A national trend hit locally when the Baton Rouge parks department earlier this year announced plans to close one of its six golf courses, the second to close in the past five years. The Dumas Memorial golf course will be repurposed, BREC says, as part of the large-scale renovation of the zoo and Greenwood Park.
Golf courses were part of a nationwide building boom in the 1990s and early 2000s, but over the past 15 years, golfing participation has fallen by 20%, from 30 million in 2005 to 24 million today.
Now, according to the National Golf Foundation, there are more municipal courses than ever—some 2,800 across the country—but they are serving far fewer golfers than they once did. As a result, course costs are cutting into city budgets, Governing reports. One-third of public golf courses don’t make enough to cover annual operations. That number goes up when taking into account other expenses, such as debt and employee retirement benefits.
In the past year alone, more than a half-dozen cities including Aurora, Colorado; Detroit; and Houston have closed public courses, and even more may follow suit. Chula Vista, California, and Seattle are studying possible alternative uses for their city-owned golf courses. In Minnesota, where 40 golf courses have closed since 2005, Duluth is weighing whether to sell one or both of its courses, which are deeply in debt and in need of a $7 million upgrade. Louisville, Kentucky, is considering closing or selling four of its 10 public courses because they are straining the city’s already-tight budget.
As many cities across the country try to find the right balance between promoting economic growth, offering affordable housing and providing quality-of-life green space, golf course closures represent what might be the last big land grab in highly developed metro areas. Government officials are tasked with striking the right note for their communities—and not repeating mistakes of the past. Read the full story from Governing.
