Sand traps not the only hazard

On certain Sundays in fall, golfers at Brookside Golf
Club’s two golf courses next to the Rose Bowl are forced to
navigate around much more than sand traps and mosquito-infested
ponds. For instance, they might have to calculate how to avoid an
abandoned Honda Civic parked in the fairway, or how to sidestep
shards of glass on the tee box. Most golfers have no idea that only
a few hours prior to playing on what they believe to be a golf
course, Brookside was the center of a mass Bruin football
pre-party. Since UCLA moved its football games to the Rose Bowl in
1982, Brookside’s golf courses have been transformed into
parking lots to accommodate the more than 15,000 cars that descend
into Pasadena six times a year to watch the Bruins. It’s
standard practice not specific to UCLA football, but any sporting
event or concert at the Rose Bowl. According to Rose Bowl Events
Manager Julie Benavidez, parking is shifted onto one of the golf
courses when a crowd is expected to exceed 25,000, and onto both
golf courses when the anticipated crowd is over 70,000. This past
Saturday, endless rows of cars blanketed both golf courses as
84,811 people attended UCLA’s dramatic comeback victory
against California. In the case of such an event, Brookside, which
costs $48 to play on the weekend, almost always shuts down, but
because the Rose Bowl operating company runs the golf courses,
proceeds from parking displaces the money that would have been made
from greens fees. Yet while Brookside doesn’t suffer
financial losses, it is often left in shambles after a UCLA game
lets out, more closely resembling a landfill than it does a golf
complex. Yet it must be quickly transformed back into two fully
functioning golf courses the very next day to accommodate weekend
golfers. And that’s when Matt Kross’ job finally
begins.

Tailgate leftovers Kross, the general manager
of Brookside for a little over a year, oversees the task of
cleaning the mess that fans leave behind on Saturday by the time
the first golfer comes to the course early Sunday morning. And what
a mess it is. Barbecues, cars, keys, strollers, cans, glass,
sweat-stained clothes, beer-drenched towels and vomit are just a
few of the leftovers that the clean-up crews encounter after a
game. “I’m sure the course gets torn up,” said
Jim Guthrie, a 2003 UCLA graduate who tailgated this past Saturday.
“But we don’t care that much.” Kross
conservatively estimates that after Bruin football games at the
Rose Bowl, his army of a clean-up crew, which totals more than a
hundred people, accumulates enough trash to fill two 40-yard-long
dumpsters. Two Saturdays ago when UCLA played a night game against
Washington, the clean-up crew began sifting through trash well
after midnight, worked through the wee hours of the morning, and
still didn’t have the course in decent shape until that
Tuesday, three days later. “A lot of people are surprised
because the last time they played, it was plush and beautiful, and
this time there’s trash everywhere,” Kross said.
“They’re cheated of their golf course
experience.” That’s why the cleanup, an operation that
can take upward of 12 hours, starts when the fans are actually in
the stadium. After the game, more people are brought in once the
parking lots are clear to clean the rest. “People are more
apt to leave their trash around because they feel they’re at
a park, but I don’t understand that,” Kross said.
“And then as people are leaving, they think we picked up
their trash, so they dump more trash. “I want tailgaters to
understand that we recycle enough to pay their mortgages.”
The most common items Kross finds after games are barbecues and
enough beer that he can “throw tailgating parties for the
rest of the season.” Yet the headache for Kross doesn’t
subside once the course is relatively spot-free. Often after the
game or the next day, Brookside’s offices are bombarded with
calls from people who lost something on the course. Kross remembers
one such phone call, when a father called to see if the clean-up
crew found his two children, who he had left sleeping underneath a
tree while he attended the game. Earlier this season, a woman who
had forgotten she left her baby stroller on the course (her baby
wasn’t in the stroller) called up and berated Kross, whose
staff either recycles or throws away everything, for not having the
common courtesy to save people’s possessions before disposing
of them. “I told her that on that particular day, we found 40
barbecues, three cars, and four sets of car keys, none belonging to
the three cars,” Kross said. “If stuff is left on the
golf course, we get rid of it. We throw everything away. She
understood after that. Said I should put all of the stuff on eBay
and make something off of it.”

Minimal damage Despite the fact that nearly
7,000 cars park on the Brookside complex for any given game, there
is surprisingly very little effect on the condition of the golf
courses. During the summer, Brookside transitions from rye grass to
Bermuda grass, typically found in warm-weather regions such as Palm
Springs and Florida. According to Kross, Bermuda grass is the only
type of grass that can survive in temperatures above 85 degrees
with minimal maintenance (sparse watering and mowing) because of
its resistant and dry nature. “The fact this is all taking
place right in the middle of football season isn’t such a bad
thing,” Kross said. “The beauty of Bermuda grass is
that you can park your car on it, and as long as you don’t
tear it up, you’ll never know a car was there.” In the
fall, however, the Bermuda grass is allowed to die out, at which
point Brookside officials reseed the courses with rye grass that
will last until the following May, a process that is currently
ongoing. Rye grass, however, is much more vulnerable to adverse
effects from vehicular traffic and will have to withstand the
barrage of cars at UCLA’s last two home games on Oct. 22 and
Nov. 12. Still, Kross maintains that cars are only allowed to park
at Brookside if there is no threat of long-term damage to the golf
courses. While cars are usually lined up next to one another in the
fairways, they are prohibited from parking on tee boxes and greens,
which are roped off and protected by paid security. The threat of
rain or soggy conditions is also reason enough to force cars to
find parking elsewhere, as was the case during last year’s
Rose Bowl between Michigan and Texas. Yet while parked cars present
very little danger to the course, leaking oil and spilled barbecue
coals are often the most harmful culprits, both of which tend to
either burn or kill the grass. “We once saw people frying a
turkey, and they just spilled all the oil from it on the golf
course,” said Noni Holt, a Bruin season ticket holder.
“We were just mad because we know it hurts the golf course,
and we’re mindful of that. It really is a beautiful
place.” In spite of the fact that it is one of the only golf
complexes in Los Angeles to serve a dual function as a parking lot,
Brookside is still considered one of the top 10 public courses in
Southern California. And though Pasadena residents may be cheated
out of several Saturday rounds a year, Kross said he barely ever
hears a complaint. “I hope people understand the fact that
this is a parking lot for the Rose Bowl and accept that,”
Kross said. “What they’re blown away by is the quality
we can keep this place in. One game a week isn’t going to
kill these courses.” And neither, apparently, will enough
trash to cover an entire football field.

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