Sorry to hear that, but in reality, for most periods of time - the 20's and 90's being two exceptions, stand alone public courses couldn't pay for operations and debt.
I have done the math before, so you could use the search funtion, but here is a recap for a mid level public course. (All typical assumptions)
Revenues
30,000 rounds at $70 per player - $2,100,000
$45 greens fee
$10 cart
$2.50 Range balls average
$7.50 F and B (can vary up to $15 with good cart girls!)
$5 - With proper logo, etc. merchandise sales can be $2-10 per round.
Golf Maintenance - $400K-$900,000
Pro Shop Management - $400-$600K
Debt on $2M/$10M - $200K - $900K
Management Fees - $100K
Owner Profit at 15% - $300K
$1.4M - $2.8M
As you can see, the expense numbers can be over or under making a non profitable course.
The trick is to:
Minimize Debt, which the $2M bid does, or have course construction paid for by housing development or municipal funds. Like restaurants, there are several golf courses that do much better for the second - or third - owner. In fact, those other bids probably feel they will get the course in a few more years close to the price they bid!
Present a course that appears to be worth $+50 to play at a cost closer to the maintenance levels of a $30 course, since golf maintenance is the biggest ticket operations item. I know a lot of supers who excel at this, getting more bang for the buck than others with bigger budgets. They are worth their weight in gold!
Present a service level commiserate with a $50 round, and also inexpensively. I think the trick to that is to not spend a dime on things like lockers that hardly anyone uses, or full service restaurants, when most golfers eat burgers. Of course, it helps if your clubhouse is 6,000 SF of heat and lights vs. 20,000 SF. But, if you ever think that a course should provide "mango scented towels" at a %50 greens fee, realize that they are cutting costs as much as they can to make ends meet.
Eliminating debt is the biggest single thing a golf course can do to be profitable. That's why so many are paid for by housing developers, where the construction cost is in the development. Or why city courses are paid for out of general revenue bonds, rather than special issue bonds.
Without debt, most course can manage quite well, properly managed. Its a litte skinny right now, but probably closer to golf's long term average business situation than Owner's admit - they aren't comparing to the averages - they are comparing business to the boom of the 1990's.
All of the above is based on the "typical mid range course." Courses like Cowboys which attract plus $100 fees or Bandon Resorts have a whole different structure than those that cater to local play. Bear Trace may be a "tweener" in that they were trying to be a golf resort trail, but I am not sure that Tennessee was ever going to be the next Florida for golf.