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PROVO, Utah, (AP) -- Once upon a time, Utah didn't have enough public golf courses to satisfy the demand. Weekend tee times often required getting reservations weeks in advance.
So beginning in the 1960s, just about every city and county in the state built course. And although expensive to build -- and in a desert, expensive to keep green -- but experts said over time the publicly funded fairways would pay for themselves.
What wasn't said was that sometimes it took courses built in the late 1960s until 1992 to turn a profit.
Today, Utah has 60 public courses, most of which are losing money. Some private courses are also only scraping by.
"They've built so many courses it's tough," says Ernie Schnieter, the owner of two Ogden-area courses. "They don't have to pay taxes, like we do, so they can offer green fees at a discount. We have to match that. Then they offer two-for-ones, and we can't compete with that."
Some blame a sagging economy; others believe it's the decline in the number of golfers nationally.
But most say Utah's supply simply outweighs the demand and claim city and county governments are to blame.
Salt Lake County lost $1.8 million on golf last year. Provo's Reserve at East Bay lost $736,000. The state-run Soldier Hollow course lost some $800,000. The numbers are similar across the Wasatch Front.
And that's bad news for taxpayers.
"The losers in all of this are people who don't play golf," says Mike Jerman, vice president of the Utah Taxpayers Association. "The government has no business running a golf course."
Local governments subsidize the state's links in a variety of ways.
Since 1994, North Salt Lake has taken more than $3.8 million from its general fund, money that could go to fix roads and pay for employees, including police officers.
Salt Lake County takes money from tourism and recreation funds. And in Utah County, Spanish Fork city leaders siphon money from the city electrical fund, keeping rates for customers perhaps higher than they have to be.
Once a private courses, the now publicly owned Cedars Hills Golf Course lost $223,000 last year and is on track for close to $300,000 in losses this year. When it was private, the course was earning a profit.
As a private course, Cedar Hills might be generating close to $100,000 a year in property tax money that would go to the cash-strapped Alpine School District, which ranks dead last in the country for per-pupil expenditures.
A consulting firm told city officials the course could turn them a profit of $150,000 a year on the course in its first 10 years and after that, even more.
The losses and the lack of other services has raised the hackles of some residents and prompted at least one lawsuit.
But without municipal courses, many Utahns couldn't afford the sport. And as the state continues to grow, courses become increasingly important as a buffer of green between wall-to-wall concrete and asphalt.
Golf ranks as the No. 2 revenue generator for State Parks and Recreation, ahead of camping and just behind day entrance fees. The state doesn't expect its courses to make money, says Deputy Parks Director Steve Roberts.
State, city and county governments also spend heavily on other recreational facilities, like tennis courts, swimming pools, museums and parks, most of which break even at best.
"Golf for some reason has been held to a different standard than other recreational activities," Scott Whittaker, executive director of the Professional Golf Association of Utah says. "For some reason it's OK to spend millions on recreational complexes, but golf courses were brought online with the idea that they have to make money."
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
