Lester Park Golf Course Closed For The Season

Recent numbers show both city-operated golf courses lose about $150,000 every year.

DULUTH, Minn. – After announcing a series of budget shortcomings amid the Coronivirus pandemic, the City of Duluth is closing the Lester Park Golf Course.

Friends of Duluth Public Golf works in collaboration with the City of Duluth.

But the organization wasn’t included as part of the decision-making process to close Lester Park Golf Course.

Duluth city officials recently released details on specific plans to reconstruct its budget for the rest of the year.

Recent numbers show both city-operated golf courses lose about $150,000 every year.

Typically, the losses incurred by Lester Park are covered by the city’s general revenue fund.

That fund is also used to pay for other essential services in the city.

“That fund also has to pay for resources like police, fire, and streets. To preserve all of our essential services we are being very intentional with the way we are investing and being very cautious with the commitments we can make,” said Duluth Mayor Emily Larson.

Friends of Duluth Public Golf has held a partnership with the City of Duluth to help keep all the city-operated golf courses functioning.

The President of Friends of Duluth Public Golf says the organization was blindsided by the decision to close the course.

He believes if the city communicated these plans, they could have come up with a solution.

“To have the mayor come out and say Lester Park is closed for the season was a punch in the gut,” said Dan Baumgartner. “If it is about pinching pennies, maybe we only have walkers. we won’t use carts. this will save on damage to the courses and fewer maintenance costs.”

The President of the group believes just opening the driving range for the season at Lester Park could be another solution.

He also thinks with the large number of people wanting to use golf courses, having just one city-owned course open is not only losing out on potential revenue, but it is not enough space to accommodate the need.

As a sign of good faith, organization wants the city to ensure Lester Park will reopen next year and extend the evaluation deadline for merging the two courses to 2025 instead of 2022.

Enger Park Golf Course is expected to open the driving range beginning on Wednesday and have the 18-hole course available on Friday.