PUBLIC golf courses around Ireland are being emptied due to an exodus of golfers opting for the cut-price fairways of previously unaffordable clubs.

Fingal County Council officials in north Dublin have lost over half a million euro operating two facilities and are now examining tenders from private companies looking to take over the management.

The two run by Fingal – Elmgreen and Corballis – have between them lost nearly €610,000 in the last three years.

Waterford City's municipal course is offering a near 30% reduction to those who can produce proof of unemployment in a bid to stop the exodus.

Experts in the field have said that in line with recessionary times, and as traditionally exclusive clubs slash green fees, those previously popular public courses now seem below par.

"In 2007 before the economic crash they recorded a loss of €54,000. A year later, the two courses were €328,278 in the red and managed to lose another €227,216 last year," said Fine Gael councillor Kieran Dennison.

"Golf courses all over the country are finding the going tough, but it is surprising that even at the height of the boom in 2007 the council's courses were losing money."

A spokeswoman for Fingal said it only recently received the last of seven tenders and hoped that the move would not lead to an increase in green fees.

An expert in public golf courses, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Sunday Tribune that it was the once-high-end clubs that had eaten into the public clientele.

"The drop in price of green fees is bad for those below them. The fellow who is paying €20 can go and play a better course for €20 and get breakfast thrown in," he said.

"The guys who play public golf courses play a lot. But now if you pay €1,500 for membership in Druid's Heath, and you play twice a week, it would mean you are paying €15 a round. That leaves the public course in a quandary."

In Waterford, the municipal Williamstown Golf Club noticed a drop-off in numbers but it claims to have stemmed the exodus by offering increasingly better deals.

In 2006 there were 285,000 games at the club compared to just under 200,000 last year. Now reductions for the unemployed, early bird rates and plans for further promotional options are all designed to dissuade players from teeing off elsewhere.