Legal Commentary

Houston golf is a bargain

By Tom Kirkendall

As I've noted several times over the years, the value of Houston-area golf courses is often under-appreciated by golfers in other parts of the country. In this Golf.com Press Tent blog post , Gary VanSickle indirectly highlights one of the major reasons that Houston golf is under-appreciated:

You tell me what's wrong with this picture. I flew into Miami International Airport .  .  .  and thought I'd stop in at the Melreese Golf Course, a municipal track operated by the city of Miami. It's basically just down the street from the rental car lots in an area that is not well-off -- most of the neighborhood's homes have bars over the windows.

It's noon. It's a Monday. It's beautiful -- 82 degrees, light wind. The course looks to be in outstanding condition, especially for a muni. When I ask if I can play a few holes, I'm told, sure, the course is wide open. In fact, it is all but deserted.

The girl working the register asks if I'm a Florida resident. Nope. She rings up my greens fee. That'll be $158. What, I say? State residents play for $78, non-residents are $158. Do you have a nine-hole rate, I ask? No. I totally understand trying to keep a public course available for use by local golfers. They should get a big discount. It's their course. But this isn't a local discount, it's statewide? What good does that do? You think anybody is going to fly down from Jacksonville to golf Melreese when there are 1,200 other courses in the state? City residents should get the golf discount.

So I settle on hitting a bag of 60 range balls (that's what the sign in the shop says) for $6. When I dump the bag out on the practice range, it doesn't look like 60 balls. I count them. There are 47. I'm 13 short. That's more than 20 percent I've been shortchanged. And while many of the balls looked white and shiny, too many of them just didn't get up in the air and go, no matter how well I hit them. Mushy range balls are a fact of life in golf. Getting 20 percent less product than I was promised, that's something else.

After I hit balls, I chipped and putted on the practice green (which was in very nice shape) for more than an hour. A couple of German guys who'd been hitting on the range did the same. They eventually left. So did I. I spent less than $10 at the course -- I bought range balls, plus a drink and crackers. I gladly would have paid $80 to play, but not $158. So due to excessive pricing, the course got zero.

Melreese used to be an example of how to run a muni. Improved conditions usually brings more play, more golfers. I was there for 90 minutes and saw no one tee off. I saw a couple of twosomes, a threesome and a single already on the course. The old parking lot was closed due to construction of a new clubhouse and, I presume, a new cart barn.

Somebody has to pay for that. But it's not going to be my $158.

What's wrong with golf? Gee, I can't imagine.

VanSickle could have hit the same number of range balls and played 18 holes at Houston's venerable muni, Memorial Golf Course (which is a better course than Miami's Melreese) for $42 if he took a cart, $31 if he walked. $15 more if he called ahead to reserve a tee time.

Full post as published by Houston's Clear Thinkers on March 23, 2009 (boomark / email).