"It's unfair competition," Bucceri said of the publicly owned golf courses. "They pay no taxes and more important, they don't have to worry about making a profit. If I don't make a profit, I go out of business."

But publicly owned golf courses in the region are piling up a sea of red ink. Only Brigantine and Ocean City are making money, and that's largely because this year, they had little debt service, which is the cost of borrowing money to build or purchase the golf course.

The publicly owned golf operations were supposed to generate enough green fees to cover their expenses. But with the downturn in golfing and with fees pretty much staying the same, taxpayers have been called on to dig into their pockets to pay for the upkeep of the public golf courses.

Ocean County's two golf courses are expected to lose more than $600,000 this year.

Egg Harbor Township's year-old McCullough's Emerald Links lost about $150,000 in its first year of operation, which ended in June.

Atlantic County's Green Tree Golf Course in Mays Landing might lose as much as $200,000 this year.

Ventnor's driving range is bringing in about half as much revenue as it did in 1998. It also has lost money in the past two years.

Evesham Township officials might have to raise the tax rate 3.5 cents to cover a million-dollar deficit incurred by its golf course.

"The fad's over," said Dan O'Connor, who oversees the Atlantis course in Tuckerton and Forge Pond in Brick Township, Ocean County. "The weather has hurt us, but the bigger factor is the economy. It's an expensive sport, and there's just less people out there golfing."

And there are more golf courses. The number of courses in southern New Jersey has more than doubled in the past 30 years. There are 14 daily-fee courses alone in Atlantic County. Another one, the Vineyard Golf course at Renault Winery in Galloway Township, is expected to open sometime this summer.

The rounds of golf played at publicly owned courses in the region is off by as much as a third from the strong boom years in the late 1990s.

Perhaps the best-run publicly operated golf course in the state is in Pennsauken. But it also is generating about half the profit it did in 1999. Nonetheless, the course, which was purchased in 1982, turned over $250,000 to the town this year in lieu of taxes. Township officials say the key to its profitability has been to avoid the crushing debt that other courses have incurred.

The picture for the publicly owned courses would be even more dismal if the loss in property-tax revenue were taken into account. In the case of Green Tree, Atlantis and Brigantine Links, for example, the courses were privately run before they were bought with public money. The private owners paid property taxes. That is not happening now because the land is publicly owned.

"It's tough out there," said Roger Hansen, the owner of Blue Herron Pines East and West. "The pie is not getting any bigger. What we seem to be doing is slicing into it more and more."

It was against this backdrop that Egg Harbor Township built McCullough's Emerald Links, a course named after Mayor James "Sonny" McCullough. In July, the nonprofit corporation that manages the course was unable to make a required $12,000 lease payment to the township. Revenue projections are off by nearly $500,000.

The nonprofit corporation expects to pay the money to the township once its cash-flow situation improves. It also owes more than $70,000 to Billy Casper Management Inc., which manages the golf course. That money also will be paid out of future revenues, according to township officials.

"We couldn't have picked a worse year to open a golf course," McCullough said. "It was an absolute struggle to get it open. Then we got hit with the drought last summer and the rains this year, but we think we'll be okay."

If not, township taxpayers are on the hook because the township guaranteed the $11 million bond issue that was used to build the course. McCullough noted that the taxpayers of Egg Harbor Township have not yet had to pay anything to operate Emerald Links.

The nonprofit corporation made a November bond payment, but that was only because it cut back on expenses and took out a line of credit with Ocean City Home Bank. The big question is what will happen in May, when a payment of $755,000 must be made.

"We'll make that payment," said Peter Miller, treasurer of the nonprofit corporation and township business administrator. "We had a good summer and fall. The worst-case scenario would be that we'd have to borrow more money from the bank."

The course was built on a closed landfill off Ocean Heights avenue. The landfill was covered with 2 feet of soil. An elaborate drainage system was installed.

"We got rid of an eyesore and replaced it with something that is pleasing to look at," said McCullough, president of the nonprofit corporation. He noted that the course provides township residents with an opportunity to play a weekend round of golf for $52, about half of what some of the private 18-hole courses charge.

"We built this for the little guy," McCullough said. "We're determined that no public money will be used to pay for Emerald Links."

Atlantic County Administrator Helen Walsh said county officials are carefully monitoring the situation at Green Tree. She noted that the county got into the golf business fully expecting it to be self-sufficient. She said the facility has more than paid for itself if one looks at the figures from when it first opened. But she added that the county might have to raise fees if losses continue.

Ocean County Freeholder John Bartlett defended the use of county money to subsidize the county's golf courses.

He said the golf courses meet an important recreational need while preserving open space. He said it is not fair to include the cost of borrowed money when determining whether the courses break even. He looks at that money as an investment in the county's future.

Meanwhile, the opening of Emerald Links in Egg Harbor Township has sparked a bitter feud between the township and private golf operators.

"They (the township) wouldn't think of opening a bar or drug store," private golf-course owner Hansen said. "Why should they build a golf course?"

James Fraser, the owner of Mays Landing Country Club, noted that Emerald Links obtained a special liquor license at no cost last year instead of having to buy one on the open market that could have cost several hundred thousand dollars.

The New Jersey State Golf Course Owners Association and the Greater Atlantic City Golf Association opposed the special license, but withdrew its opposition at Hansen's request because Hansen claims that the township was refusing to issue him a liquor license for his Blue Herron course.

Once the opposition was withdrawn, Hansen said, he got his liquor license.

"We never held him up, but I told him I thought it was pretty stupid of him to challenge us while he was seeking a license," McCullough said.

Fraser and Hansen claim the creation of the nonprofit corporation to run the golf course is an effort to keep information from taxpayers. The meetings are private. The group is not subject to the Open Public Records Act, although the reports it supplies to the township clerk are public record.

Miller, the township business administrator, said the nonprofit was created to protect taxpayers, although he conceded that taxpayers would have to pay off the bonds in event of a default. He provided a reporter with copies of golf-corporation records, but maintained he didn't have to do so because the nonprofit is not a public agency.

Miller said the private operators had better get used to Emerald Links.

"We're here now and we're not going away," said Miller.