LA County cracks down on brokering of golf tee times at municipal courses

By ANUSHA SHANKAR

On the heels of the Los Angeles City Council’s effort to crack down on brokering of tee-time reservations at municipal golf courses, the county Board of Supervisors took similar steps Tuesday by requiring non-refundable reservation deposits and charging cancellation fees.

Under the motion introduced by Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, the county will require a non-refundable reservation fee of $10 per player. Reservations that are canceled within 48 hours of the tee time — or if the players fail to show up — will be subject to forfeiture of the reservation fee along with another charge of $10 per player, with the proceeds funding the county’s Junior Golf Program.

The county operates 20 golf courses at 18 facilities. According to Horvath’s motion, it’s the largest municipal golf system in the nation, and 1.2 million rounds of golf were played at county facilities in 2022-23.

“The golfing community has expressed concerns regarding the brokering of tee times at L.A. County facilities and across other L.A. County municipalities operating golf courses,” the motion states. “Brokering involves a private party, the broker, reserving one or more tee times and advertising them to the public for an additional fee. Once the tee time has been sold, the broker then cancels and rebooks the tee time under the player’s name. The result is unequal access to tee time reservations, especially for prime times, at L.A. County golf courses.”

The reservation deposit and cancellation fees will be effective Aug. 1.

The county program mirrors one put in place in May by the Los Angeles City Council. The issue of brokering of tee times at Los Angeles municipal courses got so bad that a group of golfers sued the city in March, accusing it of failing to adequately oversee operations of its golf courses.