Ben--
My bad; you're right. I misattributed the "dorks" dig.
Mike--
As for that, could it be because the golf club manufacturers do a better job of marketing their products than golf courses do of marketing theirs? Of course it is! This is what I mean when I call for more creativity on the part of golf course owners. But if a guy playing golf in a backwards hat at a public course is enough to get you in a tizzy, then I don't know what else to do than wish you luck.
But on to a more interesting topic. Your gripes about "unfair" (do you move your ball out of a divot in the fairway?) are noted, I guess, but even so, an excellent municipal golf course has some effect on the people who move to a municipality and pay taxes there.
Which is why I am still struggling to understand your hatred of municipal golf, especially since it's a place where real, tangible positive improvement of golf courses for the masses is happening. I'm not seeing as many privately-owned daily-fees undertaking these sorts of exciting and important renovation/restoration projects. Again, you think the deck is stacked, but maybe it's turned out that some of those privately-owned daily fees were ill-advised in the first place. Didn't you basically admit as much re: Cateechee and its declining base of customers?
Hartford, CT; Wilmington, NC; Savannah, GA; Ft. Myers, FL; Hobbs, NM...all these and other municipalities have decided to improve their cheap golf courses in hopes of retaining existing residents and attracting new ones, especially since golfers tend to make more money and pay more in taxes than non-golfers. My father has fallen in love with the renovated Keney Park course in Hartford; it's greatly revived his enjoyment of the game. It may help keep him and my mother living (and paying taxes) in the area a little longer than if it had remained a neglected eyesore. I have a feeling he's not the only person for whom that may be true.
And guess what: improved access to good-quality, inexpensive golf draws new players to the game. At Sandridge GC here in the snowbird-and-retiree-heavy town of Vero Beach, FL, whenever they host junior clinics, the range is packed. They host junior golf tournaments in the summer and the place is abuzz with kids even in searing summer heat. (FWIW, I see a lot of novice adult golfers working on their swings on the range there, too.) A number of those kids are going to become lifelong golfers. Don't you want there to be as many golfers as possible, in the hopes that some of them will help keep some privately-owned daily-fee courses afloat in the future?
Well-run munis like Sandridge are a model for what pretty much every golf course not at a destination resort should be doing to help replenish the declining stock of golfers. As someone who works in golf and therefore benefits from the golf industry's prosperity more than its decline, doesn't hating municipal golf go squarely against your interests? It definitely goes against mine, both financially speaking and re: my belief that golf is generally a force for good in one's life.