Tiger Woods scored a dramatic (and perhaps costly) victory this weekend at a public golf course in San Diego county. It was great publicity for the course, naturally, but it prompts the question of whether cities should even own golf courses.

Earlier this year, the San Diego Institute highlighted what stands out as an egregious case of wasted public spending on a golf course: $63 million to develop the Crossings at Carlsbad.

How much is $63 million? W. Erik Bruvold, president of the institute, says that in FY 2004-05 (presumably the year the course was finished), the city of Carlsbad had revenues of $205 million.

OK, so operating expenses and revenue are different from capital expenses. By comparison, two courses on the Golf Digest "100 Great Golf Courses" list for 2005 were developed at a cost of under $20 million.

Golf has been called--not by libertarian think tanks but by Governing magazine, no less--the least essential of non-essential government services. Yet the politicians keep at it.