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Golfers May Find Fairways Anything But : Weather: Rain has stopped and some courses have opened. However, temporary greens and puddles will probably be par for the course.

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

Although Southern California golf courses were inundated by the recent rainstorms, some were open for play Wednesday. The conditions were far from ideal.

The two 18-hole courses at Griffith Park, Harding and Wilson, were open, but the Sepulveda Basin courses--Encino, Balboa and Woodley--and Rancho Park in West Los Angeles were closed. Brookside Park in Pasadena was also open Wednesday.

Ken Novak, maintenance supervisor at Griffith Park, said those courses were extremely wet.

“We lost many trees--they just fell over. We also have standing water and puddles on many of the rough and fairway areas,” Novak said. “The hillsides, which go through the courses here, are still draining out.”

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Novak said the Wilson and Harding courses were open for walking golfers only. He added that there are four or five temporary greens on both courses.

“We’re open, but with severe limitations because nothing has been cut for two weeks now,” Novak said.

The Sepulveda Basin courses were affected the most, as they were last year when the Encino course was closed for nine months because of excessive flooding.

Ron Strong, senior park maintenance supervisor at Sepulveda Basin, said those courses were “super wet, because they are so flat.

“You can hardly walk on the fairways right now, but the greens are in good shape, although there is standing water on them.

“We ended up with a couple of feet of silt over everything last year. We got flooded and silted a month ago, and it took us about a month to clean up then. We were ready to open up when we got hit with this storm.

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“(However,) this storm didn’t have the silt with it. The water was clean, even though it flooded some of the holes in Encino. We’re waiting for it to dry out so we can mow it down and play it.”

Strong estimated that if fair weather prevails, the courses will be open for walking golfers this weekend. He added that only a designated nine holes at Encino would be open.

A spokesman at Rancho Park said the course will be open today for walking golfers only. Fourteen alternate greens will be used, along with two temporary greens.

Brookside Park, adjacent to the Rose Bowl, has been open since Tuesday, when many of the players were participating in Golden State Tour competition.

Golf carts weren’t allowed on the No. 2 course Wednesday, and carts were restricted to paths on the No. 1 course.

The American Golf Corp. operates Brookside Park and has a lease agreement with the city of Pasadena to allow about 15,000 cars to be parked on the course for the Super Bowl game on Jan. 31.

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Dan Dau, the course superintendent, said that if it rains next week, optional plans for parking will be considered.

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