Nathan Gowan: Modesto making it too expensive to play public courses

Me and a buddy went to Rancho Del Rey in Atwater over the weekend to play 18 holes of golf. I booked a 10:30 tee time for $31 with a cart. You can’t play 18 in Modesto for less than $35 and that doesn’t include the cart. Now we need a $5 deposit on top of the $15 our courses already charge to use a cart. I also read courses will start charging us a fee to use our debit or credit cards. These courses would benefit greatly if they lowered their green fees or even reduced their cart fees to $7.50 per rider. They are going to lose golfers who find a cheaper rate out of town. Why not try to keep these players in town.

This story was originally published August 28, 2017 at 1:15 PM with the headline "Nathan Gowan: Modesto making it too expensive to play public courses."