Going for the green

Going for the green

Fees are going up at county golf courses. The city owns courses too. But are government-run services such as golf courses a thing of the past?County supervisors voted Tuesday to increase a number of fees, including greens fees at public golf courses lessons drills. Outrageous? No. Smart. And appropriate.Few but avid golfers — the enthusiasts of more typical means, not the rich ones who can join private country clubs — may be aware that Los Angeles County provides public courses for modest greens fees. It's one of those things that, for golfers, enhances the region's quality of life. Like tennis courts and other public sports facilities, the county Department of Parks and Recreation's 17 public golf courses provide recreation, not in more developed and more expensive urban areas but generally in smaller, less built-up cities and unincorporated areas.Public golf is nice to have. But given the amount of park space taken up by golf courses and the proportion of people who use them compared with those who would like to have more soccer fields, basketball courts, baseball diamonds or picnic grounds, it makes sense to ask whether golf is the best use of county resources — especially since the use of public space is by definition subsidized by all county taxpayers, even when fees rise to meet the immediate costs of operations Hit Your Golf Ball Long and High.