Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill Sunday, Sept. 27, that bans third-party brokers from selling tee-time reservations at publicly owned golf courses across California.

The new law targets a broker network that had been snapping up tee times at Los Angeles municipal courses and reselling them for fees up to $40, often through the Korean messaging app KakaoTalk. Assembly Bill 1954, reported by the Los Angeles Times, passed the Assembly 70-0 with no recorded opposition in any committee.

The problem hit home for LA golfers who watched prime slots at Griffith Park and Westside courses vanish within seconds each morning. Reservations open at 6 a.m. on the city's GolfNow booking platform nine days in advance. Brokers secured prime morning and early afternoon times, then flipped them online.

"Public golf courses belong to the public, and residents shouldn't have to compete with brokers buying up tee times just to turn around and sell them at inflated prices," Assemblymember Chris Ward (D-San Diego), who authored the bill, said in a statement.

The issue gained traction after LA golf teaching pro Dave Fink, who has about 200,000 Instagram followers, posted videos exposing the broker operation in early 2024. Fink's campaign was tagged #FreetheTee. It prompted the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks to launch an investigation alongside the city attorney's office and GolfNow staff.

The department suspended 133 users from its booking system in the year before March 2024 and another 23 in the three weeks before the LA Times reported on the controversy that month.

The stakes grew in 2025, when the U.S. Attorney's Office indicted two Los Angeles-based tee-time brokers for allegedly failing to report more than $1.1 million in income. Roughly $700,000 of that income allegedly came from reselling tee times at 17 Southern California public courses between 2021 and 2023, according to a Senate Judiciary Committee analysis of the bill.

Under the new law, any unauthorized brokering of public-course tee times counts as an unlawful business practice under California's Unfair Competition Law (UCL). Public entities can seek civil penalties of up to $2,500 per violation. Platforms that operate under a written agreement with a course operator are not affected.

The bill drew support from the County of Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation, the Southern California Golf Association and the Latina Golfers Association, among others. The California Alliance for Golf sponsored the legislation.

California has more than 220 municipally owned golf courses, according to the Senate analysis. The law's effective date was not specified in available documents.