Burnout Strikes Rancho : Golf: Greens had to be rebuilt for Senior event and public did not get a break on fees. City says trouble is only temporary.

Amid fairways that wind around lush sycamores and greens tucked among prized redwoods lies the beauty of Rancho Park Golf Course in West Los Angeles.

Tradition-rich, it was here on the 18th hole that Arnold Palmer shot a 12 during the 1961 Los Angeles Open, the PGA tournament that has been held at Rancho Park 17 times. Today, Palmer is here again, playing in the second consecutive men’s PGA Senior Tour event to be held at the course.

Endeared to Angelenos simply as “Rancho,” it is both prestigious and accessible, a unique combination for a public course and one that encourages the claim that it is the most-played course in the country. Certainly, of the city’s 16 golf courses, it is the biggest revenue producer, last year bringing in $1.6 million of a total $10.6 million in golf revenue.

But the last few years, Rancho has remained rich solely in tradition.

A myriad of problems--both foreseeable and unforeseeable--have have caused the course to fall into the worst-known state of disrepair in its 46 years, sparking an outcry by a frustrated public.

Collectively, Rancho’s struggles were brought into focus in July, when it faced its biggest dilemma yet--13 greens lost to a fungus three months before it would be showcased as the host of the Security Pacific Senior Classic. The greens were closed to the public, and city employees labored almost around the clock to make the course playable when the tournament begins today.

At issue, however, is not the fungus or the panic to ready the course for the tournament, but a Times review has found a seeming overall lack of both foresight and timely action on the part of the Los Angeles Parks and Recreation Dept., which oversees the city’s golf courses.

In question is why thousands of Angelenos, who rely on affordable Rancho for recreation, had to play months on a handful of regulation greens--or none at all--without a substantial price break. Of note is an inordinate amount of pressure that was put on city employees to revive the course and one greenskeeper who took the fall--not to mention the thousands of dollars the city lost in golf revenue.

Here’s how it happened.

THE GREENS

The beauty that comes with Rancho’s age also works against it, disguising its greatest problem. The greens were built on adobe clay in the mid 1940s and average about 5,500 square feet, small by today’s standard of 7,000-9,000 square feet. They were built to withstand 40,000 to 50,000 rounds of play a year. Rancho has about 135,000 rounds played annually.

But the biggest problem with the greens is the grass, called Poa annua. It is virtually a weed, an uninvited guest that has been tracked onto the greens from the fairways and taken control. Poa annua provides a good surface to putt on, but dies off in the summer and is vulnerable to disease. The only way to get rid of it is to rebuild the greens, preferably on sand, and plant the sturdy bentgrass, which survives heat.

To provide minimal course disruption, most courses build only two greens at a time and allow a minimum of three to four months for each green to mature.

So in 1984, the city began rebuilding Rancho’s greens, at a cost of about $30,000 to $50,000 each. But after eight greens were built, the program stopped. Some say funds ran out. Others say that Rancho lost the landscaping crew to a city park rebuilding program. Other officials say they are not quite sure why the city stopped.

In October of 1988 the city held a Ladies Professional Golf Assn. tournament at Rancho. By October in any year, Rancho’s maintenance crews are hard at work merely to keep grass on the greens for the public, much less the professionals. By then, Poa annua has died.

“I had left (the Parks & Recreation department), and when I came back in 1988 and found out that the city had scheduled the tournament with Centinela Hospital I almost came unglued,” said Marion Spence, superintendent of the Parks & Recreation Department’s Pacific Region.

Spence was the golf director at Rancho during five Los Angeles Open tournaments, which are held the early part of the year when the course looks great. He said the city was asking for trouble scheduling a professional tournament in October.

THE OUSTED GREENSKEEPER

Ken Novak, the golf director of the Pacific Region, was in charge of Rancho Park for most of the last four years.

Last year, Novak discovered summer patch--a fungus that kills the roots of grass. It destroyed portions of greens just before the 1990 seniors tournament, which had replaced the LPGA tournament after two years. To complicate matters, the chemical effective in treating the fungus is illegal in California.

But there were other issues Novak had to deal with last year. A new $3-million irrigation system had resulted in excessive wet and dry areas on already thin-turfed fairways. Even the bunkers had problems.

All this caused unrest by the public, who had tired of the poor conditions and the disruption for course construction. Moreover, complaints from some senior tour golfers after last year’s tournament caused the U.S. Golf Assn. to term the course conditions “unacceptable.”

“I was embarrassed,” Spence said.

Rancho had a plan to continue its green rebuilding program in November, at the conclusion of this year’s tournament. To minimize disruption of play for the public, the plans also called for building alternate greens before construction began. The alternate greens, which resemble true greens and can be built for about $3,000 each, would remain at the hole to use when the regulation green needed to be rested. Four alternate greens already had been built.

But predicting that the fungus would reappear this summer, Novak proposed in January that the city begin building the remaining alternate greens immediately. He wanted them in place so that when the fungus hit, it could be treated properly with minimal disruption. The pressure of the looming tournament also would be diminished and the course would be ready for it.

But for reasons that were never provided to him, city officials did not take his recommendation.

As a result, when the fungus hit 13 greens in July, the greens eventually were closed, and the public was forced to play on temporary greens as well as the existing alternates. A temporary green is a hole cut in the fairway with a chalk circle marking it. It carries a two-putt rule and destroys the play of the hole. Workers furiously began building alternate greens, putting added pressure on the maintenance crew.

By Sept. 15, the crew had built eight alternate greens in eight weeks, a fraction of the time it normally takes. Employees were put on mandatory 10-hour, six-day work weeks and were promised compensatory time, a city official said.

“We were aware of the summer patch fungus, and we started applying the treatments we could in April,” said Jane Rasco, assistant general manager for the Parks and Recreation Dept., in charge of the Pacific Region. “Even the agronomist from the American Golf Assn. said it was like the operation went right, but the patient died.

“I don’t know why we didn’t start earlier (building the alternate greens). We were short of funds, but that couldn’t account for the reason. One consideration was that we have had so much construction at Rancho that we thought the public needed a rest.”

James E. Hadaway, commissioner of the city’s Parks and Recreation Dept., said he never heard of a suggestion to build the alternate greens sooner. He says he does not know why it wasn’t done.

“I guess the question could also be asked, ‘Why did we not reconstruct and rebuild the regulation greens sooner?’ They have been around since the 1930s,” he said.

Novak was transferred to the Griffith Park Region in September and replaced by Randy Haney, who was in charge of the Griffith Region.

THE PUBLIC REVOLT

For most of the past two months golfers have been paying the regular fee of $10.50 to play nine alternate greens and nine temporary greens, an abysmal situation that is virtually unheard-of for a golf course. Golfers occasionally have to play with one or two temporary greens but never nine of them.

In the midst of this, golf fees were raised citywide by 50 cents, but Rancho’s fee remained the same. Administrators believed the 50-cent break would be acceptable compensation for the poor playing conditions.

“We didn’t lower them, but we didn’t raise them,” Hadaway said. “Our purpose was to give them some reward. We did not discuss lowering the rates.”

But the lack of a price break infuriated golfers, many of whom quit playing Rancho. No longer was a reservation necessary. Some days, there were more workers on the course than golfers. And by this month, the course that used to put a foursome on the first tee every six minutes was lucky to see a foursome out every 15 minutes.

In September, the course was down 4,631 rounds of golf from the same month last year and down 11,400 rounds for the year. Although rounds are up dramatically at Penmar, the city’s nine-hole course in Santa Monica, the increase there has not compensated for the loss at Rancho. The course is off $42,000 from the city’s projections.

Some of Rancho’s golfers also defected to the Wilson and Harding courses in Griffith Park, but the increase in rounds played there in September is deceiving. Wilson lost 10 greens last summer, accounting for a sharp drop last year and a huge increase this year. Wilson’s current figures are consistent with those of 1989.

TOO MUCH BUREAUCRACY?

Marty Tregnan, president of the city’s Municipal Golf Assn., an umbrella for the men’s and women’s groups, believes Rancho’s problems are the result of a poorly structured management system. “There are too many chiefs,” said Tregnan, a longtime watchdog of public golf.

Before 1981, golf was its own branch of the Parks and Recreation Dept., with an agronomist at the top who reported to the department commissioner. Citing Prop. 13 cutbacks, Hadaway decentralized golf and reassigned it geographically to regions that were responsible for other city parks and recreation programs. Suddenly, golf was lumped in with parks, stadiums, museums and pools.

“When we had centralized golf, things were scheduled--aerating greens, fertilizing--but now we never know,” Tregnan said. “Now we can show up for a tournament and they are aerating the fairways. I’m not saying we didn’t have problems before, but we had less problems with maintenance because there was foresight. Now, with three regions for golf, everybody has a different idea of what to do and no one coordinates.

“We lost 10 greens at Wilson last August because someone put the wrong chemical on them--a killer instead of a fertilizer. Somebody did it wrong because they didn’t know what they were doing.”

Hadaway contends that decentralizing golf has improved the department immensely, allowing him to divide a large maintenance staff while working within the budget.

The city’s golf courses are the biggest single revenue producer for the Parks and Recreation Dept., expected this year to bring in about $11.8 million of the $25.5-million budget. The next biggest revenue producer is the L.A. Zoo, which provides about $5 million, followed by parks programs at $1.5 million.

All but 16% of golf fees go into the general fund, for overall use by the department. That 16% surcharge is used for golf course improvements. It is from this fund that Rancho Park will rebuild its remaining 10 greens over the next few years.

IS THE WORST OVER?

Last week, PGA agronomist Jeff Haley spent several days at the course and reported that fairways are in tremendous condition, the rough is in better shape than last year and the greens are “about the same as last year.”

There are still several weak greens, a condition already receiving some criticism by the seniors. But Haley’s assessment is a tremendous compliment to Novak, his successor Haney and the city crew at Rancho.

Haney says the public will be the true recipient when the course is opened Monday. “We didn’t do all this for the tournament,” Haney said. “And we are not going to do anything at the tournament to cause long-term negative effects.”

There is little doubt, however, that the tournament date and the concern of tournament official Russell Stromberg, president of Centinela Hospital, speeded up the healing process. The proceeds from the tournament benefit the hospital’s children’s charity fund.

Once the greens started to go, Stromberg called and paid for an expert agronomist to walk the course. Rumors flew. It was the understanding of many working for the city that Stromberg was preparing to pull the tournament from Rancho, and that the PGA was considering pulling out altogether. Haney said he heard that the men’s senior tour “didn’t want to come back.”

“We were very concerned because of the fungus, but the course was in good shape last year--there are pictures to prove it,” Stromberg said. “But what happened to the greens could happen at any club and would cause real problems for anyone. The city has been extremely cooperative, and the experts have been impressed with the progress they have made.”

Stromberg said the tournament is scheduled in October because it is the only date the senior tour had available.

The city doesn’t make a profit from the tournament, opting only for that of the abstract--the pride and prestige that comes from holding a tournament. And even this was almost lost.

Centinela, as one of the sponsors, provides the city with some long-lasting benefits. This year, the locker room and coffee shop were re-carpeted, and Centinela will pay about $19,000 for tournament preparation. Centinela also pays all replacement fees for closing the course for a week, including green fees ($48,608), cart rentals ($22,008), restaurant income ($3,135) and the pro shop and driving range ($17,500). In total, Centinela pays about $150,000 for the week.

Yet, that fee is half of what the Los Angeles Junior Chamber of Commerce pays Riviera Country Club to hold the L.A. Open--$300,000 ($225,000 fee plus additional expenses). Its fee is one of the three highest in the country. Westchester Country Club in Rye, N.Y., where the Buick Classic is played, commands the top fee of $400,000.

“But the benefit to the city of Los Angeles goes beyond all this,” Stromberg said. “The public can come back and play a course that Arnold Palmer played. They can say, Chi Rodriguez used a seven-iron on this hole. . . . If you could have seen it last year, when, after a round of play, Arnold Palmer stood there for a half-hour signing autographs, as did Lee Trevino and all those guys.

“It’s wonderful.”