Don't mess with golf

Irecently read in the Daily Pilot about Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor's proposal to eliminate nine holes from the Mesa Linda Golf Course at Costa Mesa Golf & Country Club and convert them to athletic fields for young people ("Plan swaps golf holes for fields," Sunday). I cannot adequately describe my dismay at this ill-conceived proposal.

The two golf courses at the Costa Mesa Golf & Country Club are the premier public golf courses in Orange County. There are simply no other golf courses within 50 miles that provide the same level of value, accessibility and quality. I have been a resident of Costa Mesa for 13 years, and I golf at both Mesa Linda and Los Lagos on a weekly basis, often two or more times a week. The loss of even nine holes would be disastrous to the thousands of tax-paying, voting adults who live in the community and who golf in Costa Mesa.

To spend hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of dollars ripping up the only public golf courses in Costa Mesa in favor of additional athletic fields for young people would be an inexcusable abuse of discretion and would be highly discriminatory against adult recreation and high school golf. It would be a fiscal disaster as well, eliminating hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue from green fees with no replacement revenue stream ? not to mention the cost of the athletic fields.

There are many athletic fields already in existence in Costa Mesa, but only one Mesa Linda. The city needs to be creative about using its current athletic fields ? Orange Coast College, high schools, middle schools, Coastline Community College and the many public fields ? before destroying a true community resource and invaluable adult recreational facility and home course to many local school golf teams.

The very fact that Mansoor even proposed this plan demonstrates an alarming detachment from the community he supposedly represents. Both golf courses are extremely heavily played, while many open grass fields are not.

ROB DICKSON

Costa Mesa