I have a new monthly column in Golf Digest, called The Muny Life, beginning with the March issue, which is on newsstands now. For the inaugural column, I played the three courses in Griffith Park, in Los Angeles: Wilson, Harding, and Roosevelt, all named after presidents. The wildlife was almost as interesting as the people:

Wilson Golf Course, Griffith Park, Los Angeles.

The woman in the photo above, who was playing with her husband, had to tee off over the head of that coyote:

She didn’t hit the ball very far, and she was barely taller than her driver, but she played fast and you would not beat her in a match. Her husband used to be a member at Riviera.

Roosevelt Golf Course, Griffith Park, Los Angeles.

I didn’t see any rattlesnakes, but there were deer everywhere, including the threesome in the photo below, at Roosevelt. The second one from the left, you’ll notice, is taking a whiz:

Roosevelt Golf Course, Griffith Park, Los Angeles.

The guy in the photo above is Francis, who is a service manager at a car dealership. It rained hard while we played, and we were literally the only golfers on the course, but, as he said, “I can only watch so many reruns of ‘Law and Order.'” His hat says “Playboy Golf.” He got it from a friend of a former girlfriend—a woman who works at Playboy Mansion West. He’s divorced, but he and his ex-wife took golf lessons together, in the hope of getting their son interested in the game. He once took three women to a concert—three women who, unbeknownst to them, he was dating simultaneously—partly to see what would happen. The evening turned out better than you might think. He invited me to join him and some friends at another public golf course the next day, but I couldn’t go because I had to play golf—with, as it turned out, these two guys:

Harding Golf Course, Griffith Park, Los Angeles.

I’m not sure where the Pine Valley hat came from. (His English wasn’t great.)  Nice day, though. And when it was over I drove up to the Griffith Observatory, which you can see from several holes on Roosevelt:

The observatory, which was built in the 1930s, is beautiful, and so is the view of the city: