California is taking aim at a practice that has frustrated golfers trying to get tee times at some of the state's busiest municipal golf courses.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed legislation prohibiting third-party brokers from advertising, selling or transferring tee-time reservations at publicly owned golf courses without written permission from the course operator.
The new law comes after a controversy in Los Angeles involving brokers who were accused of using online booking systems to secure desirable tee times and then reselling those reservations to golfers at significantly higher prices.
According to the Los Angeles Times, some brokers were charging as much as $40 in booking fees for tee times at Los Angeles municipal courses. The practice became particularly controversial because golfers already faced difficulty getting reservations through the normal booking system.
How the tee-time scheme worked
The issue became widely known in 2024 after golf influencer Dave Fink brought attention to what was happening at Los Angeles-area municipal courses.
Brokers were allegedly using online systems to grab tee times as soon as they became available. Those reservations were then advertised on social media and other platforms, including the Korean messaging app KakaoTalk, with customers paying additional fees to obtain the coveted times.
Following Fink's reporting and videos, the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks announced an investigation into the practice.
The controversy wasn't simply about golfers paying a little extra for convenience. The concern was that people who wanted to play their local public courses were competing against third parties that were securing tee times for the purpose of resale.
And this isn't a small issue in terms of the number of courses potentially affected. California has more than 200 municipally owned golf courses, according to Assemblymember Christopher M. Ward, who authored the legislation.
California's new law targets the resale
Under the new legislation, third-party brokers cannot advertise, sell or transfer reservations at publicly owned golf courses unless they have written consent from the course operator.
Ward said public golf courses are intended to serve the communities that support them and argued that residents shouldn't have to compete with brokers purchasing tee times and reselling them at inflated prices.
The legislation represents a significant response to the debate over how public golf courses should manage increasingly limited tee-time inventory.
For golfers, the issue is bigger than California. Online tee-time booking has become an increasingly important part of the public-golf experience, and the ability to quickly secure popular times can have a major impact on who gets to play and how much they pay.
What about the brokers?
The controversy also has a legal history beyond the tee-time issue.
The Los Angeles Times reported that two tee-time brokers were arrested and charged in 2025 with failing to report $1 million in income to the IRS. One of those brokers, Ted Kim, defended his actions at the time, saying he was simply booking tee times for himself and did not believe he was doing anything illegal.
The new California legislation specifically addresses the resale of municipal-course reservations rather than simply making the act of booking a tee time through an online system illegal.
That distinction matters. The law is aimed at preventing third parties from turning public-course tee times into a resale business without authorization from the course operator.
Why this matters for public golf
Municipal golf courses are designed to provide public access to the game, and tee-time availability can be especially important for local golfers who don't have access to private clubs.
When desirable tee times disappear almost immediately after becoming available, golfers can understandably question whether they're competing against other players or against automated systems and commercial brokers.
California's new law doesn't eliminate the basic problem of limited tee times. Popular municipal courses can still be difficult to book, particularly during weekends and peak playing periods.
What it does is establish a clear restriction on one particular practice: buying or securing public-course tee times and then reselling them without the course operator's written permission.
How this affects you
If you play municipal golf in California, the new law could make it easier to understand who is legitimately selling or transferring tee times and who isn't. It does not guarantee that you'll suddenly have an easier time getting a Saturday morning tee time, but it does prohibit unauthorized third-party resale of reservations at publicly owned courses. For golfers outside California, the bigger question is whether other states or municipalities will consider similar rules as tee-time demand and online booking technology continue to evolve.
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