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THE GOG BLOG by RORY SPEARS, Director of Creation and Content. Follow Rory to Heron Point GC at Sea Pines, Resort on Hilton Head Island SC. and on Twitter @GogBlogGuy, Linkedin and Facebook

THE NEED FOR A “BIG SAVE” as Blackhawks announcer Pat Foley would say is on over in Lake Bluff.

The Lake Bluff Park District Golf Course is facing the possibility of being closed for good, and that is not good.

The course is celebrating it’s 50th year in 2018, and one has to hope it’s not it’s last year of operation.

The numbers on the financial side have not been good for a while, a couple of years back the park district brought in the golf management firm of Billy Casper Golf in a hope to turn things around. That has not been the answer, and golf course management firms rarely are when clubs are struggling to begin with.

Welcome to the Lake Bluff Park District Golf Course.

There was over 200 people that came to the town hall forum on Monday night, to speak up and help save the golf course. Some of them were not even golfers, but understand the need for the course and open space in the Lake Bluff community.

Flooding the space, that is now a flood plane area, with condo’s to help make some developer rich, doesn’t help the big picture.

The park board did a great job of getting some 30+ speakers to the podium and kept the line moving. Many great points were made by the speakers offering the board a variety of good ideas on how to market and promote the golf course.

One of the points made by the board is that the golf market is a competitive one and that is true. But in the Chicago area, what business is not. While the board provided a loss number of $5.4 million for a period over the next 12 years, the real truth is, that is likely the loss number if the park district does nothing in the form of improvements over that time frame.

The Gog Blog Speaks Out, will have more to say on the Lake Bluff park District Golf Course in next Mondays column. In the mean time if you need more information and wish to show your support for the golf course, visit LakeBluffParks.org.futuregolf.