SDMGA Open Letter to USGA
April 24, 2006
San Diego Municipal Golfer’s Alliance has sent a letter to the USGA Executive Director David Fay on behalf of the municipal golfers in San Diego. We asked the USGA to use its good offices to prevent profiteers and special interests from using the U.S. Open scheduled for 2008 as a lever to convert Torrey Pines from what is perhaps America’s finest affordable municipal golf complex into a destination resort which only the wealthy can afford.
We explained that we were ready to work with the Mayor and City Council and have offered to do so. We are not asking that the USGA endorse our plan; just that it make clear that the host city must arrive at a solution which allows municipal golf to live and thrive at Torrey Pines. We urged them to act now to prevent irreparable harm to municipal golf and the reputation of the USGA. If the USGA does so, everyone can win. If they don’t, we fear the whole world-wide golfing community will lose.
The letter is presented below. ________________________________________________________________________
San Diego Municipal Golfer’s Alliance
P.O. Box 22575
San Diego, CA. 92192-2575
858 452 7121
April 24, 2006
Open letter to the USGA
C/o David Fay, Executive Director
United States Golf Association
77 Liberty Corner Road
Far Hills, N.J. 07931-0708
Dear Mr. Fay:
On behalf of over 1200 municipal golfers in San Diego, many of us long-time members of the USGA and the SCGA, we ask the USGA to use its good offices to prevent profiteers and special interests from using the U.S. Open scheduled for 2008 as a lever to convert Torrey Pines from what is perhaps America’s finest affordable municipal golf complex into a destination resort which only the wealthy can afford. Pending before the city government is a plan that:
· prices local residents off the golf course
· ends the senior rates at all municipal golf courses in San Diego
· establishes an unprecedented rule that local residents can only play their home course 50 times per year
· cuts organized tournament play for residents sponsored by the Torrey Pines Men’s Golf Club by 60%, including the end of all weekend tournament play
· cuts organized tournament play for residents sponsored by the Torrey Pines Woman’s Golf Club by 50%
· fails to provide for transparency and controls to assure local access
· gives away unique open parkland to a private, restricted membership organization to build office space
· paves the way for the total privatization of Torrey Pines for the benefit of profit-driven hotel owners and other special interests
The idea of including municipal courses in the U.S. Open cycle has excited many. In 2002, Bethpage was a great success, with broad support from the local golfing community. There were real benefits to the Bethpage complex where millions of dollars were invested not just in the Black course, but all five Bethpage courses, dramatically improving playing conditions on all courses. For these reasons, the USGA was proud to call the 2002 U.S. Open “The People’s Open.” As you have put it:
“That, to me, was always a major part of the magic, the idea that you can pay less than 40 bucks and play a U.S. Open course. Once the circus show, if you will, leaves town the third week in June that's not the end of it. In fact, to me, that's only the beginning because this golf course will still be here and anybody can come and play it and say they have played a U.S. Open golf course. And that's a very important part of all of this.” (Quotation from US Open.com April 2002 interview with David Fay – click here)
Fee rises for residents were regulated for a full three years after the Open left Bethpage and remain reasonable to this day. Unless the USGA takes similar steps to protect regulars at Torrey Pines and makes clear to the City of San Diego and the “Friends of Torrey Pines” that it did not come to Torrey Pines to destroy municipal golf, the 2008 U.S. Open could come to be known as “The Enemy of the People’s Open.”
Prompt action by the USGA can prevent a failure of its good intentions and keep the good will it has established over the years with the municipal golfers of the San Diego area. The following steps could be taken to avert this failure:
· As a first step, the USGA could ask the “Friends of Torrey Pines” with whom the USGA contracted to bring the U.S. Open to San Diego to put the $3.5 million in corporate tent sales they will be receiving back into the golf courses as was done at Bethpage.
· Second, the USGA can make clear to the powers that be that municipal golf at Torrey Pines must be protected against the draconian measures now proposed.
We are not asking that the USGA get into the minutiae of municipal golf rules. We are asking that it stand up for municipal golf and municipal golfers against the special interests and profiteers whose intent is to destroy the municipal character of a unique environment. There are literally hundreds of luxurious and beautiful destination golf resorts in the world, including San Diego, where the rich can play but there are only a handful of world class courses open to the Average Joe and Jill and Torrey Pines is probably the foremost of all of these.
If the USGA doesn’t intercede on behalf of the municipal golfer and stands Pilate-like trying to evade responsibility for the aftermath of bringing the Open to Torrey Pines, our sense of the pulse of this municipal golfing community is the realistic possibility of the following consequences:
· the end of municipal golf at Torrey
· a bitterly divided community
· public resignations by long time USGA members
· boycotts by resident, senior and women’s groups
· demonstrations at the Open itself.
Local golf advocates have been working for months in public forums to help craft a plan that would preserve municipal golf while accommodating world visitors. Until the Mayor recently intervened to circumvent this process by promoting a plan putting special interests first and ignoring the recommendations of his own Golf Advisory Council, a realistic working consensus was developing. Our group has proposed a plan that embodies that consensus. It is a plan that puts the golf courses and San Diegans first, not buildings or special interests. Please click here to review our plan.
We are ready to work with the Mayor and City Council and have offered to do so. We are not asking that the USGA endorse our plan; just that it make clear that the host city must arrive at a solution which allows municipal golf to live and thrive at Torrey Pines. We urge you to act now to prevent irreparable harm to municipal golf and the reputation of the USGA. If you do, everyone can win. If you don’t, we fear the whole world-wide golfing community will lose.
If you need further information or have any questions regarding us or our plan; please contact us at sdmga.org@adelphia.net. You can also contact us by phone at 858-452-7121 or by regular mail at P.O. Box 22575 - San Diego, CA. 92192-2575. We are looking forward to hearing from you.
Respectfully submitted,
John Beaver
Joe Burwell
Paul Spiegelman
Co-Founders of San Diego Municipal Golfer’s Alliance