GOLF : Slow Players Are Crowding City Courses

It was a typical scene: Four golfers standing at a tee on the Harding course at Griffith Park shouting at the foursome ahead to play faster.

Their entreaties went unheeded. So the frustrated foursome walked off the course with four holes to play. They were prepared for a four-hour round, but not five hours or longer.

There have been numerous complaints about slow play at many of the City courses, namely Griffith Park, the Balboa and Encino courses in the San Fernando Valley and Rancho Park on the Westside.

It takes only one slow foursome to back up the rest of the field, high-handicap players dawdling on the fairways and deliberating over putts as if they were in the final round of the Masters.

Even though there are signs urging players to play faster, they are often ignored.

Marty Tregnan, president of the Griffith Park Men’s Golf Club, is aware of the problem.

He said part of the problem is the lack of qualified marshals to promote faster play. Marshals are virtually invisible. They are part-time employees and their numbers are small because of a hiring freeze.

Tregnan estimates that there will soon be 80,000 city reservation cards, which will lead to even slower play if golf etiquette is not observed.

“I proposed to the Department of Recreation and Parks Board of Commissioners that players should be licensed,” Tregnan said. “A player--or players--would be warned once about slow play. A repeat violation would be a 30-day suspension from the courses and so on. But my suggestion was rejected.”

As it is, players routinely ignore a marshal’s request to play faster, on the rare occasions they encounter one.

Tregnan said that a plan in the late 1960s encouraged faster play. If a group played in four hours or less, it was rewarded with a free round of golf on the weekend.

Then, the plan was modified to reward players with guaranteed reservations. Then, it just faded out.

So, be prepared for long days on City courses as hackers tee off unaccountably from the championship tees, thrash about in the rough, take five or more shots to reach the green and then spend an agonizingly long time studying their putts.

Statistics show that more people are playing golf every year, especially women. However, practice areas have not kept pace with the golf boom.

In what may be the wave of the future, the American Golf Corp. has developed a state-of-the-art practice center in El Toro.

It is not an ordinary driving range. There are 66 mat and 20 grass stations in which a golfer hits into grass--not dirt--landing areas with multiple target greens simulating course conditions.

Moreover, there are five chipping areas that can be rented by the hour, featuring sand traps and bent grass greens.

The facility also features a nine-hole executive course with country-club type fairway grass lined with orange groves and sycamore trees.

The practice center employs four PGA teaching professionals.

“We offer an excellent teaching facility for beginners, while remaining challenging enough for advanced players to refine skills and work on their game,” said Buck Page, a PGA professional and general manger of the El Toro Golf Center.

There is another unique feature to the El Toro facility, according to Page.

“We guarantee first-line balls without nicks,” he said.

Lee Trevino says that American golfers won’t have a home-course advantage when the Ryder Cup matches are held on Kiawah Island, S.C., Sept. 26-29.

“It’s a links course, long and wide open, and you’re going to get wind,” he said. “That’s playing right into (the Europeans’) hands. That’s the kind of course they’ve played on all their lives.”

Trevino also had a suggestion concerning Ryder Cup Captain Dave Stockton’s two wild-card choices for the 12-man team.

“If they’re playing good then--and they’re playing good now--I’d go for Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson,” he said. “You need some intimidation, and they’d give you that.”

Trevino said he wouldn’t be an asset to the team.

“I don’t hit it long enough,” he said. “I wouldn’t be a help.”

Golf Notes

UCLA’s women’s golf team recently repeated as Pacific 10 champion at Eugene, Ore. Freshman Lisa Kiggens led the Bruins with a three-day total of 217. UCLA’s Jackie Tobian-Steinmann was named Pac-10 coach of the year for the second consecutive year. . . . Kristyl Sunderman, an 18-year-old senior at Palm Desert High in La Quinta, has been selected as the fourth winner of the Amy Alcott scholarship, which is awarded yearly to a new golfer in the UCLA program.

USC’s men’s team has finished second or better in eight of its 12 matches. Byron Pemberton leads the team with a 73.1 stroke average. . . . Bill LeRoy and Jack Bock won low net honors with a score of 124 at the 11th annual Two-Man Better Ball tournament at Wilshire Country Country. Chris Gibbs and Layne Morey were low gross winners.

Linda Olsen won the Porter Valley Country Club women’s championship for the fifth time. . . . Tom Gustafson has been named executive director of the Southern California Section of the PGA of America. . . . The 10th annual Los Angeles NFL Alumni Charity golf tournament is scheduled June 10 at Los Coyotes Country Club. Proceeds from the tournament will go to ICAN Associates, an organization that raises money for abused and neglected children and their families.

State Senator Diane E. Watson’s second annual celebrity tournament will be held May 24 at Montebello Country Club. . . . Las Posas Country Club will be the site of the fourth annual Symphony-Waste Management charity tournament July 8.

The second annual Jerry Buss celebrity invitational tournament will be held June 3 at Riviera Country Club. Proceeds benefit L.I.F.E. (Love is Feeding Everyone).