Plea to Georgia: Don't privatize your state park golf courses!

I don’t mean to brag here, but I’ve been to a great many places in the world – Africa, Asia, Europe and all over the Caribbean – and one of the best golf trips I’ve ever taken is a tour of the Georgia state park golf system.

The courses may differ in quality, in terms of strategy and aesthetics, but they are uniformly in great shape, they are in beautiful, scenic parts of the state and green fees are relatively low. There’s just something about playing golf in a state park setting that’s as serene and peaceful as fishing for bream with a cane pole on the banks of the Suwannee River or Hard Labor Creek.

But, the state is now considering a plan to privatize most of them. The Board of Natural Resources voted recently to recommend privatizing seven of the eight.

It’s easy to understand the logic: Governor Sonny Purdue is ordering government agencies to slash budgets, and the state courses rarely make money.

But, it’s not quite that black and white.

True, most of the courses are in fairly isolated parts of the state – which is where state parks tend to be – and consequently don’t pull in a lot of golfers from metro areas.

But, the economic impact is greater than just green fees. A lot of people, including large grounds, who aren’t strictly state park visitors play these courses. They stay in local motels, eat in local restaurants and otherwise spur employment in rural communities where jobs are hard to find.

Privatization hasn’t worked well in the past, in terms of maintenance. One of the great selling points of these courses is their excellent conditioning, the kind of conditioning you’d find in upscale, semi-private courses, and if that falls, then the state park system won’t have the allure it has now.

I understand the state, like pretty much every other state other than Alaska, has to tighten its belt in these sour, economic times, but the Georgia state park golf system is one of the best in the nation, maybe the best, and provides the state economic advantages not easily or obviously measured.

I’d hate to see this great, pastoral attraction, so wedded to what rural Georgia is all about, compromised for short-term money needs.