MEN ' S CLUB
CLUB PRESIDENT UPDATE
Greetings Men ’ s Association ,
Please welcome two new members , Anthony Guerra and Jay Lee . We look forward to golfing with you .
I ’ d like to share with you some CCC history , courtesy of fellow Men ’ s Association member , Ron Eastman .
I found myself at California CC in the Summer of 1993 . I had returned to Rio Hondo College to finish up some classes and figured I would compete on the golf team while I was studying . California CC was the Rio Hondo team ’ s home course , thanks to one of the very early members of the club , Art Texiera . Art could be found tooling around the course , padding his handicap ( he once told me how upset he was that he made a hole-in-one and it was going to lower his index ), or out with the team every Tuesday afternoon . He also had a fondness for the dark dingy bar that existed prior to the current clubhouse being built . This was a time when CCC still had a pool , tennis courts , and the quaint stairway from the upper putting green to the first tee . Alas , the driving range net has never changed . One day !
My college golf days at CCC followed a few of my Rio Hondo College peers who graced the fairways and developed their games on our tough Kikuya . Greg Puga , winner of the 2000 USGA Mid-Amateur Championship , who went on to play at The Masters in 2001 alongside Seve Ballesteros . Also coming out of CCC via Rio Hondo was Chris Gonzales of Montebello , Rio Hondo Athlete of the Year , USC Golf Team member , US Open Competitor , and Golf professional . Sadly , Chris left us all in 2009 . Mike Austin , one-time holder of the longest drive ever on the PGA Tour , was also a member of CCC .
But we really all follow in the footsteps of Bill Bryant . Bryant was the founder of the Southern California Junior Golf association in 1948 , at the clubhouse of the FORMER California Country Club , now part of a Cheviot Hills housing development . Bryant then moved his efforts to Whittier , founding California Country Club . Pictures of Bryant playing golf at CCC can be seen around the club . From stories relayed to me by Texiera , Bryant and a few other power players in Southern Cal , would sit in the clubhouse with a phone on the table and make deals that would shape Southern California golf and real estate . According to sources , possible attendees at the table included members who would eventually own The Lakers , Staples Center , and many other “ majestic ” properties . Bryant and his friends would eventually be key players in the founding of the City of Industry and the Industry Hills Golf Courses . Mr . Bryant passed in 1983 , but his legacy lives on at CCC .
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