Brookside Golf Club

Koiner course hosted the 1968 Los Angeles Open, and its fairways still double as stadium game-day parking.

Course History

Brookside's story begins in 1928, when the City of Pasadena opened golf in the Arroyo Seco alongside the Rose Bowl, in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. The layout came from William P. Bell, the prolific Southern California architect who collaborated with George C. Thomas Jr. on Riviera and Bel-Air, and the facility grew into a 36-hole municipal complex: the championship C.W. Koiner Course No. 1 and the shorter, par-70 E.O. Nay Course No. 2, both credited to Bell.

The Koiner Course earned its place in tour history in early 1968, when Brookside hosted the Los Angeles Open and Billy Casper took the title. The complex is equally famous for a stranger duty: since 1982 its fairways have doubled as game-day parking for UCLA football at the Rose Bowl, a role they also play for the annual Rose Bowl Game and other stadium events — a routine that, remarkably, has done little lasting harm to the course.

The Design & Architecture

Bell's Koiner Course is a classic parkland test: relatively flat ground framed by mature trees, with strategically placed bunkers doing most of the defensive work. Despite the name, the "brook" most in play is the concrete Arroyo Seco flood-control wash that cuts through the property — dry much of the year but a hazard on several holes — joined by a handful of lakes on the front nine. Turf is Bermuda grass on the tees and fairways with Poa annua greens, the classic old-school Los Angeles combination.

Signature Holes

The par-5 6th is the round's great temptation — reachable in two for players who flirt with the lake guarding the left side of the driving zone, its "fingers" reaching into the fairway, with a deceptive bunker about 50 yards short of the green still to carry. The 8th is the course's standout par 3: a lake fronts the right half of the green, big trees and the wash wait left, and anything long finds trouble. The short par-4 9th is pure strategy, where fairway bunkers and the lake pinch the drive and a venerable tree hovering over the right half of the green dictates the angle of approach. And the 466-yard 18th closes the round with a brute of a two-shotter played hard against the Rose Bowl itself.

Playing the Course

From the tips the Koiner Course stretches to 7,228 yards against par 72, with a 74.5 rating and 133 slope — a stern examination by municipal standards. Its calling card is a set of long two-shotters: the 461-yard 3rd, the 425-yard 10th (whose approach must carry the 40-yard-wide wash to a shallow green) and the 480-yard 12th all demand two well-struck shots. Shorter hitters can make their score on the reachable 6th and the tactical 9th, and the companion E.O. Nay Course offers a friendlier par-70 alternative on the same property.

Know Before You Go

• Public course at 1133 Rosemont Ave., Pasadena, CA 91103; call (626) 585-3594 for tee times and details.

• More info and booking at https://www.brooksidegc.com.

• Tip: check the Rose Bowl event calendar before booking — the fairways serve as stadium parking on UCLA game days and major event dates.