Golf Courses Deficits: A Hole-in-One

You may not play golf.. But one Tennessee watchdog agency says, your tax dollars are being used to rescue golf courses around the state.  We dug deeper into the Tennessee Pork Report from the Center for Policy Research, and discovered some shocking numbers the center says it's found, that'll make you wonder exactly where your tax dollars are going.. Especially if you don't play golf..

Golfer Dean Draper likes to play the Bear Trace Golf Course at Harrison Bay..

"Typically when I play," he says, "twilight rate is around 45 dollars, and the regular rate is, I think, 55 dollars." 

Mr. Draper and other players here have helped make the Bear Trace at Harrison Bay, the only state-owned golf course that made money last year, and in fact, for several years.. 

"They lowered their greens fees, I'm assuming, maybe 5 or 6 go about 20 to 25 per cent, and it's made a big difference." 

A state watchdog agency, the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, says each of the other 11 state-owned courses lost so much money, taxpayers had to bail them out.. to the tune of $2.3 million.  Even if you don't play golf.. Your tax dollars paid, to help them break even.. 

"There's no justification for the state to be in the golf course business," says Drew Johnson, president of the watchdog group Tennessee Center for Policy Research.  "There's no where in the state constitution where it says the word 'golf."

So that made us wonder.. How do the city-owned golf courses in Chattanooga rate? 

We dug deeper into the numbers, and discovered the 2 municipal golf courses, plus the one the city leases out to a private company, plus a practice facility, made $1,942,000 last year, and spent $1,870,000, for net earnings of about $71,000.

 "We always try to put the money back into the courses from fees and charges that come in," says Larry Zehnder, Chattanooga Parks and Recreation. 

Zehnder says the city golf courses are easily accessible to most people who play golf, which he says, may be the main reason why the state-owned golf courses lose money. 

"A lot of the state parks are located in rural areas throughout the state of Tennessee and are a little bit further away from the metropolitan areas where people are playing," he says. 

But while Mr. Johnson with the Center for Policy Research says, Tennessee needs to prioritize its needs.

"Education, health care.. the things that the state is supposed to do," says Johnson, "they are more important than golf courses." 

Golfers who play the state-owned courses, say they're part of Tennessee's tourism draw.. 

"I would hate to see the state give them up," says Mr. Draper. 

The Tennessee State Park system, including its golf courses, are the current winners of the national Gold Medal Award for Excellence in Park and Recreation Management..  Every two years, the award is given nationally, and Tennessee won it two years ago.