"I don't have a comment about that."

Thanks to Scott for Dennis Hamill's New York Daily News column on a case of greed from Goldman Sachs-owned American Golf. They are running off a New York charity group with excessive pricing...at a city owned course.

Last year, Houlie organized 600 neighborhood people to board an ocean cruise, kicking in $60 each toward Holy Name and Bishop Ford.

"And every year for the past 13 years on the first Thursday of June we've held a golf outing at Dyker in honor of Eddie Farrell, who used to own Farrell's," says Houlie. "The Boy Scouts volunteer to cook and clean up at a barbecue in the schoolyard after the golf outing. The proceeds, around $15,000, go to Holy Name. This year, the Dyker Golf people priced us right off the course. For the first time, we're forced to leave Brooklyn and go to Breezy Point pitch and putt because Dyker got greedy with our little religious charity."

Mike Coyne, a hospital administrator, handled the Holy Name negotiation with Dyker. "Every year, we get about 160 guys who participate," he says. "In 2006, Dyker charged us $57 per golfer. In '07 they charged us $68. This year, they wanted $89. That's a 31% jump over last year."

On weekdays, Dyker Beach Golf Course charges $54.67 for greens fees and a cart for a city resident. "But they wanted to charge us $89 a head," says Coyne. "When we did the cruise, the cruise line gave us a big discount for having a large number of people. In this case, Dyker Beach Golf wants to charge us $89 a head because there are a lot of us. It's crazy."

And...

"This isn't a corporate event," says Coyne. "This is cops, firemen, sanitation workers who want to help keep their neighborhood school open. We can't ask a working guy for $180 for a day of golf. I tried to explain that to the people at Dyker Beach but they didn't want to hear it. I asked them if we could get a better price at Marine Park, which most golfers feel is an inferior course, and they said, 'no.' They run that one, too. You can't negotiate with a monopoly. So we went to Breezy Point to a pitch and putt and we're charging $100 a head."

This didn't sound right. Especially when American Golf boasts on its Web site about, "... our commitment to improve the quality of life for those who live and work in the communities we serve. That's why we support local grass roots charitable efforts. ..."

So I called Jeff DeFranco, manager of Dyker Beach Golf, and asked about all of this. He said, "I don't have a comment about that."

And hung up.