This thread is very pertinent to a battle going on in Lexington, KY, where I attended college and still play once or twice a year.
Lexington has a fantastic municipal course system that, unsurprisingly, requires a subsidy from the local government. The city has had to cut back on local spending, with fire station brownouts and other funds getting cut, and golf has come under fire. For whatever reason, the golf courses (and pools, for that matter) are looked at as businesses that need to make a profit for the city to justify their existence while regular parks would never get held to such a standard and are community beacons.
The city wants to at least limit the subsidy the courses receive, which really seems fair enough. But the question of how to improve the margins of the courses has arisen, and I've debated it with friends to no better resolution than the local government has reached.
Aside from other things discussed in the thread, is it beneficial financially to close courses for the winter even in climates where winter play is frequently an option (avg January high is about 40 degrees, with quite a bit of variation)? I've wondered if closing a few of the courses for the winter months might keep them from operating at a loss during those months, but I've read in this thread that significant upkeep would still be required. Is it easier or more difficult for a public course to make a winter day profitable?