Fore Your Info
By David Bennett
If you’re not the country club type, or if you are but can’t afford it, there are some great public courses around Los Angeles where you can satisfy your golf urges. Personally, I care about three things on a golf course: The scenery, the difficulty and the women who ride around on golf carts selling beer, cigars and Snickers bars.
Dollars & Cents: I golf almost every weekend, so even public courses can get expensive. Los Angeles courses charge $31 per person for 18 holes, $18 for an electric cart, $10 for a cigar and $5 for a beer. Make sure you bring your Visa, Mastercard or plenty of cash because they’re Amex haters.
The three public courses I recommend, each offers a little something the other doesn’t:
1. Griffith Park – Wilson course
2. Encino – Balboa course
3. Westlake Village
Griffith Park is awesome and my favorite of the bunch. They have two courses, Wilson and Harding. Wilson is the better of the two, but difficult to get a reservation. If you like tee-ing off into the lush mountainside and putting among the deer and other wildlife, go for Wilson. If you like tee-ing next to the I-5 freeway, choose Harding. Either way, Griffith Park is excellent because the course is kept in great condition, the fairways are wide open, but challenging, and the scenery is the best of any public course in Los Angeles. The downside: No beer cart. Do your drinking before or after at the clubhouse.
Encino’s Balboa course has made a nice comeback in the recent years. Until recently, it would have never made my top three. They remodeled some of the holes. This course is as flat as Columbus thought the earth was before he left Spain. And, the people who play there might have been alive when Columbus set sail. Not the youngest of crowds, but nonetheless a good time.
Westlake Village is a love/hate relationship for me. I hate that course because its degree of difficulty is “toddler”. The fairways are short and the greens are easy. To be honest, it’s more of a practice round than anything. So leave your Driver at home and pack a 7 iron and a putter because it’s all you’ll need. So, where’s the love? Westlake is the only public course I’ve been to with a beer cart lady. That’s huge. We like her.
Griffith Park (http://www.lacity.org/rap/dos/parks/griffithPK/golf.htm)
Encino/Balboa (http://www.laparks.org/dos/sports/golf/facility/balboaGC.htm)
Westlake Village (http://www.thegolfcourses.net/golfcourses/CA/11586.htm)