The city of Bethlehem, Pa. has called for proposals to take over the Bethlehem Municipal Golf Course in 2019 on a lease basis, and its  Business Administrator says he has already received a “ton of e-mails” from parties interested in operating the course that sees 34,000 to 36,000 rounds played annually. In Utah, Parks and Recreation administrators are preparing requests for proposals that could lead to private operation of four popular golf facilities.

A bill sponsored by Rep. Kay Christofferson seeks to issue bids to privatize the operations of Green River, Palisade, Soldier Hollow, and Wasatch Mountain golf courses. The four Utah golf courses lost a combined $1 million in fiscal year 2013, and a consultant’s report concluded that total revenue of the county-owned courses has declined 4% since 2009, even as golf rounds have stabilized.

State Representative Kay Christofferson, R-Lehi, is working on legislation that would call upon the state to privatize the operations of four golf courses: Soldier Hollow Golf Course, Wasatch Mountain Golf Course, Palisade State Park Golf Course, and Green River Golf Course. Christofferson contends that by contracting out the management of the courses, the state might be able to recoup some of the money lost on the properties.

  Soldier Hollow Golf Course at Wasatch Mountain State Park in Midway, Utah, has been selected by the United States Golf Association (USGA) as the site of the 2012 U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship, to be contested July 9-14, 2012. It will be the first USGA championship conducted in the state of Utah. “It is…