Hey pal, want to buy a golf course?

Golf courses, can there be a worse investment?

Last year, the city of Gainesville, Florida made the decision to upgrade their dilapidated golf course. Was it a rational decision to borrow money to upgrade the municipal course? The upgrade plan included the reassignment of the course from what had been an enterprise venture required to pay its own way and into the Parks and Recreation department. With this budgetary maneuver, taxpayers will pick up the tab for what was understood to be continuing losses even with the upgrade.

The course has been under city ownership since its purchase in 1992. Ironwood has suffered a deficit each year of operation, currently a loss of about $15 per paid round this year with (see Table shown below) similar losses in each of the nineteen years since its purchase by the city. Now, with the move of City ownership into Parks and Recreation, operating losses by Ironwood will have a convenient mask from critical public view.

I am an avid golfer. I play Ironwood three or four times each month. While I had not played the course prior to its reconstruction, I must say that the spruced-up course is very playable, a credit to those who performed the reconstruction work.

For the golfer, the course upgrade can be considered a winning undertaking. For the voter and the 85 to 90% of the people who do not play golf, most likely, the money could have been better spent. Streets, parks and recreation with more widespread applicability would have been a more equitable place to spend the taxpayers money. In these days of fiscal constraints, maybe the money should not have been borrowed at all, for any purpose.

If questioned, a cross-section of the American public would probably label golf a rich man's game. In some regards that might be a reasonable characterization, but it is not an accurate description of golf. Many people from all walks of life enjoy the sport. That is especially true of retirees living in the great state of Florida, many of whom in no way can be classified as rich.

Irrespective of the facts about who and how many people play golf, the Gainesville City Commission used the argument of a need by a wide spectrum of the community as a justification for spending the million plus dollars to fix-up Ironwood. It was being done for the children, for those who couldn't afford a private golf club.

What was left unsaid is that commercial golf clubs in the area are failing for the most part because of too few customers for the courses available. Much like Ironwood, some of the commercial courses are and have been money losers, year after year. Unlike the Gainesville city course, the commercial courses cannot look to the taxpayers to bail them out of each year's operating deficit. Consequently, they fail. They go out of business.

By the way, the city course, remodeled to benefit the children and others who found golf unaffordable, charges $37 per round, $31 for seniors. Several commercial courses in the area charge in the range of $24 to $31.

With all that I have said, the Gainesville Sun in an article (Ironwood remains in the red; some progress) by Chad Smith, Sunday, June 12, 2011, reports the following revenue, expense and rounds played statistical history for the past five years.

Note that the number of free rounds, presumedly that go to deserving children and not to polls or political hangers-on who feel themselves entitled to free golf, has declined since the upgrade. What's with that?

Looks like a loosing proposition, before and after the remodel. But what the heck, Gainesville can forego fixing a few potholes, repainting the stripes on the tennis courts, maybe even close a municipal pool, or some other amenity to cover for the ill-spent loses at Ironwood. If taking money away from other more deserving projects fails to cover all of the golf loses, taxes can always be raised to keep my golf course playable.