For those of you not old enough, or not from the South, there are some pretty terrible stories about conversions from public to private that were done to avoid desegregating courses.
One notable case is Pinetree in Kennesaw, GA, a superb course that hosts many state qualifiers and championships. (I believe the orginal design was Chick Evans, and Bill Bergin did a magnificent renovation about 10 years ago.)
Pinetree was originally public, with a pool and tennis courts, as part of the Cobb County Parks and Recreation Department. When the county was ordered to desegregate the pool, they sold the complex to a group of private citizens, all of whom happened to be white. Pinetree remains private to this day; some of you might recall reading about the murder of an assistant pro there last year in a truly bizarre case.
A similar thing took place in Greensboro, NC, and I'm sure many other places across the South as well. Here in Durham, there was a period of time when a then-important amateur tournament was moved away from Hillandale, the ancient municipal course that had been given to the city in a trust by, John Sprunt Hill, one of the early big money guys in Durham, along with the Dukes. Mr. Hill's trust specified that the course would be used and enjoyed by the white citizens of Durham, and so the course wouldn't allow Blacks to participate in the tournament, which was sponsored by the local newspaper. The tournament moved until the charter was changed by the trustees, but it took some time.