Pasadena officials on Monday, July 27 closed the city’s Oak Grove Disc Golf Course after an unsanctioned tournament this past weekend spurred some coronavirus fears among local health authorities.
City officials weren’t aware of the tournament played on the city-owned course until a citizen reported it to an unnamed member of the City Council, city spokeswoman Lisa Derderian said.
The event, she said, was “blatantly streamed on Facebook and photographed,” but the city’s rules specifically forbid tournaments and other organized events from being hosted on the course.
“Based on this activity, which violated all the posted rules, we again shut down the disc golf course,” Derderian wrote in a statement to this newsgroup. “Because of the large number of attendees, and the lack of COVID protocols, this potentially could lead to the spread of the disease.”
Tournament director Francisco Martinez organized the event as a showdown between the proponents of two rival courses: La Mirada and Oak Grove.
It’s a rivalry that dates back to 1992, Martinez said in an interview on Monday. He started organizing the disc golf community and came up with 44 players who wanted to participate — 22 people on each team, working together to collectively achieve the lowest score possible.
“To me, it honestly didn’t feel like a problem,” Martinez said. He arranged the players to have staggered tee times so folks wouldn’t be jammed up next to one another. That’s different from most disc golf tourneys, he said, where everyone meets up together before heading off to different holes.
There was a $1,400 pot — not for the teams, but for the course maintenance funds — 30% would go to the losers’ course while the rest would go to the winners’.
On Saturday, they played the first two rounds in La Mirada. On Sunday, they played at Oak Grove.
Martinez said he didn’t check with city officials ahead of time to get the go-ahead for his tournament.
The course in La Mirada is managed by the county’s Parks & Recreation Department; spokeswoman Katie Martel said they weren’t aware of the tournament and the course remains open. In fact, it was never closed for coronavirus, she said.
That’s in contrast to Pasadena, which closed the Oak Grove course in the early rounds of coronavirus closures, but reopened it in June with significant restrictions.
Now, after this tournament, Pasadena’s course is once again closed.
“I feel fully responsible for the whole situation of closing the course,” Martinez said. “As far as me making more events, it’s going to have to stop. I don’t think (the coronavirus) is going to go away any time soon.”
Still, he added, “I would do anything I could to try and get them to reopen it.” He wants to have a meeting with city officials to see if that can be arranged.
For Martinez and the disc golf community, losing Oak Grove is a big hit because it’s the world’s first permanent disc golf course, he said. But the course isn’t in great shape anymore.
“There’s just so much history there, but it also needs so many improvements,” Martinez said. “I honestly think the city just doesn’t want us there.”
He wants to find ways to make the course better, which requires help from the city.
“It’s the world’s first course. That should mean something,” he said.
But first, he needs to get it reopened.
“For me, to take away the course, it’s pretty much taking away the course for everybody.”
Before the course was closed, in what may have been one of the last rounds to be played until it’s reopened, La Mirada took the win over Oak Grove, Martinez added.
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