"Many munis are scruffy, but when you're a kid, or a newbie, you don't care much about the quality of the cart paths or the sharp edging around the bunkers."

John Paul Newport's WSJ eulogy for Z Boaz GC includes this reminder that a certain kind of golf is not only a loss for its longtime locals, but also for introducing new players to the game.

When I was growing up, youngsters could play 18 holes on all five Fort Worth city courses for 50 cents on weekdays. That was my introduction to the game: carpools to the muni and long summer days of golf. Fifty cents in 1967 equates to $3.44 today. That's less than half of Z Boaz's current junior weekday rate of $9. As for the nearby daily fee courses, they either don't have junior rates or they start at $20 after 3 p.m. The cheapest regular weekday green fee at Hawk's Creek, the nearest daily fee course to Z Boaz, is $30 to walk, which is at the low end of daily fee courses in town. That's a lot of scratch for a 13-year-old who just wants to hack the ball around with his friends.

Many munis are scruffy, but when you're a kid, or a newbie, you don't care much about the quality of the cart paths or the sharp edging around the bunkers. You just want to hit the ball, find it, and hit it again.