I told you so.

Recently, these two letters to the editor appeared in the Great Falls Tribune.

Reconsider hike The city commissioners should be assessed a two-stroke penalty for their decision to apply an additional $14 fee to passholders who wish to play in golf tournaments at city courses.  Steve’s Best Ball, one of Great Falls longest-running tournaments, was recently canceled because not enough teams were willing to pay the fee.  The commissioners need to take a mulligan and reconsider their decision before more tournaments are canceled.  — Kevin Fisher, Great Falls

Shortsighted fee I would like to express my disappointment in the fee increase for golf tournaments in Great Falls. I have been playing in the Steve’s Best Ball tournament now for 15 years, but now I can’t because the tournament fee drove them to cancel it because of a lack of entries.  This has never happened, except when the weather did not permit play.  I have talked to many of my fellow golfers, and they all have said that they refuse to pay $14 a day on top of tournament costs. When you add up to $54 dollars to a once-affordable tournament, what do you expect?  Now the course loses money, as do the concessions. I understand something had to be done, but $14 a day on top of the tournament fee is stupid.  You could have made it $5 a day and made out like bandits.  Now one of the most popular tournaments here is canceled, and the course makes no money. If something does not change soon, almost every tournament will be canceled, and the golf fees will go up again to compensate for the city’s mistakes.  All they had to do from the beginning, instead of going out and hiring some consulting firm, was meet with the local golfers and iron some plans out for the season. We are the ones who know what needs to be done, not some out-of-town firm. I hope next time we can work together and not against each other to solve these problems.  — Dan Martin, Great Falls

Sometimes increasing your fees decreases your total revenue. I told you so. (I'll leave out the "Nanny nanny poo poo"...for now.)