Imperfect Paradise: ‘Free the Tee’ Redux: Fighting back against LA golf course scalpers

Norco 80

LAist Studios

True Crime

4.2 • 887 Ratings

🗓️ 26 March 2025

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This episode originally aired on June 12, 2024.

LA was rocked on March 4 when Dave Fink, a golf influencer, posted a viral video on Instagram detailing how brokers - largely using a Korean messenger app- were snatching up prime time tees at Los Angeles’ public golf courses and reselling them. Here’s how an unlikely crew of golf enthusiasts’ fight to keep golf in L.A. accessible and affordable is paying off. Host Antonia Cereijido reports.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for LAS comes from HRC fertility, helping hopeful parents build families.
0:05.8	From IVF to egg freezing, HRC fertility helps you take control of your reproductive health.
0:11.3	Learn more and schedule a consultation at havingbabies.com.
0:15.3	Hi, this is Larry Mantle.
0:16.6	This year marks the 40th anniversary of my program Air Talk.
0:20.5	On the show, we've discussed the biggest topics and events of the day from earthquakes to elections.
0:25.7	Please join me for the biggest conversation in Southern California for 40 years.
0:30.7	This is Imperfect Paradise, the show about hidden worlds and messy realities.
0:35.5	I'm And Donia Seri Heidehido.
0:39.5	When did you become the people's coach?
0:41.8	I've always been the people's coach.
0:44.6	Because I don't coach for money and I don't coach for clout.
0:49.5	I met Dave Fink on a recent Thursday morning at the Wilson and Harding public golf course in Los
0:54.0	Felice, an affluent hipster neighborhood in a hilly part of Los Angeles.
0:59.3	Dave is white and has the haircut and cadence of the Big Lobowski's dude mixed with the
1:04.1	motivational energy of DJ Khalid.
1:07.1	Sometimes you shoot your shot and you completely miss. But that's how we learn.
1:12.1	That's kind of my mantra is simplify shit.
1:15.4	You can bleep that out, but that is what I say.
1:18.0	No one except for you is going to remember the score that you shot that day.
1:22.2	They're only going to remember how you made them feel.
1:27.4	And just like in golf, nothing good or bad lasts forever.
	...

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