L.A. touts success at blocking tee time brokers from city golf courses

For years, it was an open secret: Brokers scooped up tee times at public golf courses across Los Angeles and sold prime slots online, profiting from taxpayer-owned recreation.Golfers complained about the extreme difficulty, bordering on impossibility, of playing on pristine and affordable municipal courses like those in Griffith Park and Rancho Park.The problem burst into public view last spring when evidence of the brokering hit social media. The Times interviewed two brokers who shared how they sold coveted tee times.Amid the uproar, L.A.'s Department of Recreation and Parks introduced a pilot program to curb the profiteers. Golfers have to pay