GOLF / MAL FLORENCE : Take Your Mud Wedge to Play at Encino

The fifth hole at the Encino course in the Sepulveda Basin is a par four measuring 377 yards from the blue tees.

It’s still a par four, but now it’s a sea of mud from tee to green.

Other holes close to the Los Angeles River, which overflowed onto the course during the recent rainstorm, also are covered in places with mud.

Standing water was still on some fairways earlier in the week, and city officials say it is the worst flooding the courses in the San Fernando Valley have experienced.

Crews are working daily to clean up the debris, mud and silt that have accumulated at Encino and, to a lesser degree, the Balboa and Woodley Lakes courses.

A picture in The Times showing water being applied to the greens at Encino drew an angry response from golfers.

“We had some irate calls from patrons. What they didn’t understand was that we were trying to save their golf course,” said Louise Ewing, operations supervisor for the Valley courses.

Work crews are hosing silt from the greens. Otherwise it would work into the soil leaving the greens the consistency of cement.

“The holes closer to the clubhouse are doing pretty well,” Ewing said. “But the holes closer to the river and (Sepulveda) dam are not in good shape.”

Ewing estimated that nine holes of the Encino course will be closed during the clean-up operation for “three months, or longer.”

The latest estimate is that a designated nine holes of the Encino course would be open by mid-week. Balboa opened Saturday for 18 holes. The Woodley Lakes course opened Friday for nine holes, and the full 18 should be playable in a few days.

The Balboa course was littered with debris, but it wasn’t as heavily damaged as the Encino course.

Holes available for play at Encino are Nos. 1, 2, 8, 9, 10, 11, 16, 17 and 18, with 16 now a par three instead of a par four.

Woodley’s nine consist of holes 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9 and then a 600-yard walk to Nos. 17 and 18.

The driving range and restaurant at the Encino-Balboa facility also are open.

Elsewhere, damage was minimal from the storm and even, perhaps, beneficial to Rancho Park. It has been open since last Tuesday.

A spokesman at Rancho Park said the course has never looked better. The Griffith Park courses, Harding and Wilson, and Hansen Dam, are also available for play.

The storm has created another problem--overcrowding. With Encino in operation for nine holes for at least three months, other city courses will be in greater demand.

Damage to the courses in the Sepulveda Basin was estimated at $500,000.

Fred Couples won the Nissan Los Angeles Open in 1990 and will be in the field again when the tournament begins Thursday at Riviera Country Club.

“Riviera is one of my favorite courses. I feel real comfortable there,” said Couples, the PGA Tour Player of the Year in 1991.

There are “horses for courses,” and Couples said players return to tournaments where they have had success.

“Also, I know of guys who do well in Florida, who won’t play in California because of the greens, weather or other reasons,” he said.

Couples said that Riviera’s small greens are particularly suited to his game.

“That gives me a little advantage--just on my game, not on the field,” he said.

Couples took three weeks off from the tour after the Bob Hope tournament last month.

John Daly has committed to play in the L.A. Open. The long-hitting PGA champion had said he wouldn’t play because of a dispute with a parking lot attendant last year at Riviera.

Even though Daly has been struggling this year, he still is attracting huge galleries.

In an alternate-shot shootout event early in the week preceding the Buick Invitational of California at Torrey Pines, Daly teamed with Nick Price.

“Watching him can be a bit startling at times,” Price said, referring to Daly’s driving prowess.

As an example, on the 365-yard second hole of the South course, Daly drove to within eight yards of the green.

Raymond Floyd is warning players who had low rounds in the Pebble Beach tournament earlier in the month that they won’t see the same course in June for the U.S. Open.

“I, for one, say that’s unfortunate because they take Pebble Beach, which is a links course, and they change it.

“When they bring the fairways down to 30 yards and there’s ankle (deep) rough, that’s no longer a links course.”

He added that June is the worst month for weather in that area.

“It can be cold and windy. That in itself will make the scores go up, along with narrow fairways,” Floyd said.

Golf Notes

Mark O’Meara and Steve Elkington will play in the L.A. Open. O’Meara won the Pebble Beach Pro-Am tournament earlier in the month for the fourth time. Elkington won the opening tour event, the Tournament of Champions at La Costa. Fourteen of the PGA Tour’s top 15 money winners are in the L.A. Open field. . . . A celebrity-amateur event will be held today at Riviera. . . . Ten amateurs will be shooting for a prize of $1 million in a hole-in-one contest Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. on the par-three, 180-yard 14th hole. . . . The Merrill-Lynch shootout is also scheduled Tuesday at 1 p.m., with the regular pro-am on Wednesday.