The Meridian Star file photoThe Long Creek Reservoir used to border the Lakeview Golf Course but now weeds fill the space between the course and the reservoir.

The city of Meridian seems to have developed a case of the yips over the Lakeview Golf Course and there’s a threat of never making financial par again.

City leaders at a budget meeting on Tuesday said they would close the course after next year if the course couldn’t generate enough revenue to cover its expenses or if the city couldn’t find someone to lease or buy the course.

The city says since October there is around a $62,000 gap between money brought in by the course and the expense required to operate it. The city covered a revenue gap from general funds last year and plans to do so again.

Listen to the golfers who play the course or at least played it in the past and you’ll hear stories of bogey, after bogey, after bogey of mismanagement.

Accusations range from misdirecting golf course funds to other city expenses, to illegally pocketing cash, to increasing fees beyond the value of the course, to simple neglect of the course’s condition.

City leaders complain of a loss of interest and support for the course by golfers. For example, city records show, revenue for the course dropped from $295,000 in fiscal year 2012 to around $98,000 by July of this year.

One can argue the city’s neglect/mismanagement of the course led to the decline in both interest and revenue that the city now laments.

In 2014, the city breached the dam and allowed the lake to drain after being warned about the stability of the dam, initially in 2008, by the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality. Richie McAlister, the city’s chief administrative officer, told The Star in 2017 that the previous administration missed an opportunity to apply for emergency funding to repair the dam.

Cost of repair had become prohibitive by 2017 and the city’s financial predicament has grown only worse since then.

With the “lake view” destroyed and playing conditions deteriorated, the course’s appeal faded like a shank into the woods.

Comments to The Star indicate the diminished appearance of the course, an increase in fees, and poor customer service are among the reasons some golfers no longer play at Lakeview.

Comments also suggest there is a healthy number of golfers who still support the course and the game. While we’re fortunate to have two beautiful courses, Northwood and Briarwood, within the county, we believe there’s also a place for an affordable municipal course.

Leaders tout quality of life features such as museums, arts, parks and festivals offered in the city that make this area attractive to residents, tourists and businesses. Lakeview has filled that role in the past, too, and could do so again in the future.

Still, the city shouldn’t be expected to continuously subsidize a failing course at taxpayer expense. Public works and public safety have also taken hits in the budget and they are priorities.

We support a plan to place the city’s operation of the course on a year-long deadline.

That said, the city should make every effort to improve conditions and give the course an opportunity for survival.

Could the city find a course manager/pro who would have a financial stake in the course and an incentive to make it viable?

Could a permanent parks and recreation director properly give the course attention and market it?

We also agree with Councilwoman Fannie Johnson who said, if “The golfers want Lakeview saved, the golfers are going to have to get more active.”

We say that means golfers should do more than complain and talk about how great the course used to be. Look instead for solutions. Could a Friends of Lakeview Golf Course help maintain the course and promote it?

Golf is a great game for all ages. It teaches observation, precision, patience, camaraderie, manners and sportsmanship among its virtues.

Golf is also humbling, which applies to this challenge.

We hope the city and golfers line up this shot together and knock it in the hole.