1926   Diegel at Riviera
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Stop 9 of 12

Players of the times and Pasadena Golf Club professional Leo Diegel

His contemporaries were the likes of Eddie Loos and Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen, playing in the first Ryder Cup games in 1927 at their side.

Altadena, CAWritten by historians, never AIResearched & written by Marc Striegel

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Players of the times and Pasadena Golf Club professional Leo Diegel

Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen were the stars of the day on the professional side and Bobby Jones and George Von Elm and Bobby Cruickshank were some of the famous amateurs as golf made its transition tilting from amateur to professional in the roaring 20's. While Bobby Jones may never have played Altadena's fairways, all of the men he played against did and the stars of golf in the early 1920's walked the same fairways as you have today.

Your club professional Leo Diegel won the Canadian Open six times, a record which still stands. His odd way of putting with elbows pointing out straight east to west across his chest and it was called "Diegling". Putting is a highly individualistic part of the game and while maybe it looked a little different, he was quite effective.

Diegel's partner in matches and exhibitions was his good friend, also from Chicago, Eddie Loos. Eddie was the club professional at San Gabriel at the time and the two of them were proficient enough as a team to hand Ted Ray and Harry Vardon a rare loss in their matches played across the nation against teams of working club pros.

The ground you stroll across today was also walked upon by some icons of the game who have been woven into the fabric of its history. Not very many courses you can play any time will ever be able to say that.

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