[Phantom Lord]

Many municipal golf courses were once privately owned and then purchased by the town. That is the case with En-Joie Golf Club in Endicott NY where the PGA Tour plays the BC Open, and where I was a member for 9 years. It was originally built by Endicott Johnson Shoes for their employees. When Mr. Johnson died, he left the course to the town with the requirement that the town maintain ownership of the course and keep it open to the public forever.

[Grando Calrissian]

That's actually pretty cool. The US Open will be played at San Francisco's public course (Harding Park) in a few years, but I don't think it was ever privately owned. In fact, the City just renovated it for a pretty penny to make it PGA ready.

The great thing about golf is that you can play at a lot of the courses they hold tournaments at. You or I could play a round at St. Andrews or Pebble Beach but we'd never be able to play basketball at Madison Square Garden.