Let the Whole Thing Go

Tonight, the Oshkosh Advisory Parks Board will likely make a recommendation to the City on what to do with the remainder of the Lakeshore Golf Course after the Oshkosh Corporation builds its new corporate headquarters on about 35-acres.  That leaves around 70-acres on site--most of which makes up what had been the front nine.  Members of the Friends of Lakeshore group are pushing to preserve nine holes on the site for continued use as a golf course--with most of the holes converted to par 3's.

As an avid golfer, you might think that I would support that effort--but I do not.  In fact, I strongly oppose the idea of maintaining any of the golf holes on the former Lakeshore site.  For starters, nine-hole golf courses are a money-losing proposition.  They hold far less appeal to golfers--who usually like to go a full 18.  And executive-style par-three courses draw even less interest--as you don't use that $300 driver on any of the holes. 

Even if the Parks Board did decide it wanted to preserve golf on the Lakeshore site, it faces almost insurmountable opposition at City Hall.  Plain and simple, the City of Oshkosh doesn't want to be in the golf course business anymore.  While officials were always careful to claim that their decision to sell Lakeshore was due to the "need to keep Oshkosh Corporation in Oshkosh", let's not forget the same site was offered up for a Bass Pro Shops store just a few years earlier.  And if Oshkosh Corp decided that Des Plaines, Illinois or Northern Virginia was a better fit for them, the City would have jumped at the next chance to offer the course to another company that came calling.

That is why the Parks Board is being asked to make its decision now--so the liquidation process can begin.  If golf is going to be preserved at Lakeshore, the greens, tee boxes and bunkers would need to still be maintained even though the site could not be used for golf this year, or next year, or possibly the year after that.  That is expense with zero revenue in return.  And for a city already crushed by debt, that is not something Oshkosh can take on.  And while they may not be used for a couple of years, the mowers and conditioners at Lakeshore would still need to be maintained and operated--while a decision to dump golf now means they could be auctioned off to other courses and make the City some money.

And even if there was a par-3 course on the Lakeshore site, that would require a new parking lot, clubhouse and seasonal staff to operate it--more expense that city leaders have no interest in incurring.  Plus, when the course fails to make any money, we have to put up with the constant carping of Mayor Steve Cummings (a realtor who--like Al Czervik in Caddyshack--sees golf courses and cemetaries as the greatest waste of prime real estate) reminding everyone the city never should have spent money on the place.

If a private developer wants to come in and turn a couple of acres into a driving range with a little short-game practice area and maybe lessons available for kids and beginners, that would be great--but municipal golf in Oshkosh is now dead--and we should move on from that completely.  Besides, Trace Gardiner is now the pro at Westridge in Neenah and he's looking to do a lot of the same things he did at Lakeshore--and the Oshkosh Country Club is interested in becoming the host for the Oshkosh City Tournament from here on out.  So let's let the Millenials have their walking paths and biking trails for the few days a month when they can tear themselves away from video games and social media.