Groundbreaking Ceremony at Maggie Hathaway GC

Photos by Jack Margaros, Elle Laur and Ian Foxx

Mike Whan, the CEO of the United States Golf Association (USGA), has visited the Maggie Hathaway GC in South Los Angeles a handful of times over the last couple of years. Dutifully, Whan began showing up once the USGA got on board with a$1 million contribution, after The Los Angeles CC (LACC) and the SCGA had designated the Maggie facility for an $18 million renovation, with much of the funding coming from a campaign born out of the 2023U.S. Open (held at LACC).

Whan made his most recent trip in early November 2024, this time for the highly anticipated groundbreaking ceremony signaling that bulldozers would soon arrive to begin fashioning renowned architect Gil Hanse’s vision for a refreshed Maggie’s. There was quite the lineup of dignitaries wielding shovels on that sunny winter day, including Whan, Hanse, PGA Tour player Collin Morikawa, L.A. County Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell and California State Senator Steven Bradford.

With several hundred people in attendance, there was palpable excitement in the air about the work coming to the par-3 course named after one of region’s most prominent Black activists, but it was Whan who best described the most valuable days at Maggie Hathaway. Months earlier, while attending the Genesis Invitational at The Riviera CC, Whan took a Sunday drive and arrived unannounced. On the sidewalk near the small clubhouse, kids sat eating breakfast provided by the course’s beloved proprietors, Glen and Mary Porter. Looking out onto the tree-lined layout, there was a large group from the women’s club pushing their rolling carts, playing amid chatter and laughter.

Whan stood marveling at that scene. “It was then that you realize this isn’t just a golf course, it’s a community center that brings people together,” Whan told FORE Magazine before the groundbreaking. “Man, this was it. This was the living example of what we all want to be and do.”

“It was then that you realize this isn’t just a golf course, it’s a community center that brings people together. Man, this was it. This was the living example of what we all want to be and do.” – MIKE WHAN CEO, USGA

SMILES & GIGGLES

Once a noble but daunting dream, the Maggie Hathaway project is in full “go” mode now. The nine-hole course, opened in 1962, will get a full rejuvenation by Hanse and his team, who count among their many high-profile projects the renovation of the LACC North Course, which hosted the ’23 U.S. Open.

The Maggie course will have state-of-the-art irrigation and water-saving turf varieties, along with many new plants and trees. The existing driving range will be turned around and expanded to 18 stalls, with larger areas to practice chipping and putting. Course work will be starting soon and the plan is to follow with new clubhouse construction as soon as it’s feasible.

Hanse told the audience at the ceremony that he sees the project as away to create “a lot of smiles, a lot of giggles, a lot of enjoyment.

“The most important thing we can do with this golf course is also the most difficult,” Hanse said. “We need to make it better, but we don’t want to change it. We want to make sure that this golf course is still recognizable and enjoyable to the people who have been here for 30 or 40 years. But we also want it to be occasionally challenging, like having the opportunity where Collin might go, ‘Ooh, how I am I going to get to that flag?’ But the rest of us can bump it down to the front, knock it up and get away with our 3.”

Morikawa, a six-time PGA Tour winner, including two majors, grew up in the L.A. suburbs and enthusiastically became a lead ambassador when approached about the Maggie project.

“This is a big, big doorway of opportunity for kids to come out, not just learn about golf, to learn about just being a human being,” Morikawa said. “That’s what these nine holes are going to represent — going out there, finding who you are and having a great time with a bunch of people.

“It’s the first place you’re going to hit that sweet spot, and you never forget your first good shot. I promise you there will be a lot of holes-in-one here from people who have never played it or have played it forever.”

A FOUNDATION FOR LEADERSHIP

Among those sporting the brightest smiles on groundbreaking day was Skylar Graham. Now a USC graduate who works for Excel Sports Management, the 22-year-old L.A. native remembers being a 6-year-oldwith her oversized golf bag dragging on the ground behind her when her mom first took her to Maggie Hathaway to join the junior golf program. There, Graham would learn all the life lessons golf had to offer: patience, perseverance, celebrating success and overcoming failure.

SCGA JUNIOR GOLF FOUNDATION EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, KEVIN GIGAX, ADDRESSES
THE CROWD AT MAGGIE HATHAWAY GC.

“I remember feeling safe and happy here,” Graham said. “Even as I get older, golf continues to be a passion and extension of who I am. As a Black woman who aspires to be a leader in my community, more than anything it’s not what it looks like, but how it makes people feel. Being here at Maggie gave me the foundation to understand what leadership looks like.”

As one of the game’s most influential leaders, Whan is fortunate enough to be involved in myriad projects that endeavor to strengthen and grow golf. Forgive him, though, if he’s got some pet projects, and Maggie ranks high among them. Now if he could just find the opportunity to slow down enough to play the course during one of these visits.

“Next time I come back here,” Whan said with a grin, “I’m going to be in shorts and carrying my bag with four clubs.”

Lessons Life

The Kroenke Sports & Entertainment group steps up to support Maggie Hathaway project

Among Josh Kroenke’s fondest memories from his youth are the long summer days he spent with his grandmother on the golf course near her home in rural Versailles, Ohio. Audrey Walton — known by all as “Nana” — was the only avid golfer in the family, and she passed on her passion for the game to her only grandson.

“It was the most fun two weeks of the summer,” Josh recalls. “We’d play the public course every day and then we’d eat at Pizza Hut every night.”

The image is both touching and humorous, considering Nana Walton was among the richest people in the world as the wife of Sam Walton, co-founder of Walmart. The couple’s daughter, Ann, married Stan Kroenke, and the two built a family sports empire that now includes their son Josh as president of Kroenke Sports & Entertainment.

“Golf is humbling, and I was a fiery young man, and if I hit a bad shot, I didn’t like that,” Josh says. “And so the lessons Nana taught me on the golf course were about patience, patience, patience. And, you know, about being a good sport.”

Josh has traveled the world playing golf with friends, and a few years ago he became a member of The Los Angeles Country Club (LACC). He experienced first-hand the excitement of the club hosting the 2023 U.S. Open, and in that endeavor learned of LACC’s eff orts with the SCGA to raise funds to renovate the par-3 Maggie Hathaway GC in South Los Angeles. Approached about the Maggie project during a round with fellow members Fred Terrell and Dick Shortz, Kroenke took little time to get a “yes” from his family, which made a seven-figure contribution to the $20 million project.

It was a “no-brainer,” Josh said, considering the beloved Maggie courseis only three miles from SoFi Stadium, the Inglewood sporting palacebuilt by the Kroenkes for their Los Angeles Rams and the Spanos family-owned Los Angeles Chargers.

“This was a great opportunity for us to become more involved in Inglewood in a way that didn’t specifically touch the Rams,” Josh says. “The Maggie Hathaway course is a hidden gem that needed some touching up, and it’s a way to continually give back, because I think golf is different than a lot of sports. Golf teaches life lessons and the programs here at Maggie will affect people for generations to come.”