John Paul Newport’s Saturday golf column in the Wall Street Journal is always good reading. Being a New Yorker, I was especially interested in his piece this weekend on Ferry Point, the Jack Nicklaus-designed course in the Bronx that has mushroomed from a projected $22.4 million project to more than $100 million and, with luck, will open in late 2011 (only nine years late, if you believed the initial press releases). It’s worth a read: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704471504574449402598061912.html

But buried in there was this fact, of special interest to a Big Apple resident: “The 13 existing New York City courses, managed by outside companies, pump about $8 million a year into city coffers.” Who says golf is an elitist sport?

And hey, Mayor Bloomberg plays golf (although probably not all that often on city courses, and not that often in an election year). In fact, to read more about Bloomie and other notable politicians with ties to New York golf, read my piece from The Met Golfer, which ran in the Feb-March 2009 issue. (It’s a digital magazine, so go to this link and you’ll find “Golfers-in-Chief” on the contents. http://www.metgolfer-digital.com/metgolfer/20090203/)