Rex Jory: Can Adelaide maintain council-subsidised golf courses for the entertainment of a minority?

AS Adelaide expands — both in high-rise towers and in population — can it continue to justify three playgrounds of the rich occupying so much open public space so close to the city?

Are golf courses a fair and appropriate use of inner-city public parklands or are they becoming recreational dinosaurs?

AS Adelaide expands — both in high-rise residential and commercial towers and in population — can it continue to justify three public golf courses occupying so much magnificent open public space so close to the city?

The two 18-hole courses plus the nine-hole par three course at North Adelaide tie up hundreds of hectares of superb parklands in the centre of the state’s most intensely populated residential area. They are the playground of an elite few — people with time, opportunity and reasonable wealth.

This is not a call to shut down the courses, merely an attempt to promote a public conversation about the value, purpose and perhaps fairness of the golf courses. Hundreds of thousands of people see the courses every day yet they are invisible. They are taken for granted.

A golf course occupies something like 40 hectares. In Adelaide’s case three courses are sandwiched between the central business district, established houses and shopping precincts in North Adelaide and rejuvenated residential suburbs like Bowden, Ovingham, Brompton, Thebarton and Hindmarsh.

But for people in western North Adelaide, Bowden, Brompton and Ovingham the wonderful open spaces they overlook are fenced off and locked away. They are the exclusive domain of golfers.

It is possible, on some weekdays, to walk the boundary of the South course along War Memorial Drive and not see a golfer. But the undulating, tree-studded course is no place to set up a barbecue or take children rambling. Golfers only. Keep out.

A 28m basketball court could be used by 10 players, a 50m skate park by perhaps 50 board riders and a 24m tennis court by four players. A 400m golf fairway may be occupied by two golfers.

Part of the existing courses could be returned to parklands with barbecues, playgrounds, ponds, skateparks, courts, cycle paths, walking trails and even the reintroduction of koalas and other wildlife.

The residential population of Adelaide and North Adelaide is currently around 23,000. By 2036 it could be 38,000. The extra 15,000 people will place mounting pressures on Adelaide’s open spaces.

At the same time the interest and participation in golf is declining. A report into Australian golf published in 2013 says 50 per cent of golf clubs are in financial distress, 51 per cent have fewer than 100 members and 60 per cent of golf club members are over 50 years of age.

Between 2000 and 2015 golf club membership in Australia fell by around 80,000. In the United States 30.6 million people played golf in 2003 but by 2014 the figure was 24.7 million. Of those who play, 45 per cent earn more than $100,000.

Modern lifestyles make it difficult for many people, particularly those with families, to devote at least five hours on a weekend to play golf. People on lower incomes can no longer afford to play.

Conventions and etiquette, including outdated dress codes, discourage young people from playing. There are competing activities, particularly for younger people, including greater mobility and a raft of new technology distractions.

These random statistics suggest the use of Adelaide three inner-city golf courses will continue to decline

Which brings us to the original question: can Adelaide continue to maintain these council-subsidised golf courses for the entertainment of a minority? Are golf courses a fair and appropriate use of inner-city public parklands or are they becoming recreational dinosaurs?

Should the courses be the subject of an inquiry or public survey? Is the land devoted to golf unnecessarily large? Can the existing courses be redesigned or have areas pruned from their footprint and returned to public parks?

I am not demanding change, simply raising questions and prompting public conversation on an issue which will one day become more pressing as Adelaide’s population grows and golfing numbers fall.