GOLF / FRED ROBLEDO : At Los Verdes, Early Birds Get Shots at Birdies

Golfers will put up with almost anything to get in an appointed round of golf.

Wind? Rain? Cold weather? It doesn’t matter. That’s why they sell rain gear.

Hot summer days? That’s the perfect time to load up an ice chest with one’s favorite beverage and play a course.

About the only thing that bothers most golfers is waiting. The wait between shots, the wait between holes or the wait merely to play a course.

But at Los Verdes Golf Course in Rancho Palos Verdes, even the wait to play appears tolerable. Why else would golfers be willing to sleep in their cars in the parking lot for a starting time?

Los Verdes, after all, is no Pebble Beach. But it does have a breathtaking view of the Pacific Ocean and, at $15.50 a round, is one of the better golfing bargains in the Southland.

“It is pretty amazing that so many people are willing to wait so long to get on our course,” said Eric Manley, one of the weekday starters who pulls into the parking lot before 5 a.m. and is followed to his office by many people who have been waiting in their cars.

Manley doesn’t know how long the golfers have been waiting. A sign indicates no overnight parking is allowed, so he assumes that none of them have been there all night.

But some of the veterans who arrive early in the morning will tell you that on weekends, you have to arrive at 8 or 9 p.m. the day before to get your name on a list posted outside the starter’s window.

The list indicates the order in which golfers will be called to play that day or to sign up for a tee time a week later. It is taken into the office by the starter when he arrives.

“Getting your name on the list is the easiest way to get a starting time,” said Peter Park, one of the regulars who plays once or twice a week at Los Verdes.

Like most courses, Los Verdes takes reservations by phone. Reservations are accepted a week in advance. Tee times start at 6 a.m., which is when the phone starts ringing. By 7, tee times for the next week are filled.

“If you try to get through on the phone, you might never get a time,” Park said.

Said Manley: “It’s like a juggling act at 6. When the phone starts ringing, we take one reservation from the phone and two from the window. And we keep it going that way until the slots are full. That’s why a lot of them show up early, to get times for the following week.”

Some enterprising people such as Park try to get on the list to play and try to get a starting time for the next week at the same time.

“It’s a good idea, but it doesn’t always work,” Manley said. “Many of the people who come early also like to get out before 6, and we can send quite a few groups out before that time, especially in the summer when we have some early daylight. Let’s say a person gets on the list in time to go out at 5:45. Then he tells me he also wants a starting time for the following week. I can’t do that because we don’t start giving times out until 6.

Those golfers who do not get on the course before 6 are often happy to wait to play that day in addition to signing up for a tee time the next week.

That is why golfers created the list.

“The only thing we leave out is a clipboard,” Manley says. “The first golfer puts up a piece of paper and it becomes the list.”

When a list is started, the first golfer puts his name and the license number of his car. That car has to remain in the parking lot and the driver has to remain in the car to keep his name on the list.

The lot is policed by the golfers themselves.

“Most of them are seniors and they all know each other, but they don’t let anybody get away with anything,” Manley said. “There have been times when people have left the lot and tried to claim never to have left. But there are too many other people who know they did and they aren’t bashful about removing such a name from the list.”

When asked if the restriction on all-night parking was a problem, Manley said: “I don’t know how long they have been here. I don’t ask. I take the list when I come in and work from it.”

Bob Porthan, who arrived at 3:30 a.m. to be No. 2 on the list Wednesday, likes the system and doesn’t mind the wait.

“It’s not that bad,” he said. “I come early, I play early and I finish early and have the rest of the day free. What’s so bad about that?”

He acknowledges it would be tougher on weekends and indicated he wouldn’t be one to stay in his car overnight for a tee time.

But Park would.

“If you like to play golf, you don’t mind a little wait,” he said.

Bob Rogers has another way to play the system. He shows up a little after 5 during the week tries to get on the course before 6.

On Wednesday, Bob is No. 15, a low number at that time in the morning, even during the middle of the week.

“I’ve had much higher numbers and still gotten on,” he said. “Some of the people are just here to get times for next week. I’m here to play now, and at No. 15, I feel pretty good about my chances of getting on.”

Others are not as lucky. Their are names on the list waiting to play when the phone starts ringing at 6 a.m.

Then the fun and wait begins. It’s all part of the game at Los Verdes.