To me, it was a case of good news followed by bad news, not that the bad news wasn't anticipated.

One moment our sporting public is cheering a vote by NFL owners to send a 10th Super Bowl to our town.

A few days later, we learned, by a vote of 36-0, City Park's Board of Commissioners OK'd the building of a "championship" golf course on real estate that long has served as home for the public golfer.

If you happened to live here, it was easy to cheer the first vote.

But the second vote?

I'll put it this way: Assuming you had "affordable" greens fees in mind for the public golfers of this area, not fees in the neighborhood of $75 to play 18 holes, building a "championship" golf course in City Park makes no sense.

Because it makes sense only if you want to turn City Park into a version of City Park Country Club.

It makes sense only if you have designs on landing a PGA Tour event, which City Park hosted in a bygone era, before the golfing landscape made a drastic change.

It does not make sense if you want City Park's primary mission to continue to be what it has done best: Serve the public golfer 52 weeks a year.

As I see it, the 36-0 vote, on a measure recommended by City Park CEO Bob Becker, was a giant step in City Park pricing the public golfer out of its home.

Here's what passed.

Phase I, part of a redevelopment plan, with a price tag of $24.5 million, includes a "championship course" designed by Rees Jones as the flagship, along with a renovated (already opened) North Course, a clubhouse, a driving range and a maintenance facility.

Phase II, with a $21.5 million price tag, was put on hold by the Board of Commissioners.

Here's what we are told.

At the moment, City Park has in excess of $15 million to handle Phase I -- $5.9 million from FEMA, $9.65 million from the state.

Here's my feeling.

With this kind of money at your disposal, why think "championship" course?

Why focus on a layout tailored more to the pro than the high-handicapper?

Why not concentrate on two quality 18-hole "public" courses, one tougher than the other, than focus on a "championship" course whose greens fees make it a long-term gamble?

This is nothing against Jones, architect of several demanding major championship courses around the country. It has more to do with the price-to-play aspect in a park accustomed to an affordable round of golf, a place where, traditionally, the high-handicappers far outnumber the low.

Those critical of golf in City Park as a waste of green space have no idea what they're talking about. They forget there was a time "affordable" fees paid by the public golfer, many of whom could not break 100, produced an annual gross revenue of $3 million, making golf the economic engine for a piece of real estate covering 1,300 acres.

There was a time golf generated as much as 85 percent of the park's revenue in daily, monthly and yearly fees, cart fees, and buying buckets of balls at the driving range.

It's hard to believe such revenue was produced at a time City Park was home to four 18-hole courses for the public golfer, hard to believe as recently as five years ago fees at the four courses ranged from $8 to $16.

Obviously, this is an era gone with the wind.

But keep two things in mind.

Keep in mind it was public golfers who once were the "cash cows" of City Park.

Also keep in mind the annual gross revenue of $3 million was accomplished without a single "championship" course.

So why has the Bayou District Foundation, which hopes to take over golf at City Park, made a "championship" course project No. 1? Simply because its No. 1 mission is landing a PGA Tour event.

My question: What about the public golfer? What about the other 51 weeks of the year, assuming you have the public golfer in mind?

At the moment, traffic on a renovated North Course, brought back to life after a modest post-Katrina facelift costing a shade over $1 million, has far exceeded expectations. And this has been done with no bells and whistles, with a trailer functioning as a clubhouse.

You might consider it as the public golfers making a point, and doing it as the folks in charge were busy changing their longtime home into City Park Country Club.

By a unanimous vote.

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