GOLF / FRED ROBLEDO : Company Plots New Course for Victoria

There are plenty of reasons to play Victoria Golf Course in Carson:

* It has some of the finest greens in the county.

* It’s a well-designed course that, from the championship tees, is nearly 7,000 yards--a test for any golfer.

* It’s easy to get a tee time.

That’s about it.

There are many more reasons why golfers stay away from the course:

* The course is an eye-sore.

* The fairways are patchy and bumpy with many areas having little or no grass. Much of the grass is brown and uneven.

* The course would be better served for use by all-terrain vehicles instead of golf carts.

* The $15 weekday fee, which is in line with the other L.A. County courses, is high for a course in Victoria’s condition.

Victoria’s problems started more than 30 years ago, when the course was built on a landfill. The landfill, which is settling, has created many of Victoria’s problems.

The rolling terrain on many of the fairways and greens was not in the original design of the course.

“We have sinkholes all over the place,” said course superintendent Jerry Woffinden, who has been assigned the improbable task of refurbishing Victoria.

“I have to admit, this is the toughest challenge I have ever had. This is the worst course I have ever had to work on. But the job is not impossible. It can be done.”

Woffinden works for Jim Duffin, the president of National Golf, a company that takes over the operation of courses to help them make profitable.

National Golf also operates Marshall Canyon in San Dimas, two courses at Whittier Narrows and a par-three course in Pico Rivera. Duffin said the day will come when Victoria will be on a par with National Golf’s other courses.

In time, Duffin would like to have paved paths for carts, rebuilt greens and lush fairways at Victoria. But first things first. And the first thing is getting grass to grow on the fairways.

“Some people think grass can’t grow because of the methane in the ground,” Woffinden said. “That’s partly true. You can look at some of the trees that should be bigger, but aren’t because the roots have stopped growing in the ground.

“But there’s not much methane in there now. Our problem is one of irrigation. This course needs a new irrigation system, but the county isn’t going to give us enough money to build a new one.”

The sprinkler system on the course is 30 years old and many of the sprinkler heads have been broken for years.

Without a new irrigation system, work on the course is going to take time.

Duffin and Woffinden have placed new sprinkler heads and controllers on the second fairway, which they are using as a trial hole. They want to prove that grass can grow on the course with proper watering.

“The second fairway is one of the worst on the course, with a lot of bare spots,” Duffin said. “With the right amount of watering and using the right grass, we think we can get a put in a pretty good fairway.”

Duffin says Kikuyu, the type of grass used at Riviera Country Club, is best suited for Victoria. It’s strong, spreads fast and allows the ball to set up nicely in the fairway.

Eliminating some of the sinkholes is next on Duffin’s list.

Already there are mounds of dirt alongside some of the fairways and the dirt will be used to fill sinkholes.

There are also a couple of fairways on the back nine that were devastated by gophers. On those fairways, it is almost impossible to find a level lie. That ground will have to be tilled and leveled before reseeding takes place.

“Those things will come later,” says Woffinden, who is mainly concerned with perfecting a sprinkler system that will allow him to distribute the water evenly over areas that need it most.

He is certain that once a sprinkler system is developed, it won’t take long to produce lush fairways.

“If you can imagine what this course would be like with good fairways, you can see it would rank right up there with Los Verdes and Lakewood,” Duffin said.

“I’m telling you, this can really be an outstanding course. It’s in poor shape now, but I think we can have it in top shape in less than two years. Once we get our sprinkling system set, we should be able do about a hole every month.”

If that happens, Duffin may have another problem.

Many of the golfers who play the course do so because getting a tee time is never a problem. If Victoria’s face lift is a success, the course might have to go to a reservation system.

That’s a problem Duffin can deal with.