine, where she took 33 shots, before requiring 37 strokes on the back nine. Jessen was one stroke back at 71. Andrea Cohn, Marlene Hagge, and JoAnn Prentice each had scores of 73. Wright, Judy Kimball, and Beth Stone had 74-stroke rounds. Gibson's round of 78 gave her a share of 18th place.

Five birdies and no bogeys October 17 gave Hagge a second-day score of 67 and a 36-hole total of 140 to move her into the lead. Englehorn shot a 75-stroke round, but her 145 shots over 36 holes still placed her second. Jessen's 75 and Stone's 72 gave those two a share of third place with 146 apiece. Sandra Haynie followed a 76-stroke round with a score of 71 to take over fifth place at 147. Smith's 78-stroke round and Kimball's second consecutive 74 placed them in a tie for sixth at 148. Wright's 75-stroke second round gave her 149 for 36 holes and the eighth position. Gibson's 73 shared the day's sixth-lowest round with Betsy Rawls and gave Gibson a 36-hole figure of 151 for a two-way tie for 16th.

Kimball had been paired in the pro-am with El Camino Country Club owner and Oceanside resident Ted Vallas, Dr. Milt Custer of La Jolla, and Mrs. Tom Golden of San Clemente, whose score of 117 gave them a two-stroke victory in the pro-am portion of the tournament.

The low round for the first 18 holes October 18 was the 68 shot by Mary Mills, which gave her a 54-hole score of 218 and moved her into second. Hagge took 71 strokes in the third round, giving her a seven-stroke lead at 211. Haynie's 72 placed her third at 219 while the 74s shot by Jessen and Stone gave them fourth-place scores of 220 entering the final round. Englehorn and Clifford Ann Creed had 221-stroke scores after 54 holes. Wright and Sybil Griffin entered the final 18 holes with scores of 222.

The seven-stroke lead allowed Hagge to win the tournament and the $1,300 first-place money despite a final-round score of 76, which cost her a chance to break Wright's tournament record of 286. The 287 still gave Hagge her first LPGA tournament win of 1964. Haynie's 70 strokes in the final round gave her a 72-hole total of 289 and the $1,000 second-place earnings. Mills took 73 shots for a 291-stroke total, third place, and $920. Englehorn's 71 resulted in a final total of 292 and the $700 fourth-place money. Creed shot 72 on the final round for a fifth-place 293 and $600. Rawls had the low round of the day at 69 strokes, giving her a final score of 294, sixth place, and $500. Griffin's 73 resulted in a seventh-place score of 295 and $440 of earnings. Final-round scores of 76 by Jessen, 72 by Prentice, and 70 by Whitworth gave each of them a share of eighth place and $333 apiece for their 296-stroke tournament scores. Stone's 77 in the final round gave her the 11th-place total of 297 and $250. Wright placed 12th at 298 after a 76-stroke round and earned $220. Smith and Kimball were among the four golfers who had 16th-place scores of 303 to earn $100 apiece. Gibson's 77 and 80 on the final day gave her a final score of 308, a two-way share of 22nd place, and $50. A total of 24 golfers earned checks from the tournament.

The high round of the tournament was the 101 shot by McKee on the final 18 holes, giving her a tournament score of 378. Hagge had a streak of 50 consecutive holes without a bogey before requiring six strokes for the second hole in the final round.

Hagge and Susie Maxwell tied for fourth in the 1965 Mickey Wright Invitational with 292-stroke scores; Whitworth's 283 won the tournament by six strokes over rookie Donna Caponi. Wright added the 1966 tournament to her list of LPGA victories by shooting 289 with Whitworth and Carol Mann tying for fourth at 292 and Hagge sharing 30th place with Gibson at 313 strokes. In the final Mickey Wright Invitational played at San Luis Rey, scores of 223 for 54 holes tied Hagge, Caponi, and Prentice for 17th while Haynie defeated Whitworth in a playoff for the championship after each shot 212 and Wright shared sixth place with Pam Barnett after a score of 217.