Public Eye

It was so hot Sunday, the final day of the Pasadena City Golf Championship at Brookside, that I swear you could see the algae bloom on the big lake just below Washington Boulevard -- pictured at left -- grow before your eyes. The course was looking its best, and algae likes all that fertilizer in the run-off.

I walked down just after noon and followed the first threesome in the Championship Flight -- all guys with handicaps under 4, so all unbelievably good golfers -- for two holes. They're not used to a gallery except for family, and I didn't want to break the spell if they were in the zone, so I didn't ask for names and just clapped at good shots and walked alongside the group. But the fellow ahead on course No. 1's hole No. 4, the medium-long dogleg right just above Washington at the far west of the Arroyo Seco, hit this second shot from about 125 yards stiff to the flag and sunk his 2-foot putt for birdie.