There is good news and bad news from the Chuck Corica Golf Complex this week.

First the good news: The 9-hole Mif Albright course will stay open at least until school starts in September.

The course was scheduled to close last Sunday, July 20. But a petition circulated by golfers demanding that the course stay open may have proved persuasive. The course looked to be more popular than previously thought.

The par-3 course is irrigated by clean water from the East Bay Municipal Utility District, which was deemed too expensive since EBMUD restricted the use of drinking water, with penalties for overuse. So the decision was made to close the course. The Jack Clark and Fry courses are irrigated with reclaimed water.

The Mif course has had problems ever since the ninth green was removed from the course and used as a short-game practice area. The longest hole on the course was then made into two holes, with a makeshift green in the fairway. This way the Mif was still a nine-hole course. But this move wasn't popular with golfers who played the Mif and use declined.

The old ninth hole was recently restored to the Mif course, and the short-game practice area was eliminated. Play on the course did not pick up until school let out. Now the decision has been made to keep the course open, at least until school starts.

Now the bad news: Green fees are going up for residents. Only residents. Non-resident fees will stay the same. In fact, the proposal made by the golf commission is to completely eliminate resident fees.

The reasoning for this rate increase by the commission is a little convoluted in the eyes of many golfers. It has to do with the price of gas, which is nearing $5 a gallon.

If fees for non-residents are raised, the reasoning goes, out of town golfers are more likely to play elsewhere, like Metropolitan, Monarch Bay or Callippe, which have similar rates are newer and might be closer to home. Or they would play at courses with cheaper green fees, like Willow Park and Lake Chabot.

Residents of Alameda were deemed far less likely to desert the Chuck Corica Golf Complex if their rates were raised, since the course is so close to home and the price of gas would discourage local golfers from driving off Island.

With that thinking in mind, Jane Sullwold, chair of the commission, proposed to eliminate resident rates at the Corica Complex at the July 16 meeting of the golf commission. She claimed this action might be the only way to keep the golf courses open.

The commission hammered out a compromise after much discussion. Resident rates were eliminated, but residents were allowed a $2 reduction in fees.

Confused? So am I.

If the city council approves this rate increase at its Aug. 5 meeting, it would be the first time in the 80-plus year history of the golf complex that only resident rates were raised.

My opinion is that the city council has only itself to blame for this outrageous action by the golf commission.

The council has repeatedly demanded that the commission stop the bleeding at the Corica Complex. Their figures have the complex losing way too much money, and threats were made by the council to close the golf complex.

But the truth is that the golf complex is not losing money. The council takes approximately $1 million from the golf complex each fiscal year, right off the top, before the books are done. Of course, that throws everything into the red.

If the council simply took profit from the golf complex, it would realize some $200k to $300k a year. But instead, the council has bled the enterprise fund practically dry. And now the council wants to lease out the management of the operation.

The Aug. 5 meeting of the council should be interesting.

Award-winning golf writer Ron Salsig can be reached at