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The sand is running out of the hourglass at Wingpointe, but duffers have until the end of this golf season to play the airport links.
The closure is a blow to the golf community, said Pat Shea, who headed up the airport board when Wingpointe was built in 1987.
The Salt Lake City Department of Airports has determined not to operate or lease the 18-hole course after November, said spokeswoman Bianca Shreeve.
"There is a unique experience at Wingpointe that can't be replicated," she said. "But we are not in the business of operating golf courses."
The recent dictum by the Federal Aviation Administration that the acreage be rented or leased at fair-market value, she said, makes it impractical to operate as a golf course.
That value is well over a half million dollars annually. The Department of Airports had leased the land to the city's Golf Enterprise Fund for a dollar a year.
Shea called the closure shortsighted and just plain wrong. The place, he said, was crafted by the late Arthur Hills, a noted golf course designer. And Wingpointe often is listed among the region's top courses.
Before building Wingpointe, Shea said, the Department of Airports — then called the Airport Authority — signed a 100-year lease with the city to operate the acreage as a golf course.
He called the FAA's ruling "bogus" and said the undoing of Wingpointe left him "cynical" because the open space could end up as a parking lot.
The FAA's market-rate determination was the catalyst for the City Council to transfer Wingpointe back to the Department of Airports on July 1.
The council earlier had voted to close the Jordan River Par 3 course and is seeking funding through a proposed $150 million recreation bond to remake Glendale Golf Course as a multipurpose park.
The shedding of those courses is the result of red ink flowing from the city's independent golf fund. It's operating budget is at least $1 million in debt and the system has more than $20 million in deferred maintenance.
The golf fund was designed to be self-sustaining through green fees and cart rentals. It is not subsidized by the city's general fund. Pleas that general fund monies be used to prop up the golf system failed to sway the City Council.
What will become of the land now occupied by Wingpointe remains unclear, Shreeve said. The Department of Airports board of directors continues to evaluate what is next for the acreage.