I just noticed that the premise of Matt's question was "Why do they charge so little?," and that everyone assumes this means there's something wrong with the course. Ironic, considering all the laments about how other courses charge too MUCH.
Tom,
I think you understood the context of my question but I wanted to clarify and make sure. Low green fees are great, but they also make me nervous - "Why is this course charging $35 when my muni charges $40, and my muni isn't very good?" Also, I ask myself, why did AS have to actually lower its green fees? Did it get somehow "worse"?
It sounds like AS has or had a variety of reasons: it's out of the way, the marketing is bad (it probably is if I had to start this post in the first place), the conditioning wasn't good, it doesnt have a fancy clubhouse, etc., and maybe the original green fees were too high given all of those factors.
So my comment was based on two things really: 1) Why is the green fee so low? and 2) Why is the green fee is lower than it used to be? (Of course this post has answered those questions!)
Like everyone else here, if I didn't think it was an amazing course, i wouldn't be so concerned over its fate. I still have great memories of my round there.