Golfers Tee Off on Visitors : Leisure World: Residents say seasonal lessees are crowding the community’s courses. A group has sued for preferred playing times.

They come in flocks to Leisure World.

The year’s first arrivals are known as “snowbirds,” who are fleeing the biting winters of the colder climates. They are followed by the “sunbirds,” who want to escape the sweltering summers of Palm Springs and other desert communities.

Their temporary nests are vacant manors in Leisure World--the largest gated retirement community in the nation--where for as little as $550 a month they can enjoy six clubhouses, swimming pools and, best of all, the golf courses.

The annual migrations, however, have run afoul of some Leisure World homeowners who claim that the visitors are crowding the community’s three nine-hole golf courses, making it difficult to secure tee-off times. The owners have sued their governing body and the company that manages this community, and today a Superior Court judge in Santa Ana will be asked to give owners preferential tee-off times over the visitors who lease Leisure World homes for a season.

Golf is a passionate pastime in this retirement community, where some residents drive golf carts that look like Cadillacs, Mercedes-Benzes or Rolls-Royces. About one-sixth of the 21,357 retirees who live here are avid golfers.

The residents say they noticed that their tee-off times were being pushed back later in the day as the numbers of golfers steadily increased. To secure a tee-off time for any given day, golfers must now assemble in the clubhouse lounge at 6:30 a.m. one week in advance to participate in a lottery.

Charles B. Hellmann, the top men’s golfer at Leisure World for the past two years, said residents realized that the seasonal out-of-town visitors were cluttering the golf courses and were paying the same green fees as owners.

About 800 snowbirds arrive from Canada, the Midwest and eastern states between December and March. The sunbirds fly in from the sizzling desert sun between May and September.

“They’re turning this community into some kind of resort,” said Hellmann, whose golf cart is a miniature Rolls-Royce. “When they come here and find the beautiful weather and cheap green fees, they think they’ve died and gone to heaven.”

A Leisure World survey showed that 365 of the 2,910 people who used the golf course during a week were lessees--temporary residents--or guests, while the remainder were owner-residents.

Green fees in Leisure World are the cheapest in Orange County, according to the survey. Permanent residents and lessees pay $4.50, compared to $30 charged by some private golf clubs.

The golfing issue has generated what some owners describe as “hostile feelings,” pitting owners against their governing body--the Golden Rain Foundation--and the company that manages Leisure World.

Spurred by angry owners, the Men’s Golf Club commissioned a separate report entitled “Lessee Versus Resident Owner,” which states that seasonal residents frequently fail “to observe course etiquette” and were guilty of overcrowding.

“Six renters and their guests, all from one manor, is not what we believe our founding fathers had intended for Leisure World,” states the report.

“We bought homes here with the expectation that the facilities would remain reasonably private,” said 74-year-old A.J. Bernhardt, a retired Los Angeles court commissioner. “We’re not opposed to the visitors using the facilities. But as owners, we feel that we should be preferred over the non-owners where necessary.”

Hellmann and others recommended that the Golden Rain Foundation revise the rules and that all persons leasing manors for less than one year be charged higher fees for golf course use.

After negotiations fell through, residents who call themselves the Concerned Owner Residents Committee, or CORC, filed a lawsuit in Superior Court against the foundation and Professional Community Management, which runs Leisure World, asking the court to determine whether owners should be given preferential treatment over seasonal residents.

The governing board and management officials said their position is clear--that all residents should be treated equally.

“There are some owners who are too young to live here, so they lease their manors until they are old enough to move in,” said Margaret Busby, an executive assistant to Professional Community Management General Manager Russ Disbro. “Golden Rain has a fiduciary duty to all owners--those who live here and those who hope to live here. When an owner leases his manor, he or she is still a member, and the lessee has the same rights.”

Anyone can own a manor at Leisure World but must be 55 or older to live in it. Bernhardt and others say it is unfair for lessees to have the same rights because some owners invested their “hard-earned money” in the community.

The lawsuit is the most debated topic inside the walls of Leisure World. Up to 800 residents pack the auditorium when CORC holds a meeting, and many have contributed financially to the group’s legal fund.

“I don’t think what CORC is doing is harmful,” said 75-year-old Virginia McGill, who golfs three times a week.

“We have to share our starting times with those people who would have gone to Mexico or Florida if it was not so cheap to come here,” said 73-year-old Gale MacMorris, who golfs five times a week and owns a Mercedes-Benz look-alike golf cart. “When we start later, it cuts into the day. The fatigue factor is higher as we play later, and some of us like to take a nap after lunch.”

Many of the visitors are not aware of the lawsuit. But a few who were told about it said it made them feel unwelcome.

“These golfers are behaving like children who hide their toys,” said one New Yorker, who asked that his name not be used. “We don’t want their toys, we just want to enjoy living out our lives and have some fun in the sun too.”

Bernhardt, Hellmann and other CORC members have given up their golf clubs and instead are poring over volumes of legal papers to come up with cases that support their argument.

Hellmann, a former manager with General Electric Co. in Louisville, Ky., said the legal research has been an education but added that he longs for the greens.

“My game has gotten lousy,” Hellman said. “And I’ve decided that I’d rather be in a sand trap than a legal trap--any day.”