Haggin Oaks Golf Complex history

A third duel in 1855 took place between Robert Tevis, a young lawyer and brother of Lloyd Tevis, and Charles Lippincott, a State Senator from Yuba County.

After this period of time, Rancho del Paso changed hands several times and finally in 1859 became the property of James Ben Ali Haggin and his brother-in-law Lloyd Tevis.

In 1873, Haggin hired John Mackay, who owned a stable of trotters behind the Golden Eagle Hotel at 7th and K Streets to run Rancho del Paso.

Other famous horses owned by Haggin were Firenze who went on to become a member of the Hall of Fame at the National Museum of Racing and Haggin also owned another horse called Ben Ali that won the 1886 Kentucky Derby.

For the record, JB Haggin purchased a horse called Salvator and in 1890, Salvator broke the American and World Record by nearly four full seconds.

In 1891, “The Rancho del Paso Land Company” was incorporated by Haggin and he began selling acreage to the Sacramento Valley Colonization Company for subdivision purposes.

In 1897, he returned to Kentucky and purchased the Elmendorf Farm, owned by Daniel Swigert.

The first municipal course, called the Arcade Golf Course, was opened in 1916.

The Arcade Course was originally scheduled to be an 18-hole golf course; however, the Parks Department ran out of funds and only nine holes were built. Its first professional was hired in 1917.

He designed Alister MacKenzie Course in 1931, and it was built and opened the following year.

MacKenzie is now recognized throughout the world as being one of the greatest golf architects of all time. It was October of 1932 that the original course (now called the Alister MacKenzie Golf Course at the Haggin Oaks Golf Complex) was opened.

The Masters started just one year after the opening of Augusta National Golf Course, in 1933.

Gene Sarazen, The Squire himself played here in the 1935 Sacramento Open, finishing eighth and taking home $72.00 for his efforts.

The second event in 1937 was won by Ed Dudley (also receiving $750) by 10 strokes finishing 15 under par with a score of 273.

In 1941, a one day PGA event was played at Haggin Oaks.

Ken Venturi won the 1950 California State Fair Championship here before going on to win 14 times on the PGA tour and moving on to the broadcast booth.

In 1954, a second one day event was won by Doub Ford who finished the day with a 5 under par 67, winning $500 for the day.

The original clubhouse located on Auburn Blvd. was closed down in 1958 when the Capital City Freeway was built.

He elected to stay on at Haggin Oaks as the Greens Superintendent and remained until the 1960’s when he was hired by the Del Paso Country Club as their Superintendent.

Two National Amateur Events were the 1963 National Public Links Men’s Championship, won by San Francisco native Bob Lunn, who went on to become a 3-time winner on the PGA Tour.

Morton Golf began in 1958 when Ken Morton Sr. joined the team of golf professional’s at Haggin Oaks Golf Complex as a club repairman and starter. It was in 1978 that a unique opportunity developed for Ken.

During the 1990’s he was also hired by the PGA of America to conduct facility evaluations for military golf courses throughout the world.

The second United States Golf Association’s National Championship called the Public Links Women’s Championship was held in 1992 and won by Amy Fruhwirth.

In 1995, Morton Golf made a serious decision regarding club fitting that moved the company to quickly become one of the leading club-fitting companies in America.

The city of Sacramento -- which owns the courses -- did MacKenzie a solid by spending $6.5 million in 2001 to improve irrigation and rebuild 11 of the 18 greens to fit the original design.

The 15,000-square-foot Super Store, reopened in 2007, and lighted driving range work in tandem to sell golf equipment by the boatload.

In 2008, the owners of Morton Golf LLC decided as part of their community outreach to create a 501c3 charitable entity to financially help underserved golf organizations that are in need as well as programs for the disabled and youth within the Sacramento Region.

After going through the normal lengthy process to acquire an IRS Tax Exempt Status, The Morton Golf Foundation (MGF) was born in 2010.