The Overton Park golf course already has a Facebook page dedicated to keeping the nine-hole course open.
A City Council budget committee, searching for $9 million to fill a gap in Mayor A C Wharton's proposed budget, voted Thursday to close the city's three nine-hole golf courses - Overton, Riverside and Whitehaven -- to save nearly $1.2 million.
The cuts approved by the committee, which were proposed in Wharton's budget contingency plan, still have to be approved by the full council.
Years ago the council mandated the creation of Riverside and Whitehaven golf courses.
In 1995, the Whitehaven course was at the center of a tug-of-war between the council and the parks commission, which pushed for a public park over a golf course. In the end, the council disbanded the commission and pressed forward with the course.
The $5.2 million project, which has a $2.2 million course and a 10,830-square-foot, $3 million clubhouse, opened in spring 2005.
The Links at Riverside in Martin Luther King Park reopened in 2005 with a new $1.3 million clubhouse, pro shop and cart storage area. At the time, the nine-hole course was the least played in the city system and was never expected to turn a profit.
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