Irony: Augusta's Muni Shuttered

Newer readers wonder why I'm hostile toward The First Tee, which, while no doubt a fine program with fantastic tax implications for those who give to the program, too often receives all of the attention from those generously giving to "grow the game."

However, the problem for American golf's future remains the same: we may be introducing new people to the game through The First Tee, and then turning them loose to limited or unappealing options for graduating to a "big" course. Like in the case of Augusta, Georgia, where there's a well funded First Tee and now we learn, the closed muni, a.k.a. The Patch.

Susan McCord and Gracie Shepherd report the sad news of The Patch's closure Wednesday, complete with Club Car picking up its leased equipment and a hapless city government that feeds off of golf-related tax dollars refusing to turn the lease over to interested parties who requested some basic repairs.

Augusta commissioners decided not to make the repairs or comply with other requested concessions, so the Kelly group backed out.

“We had a good alternative, but they didn’t like it,” an irritated Commissioner Joe Jackson said Thursday, referring to other commission members.

In fact, someone placed a sign at the clubhouse Thursday pointing those wanting to play to three commissioners – J.R. Hatney, Bill Lockett and Alvin Mason – and suggesting they were responsible for the public golf course closing.

Jackson said those commissioners certainly didn’t help The Golf Course at Augusta LLC, the new firm headed by the Kellys.

An angry Jackson even suggested the city’s handling of the situation might warrant termination of top city personnel.

“Someone’s going home,” he said.