A Star Tribune article that cited the Hacker's Guide, highlights the challenges faced by city-owned golf courses in the Twin Cities. New Prague Golf Club in New Prague, Minnnesota, is struggling with a heavy debtload from an update to their clubhouse a few years ago. They've cut their overhead about 30% over the last four years and it is still in the red by about $100,000 a year.

Like many courses, New Prague is struggling, but as a public asset (in our opinion), shutting it down doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. When Hacker's Guide rated it in 2008, we considered it was a nice course.

From the Star Tribune article:

"The Hacker's Guide, a local rating service on golf courses, rates the New Prague course as an 822, well above CreeksBend's 703 and higher too than its rating for nearby courses in Jordan, Northfield and Montgomery."

Photo from the Star Tribune (Kyndell Harkness).

New Prague's woes are not just limited to them.

A 2009 Star Tribune analysis, which looked at a sample of courses in 13 metro-area cities and one county, found that in a decade they had gone from all turning surpluses to the point where almost all the suburban ones were losing money. Collectively, starting from each course's peak year, rounds sold were down by about 300,000 and earnings had declined by nearly $6 million a year.

Wow, 300,000 rounds lost and $6 million in lost income, no wonder muni courses are struggling. Ouch! We hope that New Prague holds on because it is one of the better courses in the southeast Twin Cities Metro area.