The Los Angeles county Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to raise golf fees at the 17 public courses in its Parks and Recreation system. 18-hole weekend green fees will now be $35, a two-dollar increase, while the weekday 18-hole golf course fee will rise from $25 to $26. Senior fees will rise to $13.50, while junior fees will remain unchanged at $5.00.
The price increase is set to take effect on April 1. L.A. County courses had last seen their fees raised in 2009.
“This is a very reasonable and necessary increase,” said SCGA Director of Governmental Affairs Craig Kessler. “Costs, particularly for energy and water, are squeezing the operators; after the increase goes into effect, the Los Angeles County golf system will still remain the leading price to value proposition in the region.”
According to the L.A. Times, members of the Department of Parks and Recreation said the county’s golf course fees are still 25% less than similar public courses in the region.
For a full list of the new fees, view this document.
The following is taken from the Los Angeles Daily News:
Exception to greens fees criticism - Thursday, March 24, 2011
Re "Obama proves records are made to be broken" (Comment, March 22):
Hoover Institution senior fellow Thomas Sowell can't be writing about golf courses here in Los Angeles. Los Angeles County's 17-course system pays all of its bills, provides profit margins for private contractors, funds all of its capital improvements, operates a comprehensive junior golf program and returns $16 million annually in net profits to the county Parks and Recreation Department. The city of Los Angeles' system isn't as financially impressive, but it still returns more than $1 million in net proceeds to its own parks department each year.
Here in Los Angeles, municipal golfers pay greens fees well in excess of the monies necessary to fund their recreation. Those monies are used to fund local public parks that might otherwise not have that funding in the current fiscal environment - a good deal for golfers and taxpayers alike.
CRAIG KESSLER
Studio City
The writer is director of governmental affairs for the Southern California Golf Association
