I never played Red Gate. Red Gate's competition was the county revenue authority that operates 9 municipal courses as Montgomery County Golf (MCG). In 2017, the last year for which I find usage data, MCG had 392,562 rounds over the 9 courses, and rounds were up 6% versus down 2.7% nationally and locally. In 2018, MCG had revenue of $15.3m and operating expense of $13.1m. Total net income just in the black. MCG is run to be self-supporting, and as far as I am aware it has been so in the decades that I've lived here. Not sure why Red Gate couldn't compete. I'm sure MCG is advantaged over Red Gate by economies of scale across the 9 courses, some of which I know have individually lost money in the past. And advantaged over other counties in MD and USA by relative wealth. Regardless, I think the future of municipal golf in USA has to be on a self-supporting model, not as (yet another) taxpayer-subsidized "right." There are simply too many stark and more compelling public needs and too few governmental resources.