Tucson Golf: "We've cut about as much as we can cut."

Thanks to reader Jim for Greg Hansen's morbidly depressing story about the state of golf and our economy in Tucson, where the golf courses are literally ghost towns. Tucson Parks and Recreation Director Fred Gray says the numbers don't lie.

Gray tells the commission that 299,583 rounds of golf were played on the city's five courses in 2001. A decade later, 2011, that total was 193,166. It is a staggering decline that reflects national golf numbers and, of course, the nation's struggling economy.

Gray and Hayes have chopped the equivalent of 81 full-time jobs from the golf payroll over the last year, from 145 to 64. That's 176,280 reduced man-hours off the books.

"We've cut about as much as we can cut," Gray says. He acknowledges that the courses will not be mowed as precisely or as often. If you desire golf instruction, you must now work through an outside contractor, not a Tucson City Golf pro. If you buy a beer from the cart lady, her paycheck is coming from an outside firm contracted to sell you that beer.

This is golf in Tucson, golf in America, 2012. If the industry worked like TV ratings, the whole sport would've been canceled.

These are the numbers that stop the audit commission and raise a collective eyebrow: In 2011, Tucson City Golf had operating revenues of $7,015,000 and operating expenses of $8,275,000.