The Watson Lake golf course is in serious danger of disappearing if the Yukon government doesn't provide financial assistance, says the town's former mayor.

Richard Durocher said Premier Dennis Fentie, the MLA for the area, has made it clear the government won't provide the $350,000 in funding to purchase the course for a local non-profit organization that wants to save the recreational asset.

Greenway's Greens was built and operated by Bob Greenway and his family.

It's been a community jewel for both locals and tourists since it opened in the late 1980s, Durocher explained in an interview this week, while expressing sincere frustration about Fentie's unwillingness to help out.

Nobody can fault the Greenways for wanting to sell the course, as Bob Sr. is now in his retirement years and wants to spend his time doing other things, said Durocher.

The same applies to Greenway's sons who own part of the business and have devoted immeasurable effort to running it. They too have families, full-time jobs and other priorities, he pointed out.

Durocher said whether the property sells or not, the Greenways are not interested in maintaining it this year.

Though the course is 12 kilometres north of Watson Lake near the rural community of Upper Liard, the Town of Watson Lake has issued a letter of support for Durocher and the non-profit Liard Basin Golf Association.

Mayor Nancy Moore points out in a March 1 letter to the premier that the golf course provides several advantages.

It does keep tourists an extra day or two, and does add to the area's economic engine, she said.

'The second advantage is this facility has become an integral part of the cultural fabric of this region which dates back to the mid-'80s.'

The golf course, Moore writes, provides a healthy alternative for the community's youth.

'In conclusion, the mayor and council of the Town of Watson Lake supports the work of that the LBGA has begun and commends them on their efforts to keep the golf course intact and viable.'

Known to golfers across the territory as a well-manicured nine holes with top-quality greens, the course has more or less been a labour of love since the elder Greenway began building it, Durocher said.

He said Greenway's paid himself a meagre wage at times, but nothing comparable to what he's put into it, and it would be a shame to see it disappear.

Not only would it be a huge loss of a recreational asset for the Watson Lake area, but also the loss of a tourist attraction that does indeed keep highway travellers in the area for an extra day or two, Durocher said.

Greenways Greens, he pointed out, has hosted the Yukon Golf Championships in past years.

'I think it stinks that you can pump millions and millions into Whitehorse to host the (Canada Winter) Games for a couple of weeks but you can't come up with $350,000 for something that means so much to the community.'

Durocher said he does not begrudge Whitehorse at all for receiving what it has through the whole Canada Winter Games event.

It's truly frustrating when you weigh the amount of government money poured into the event against the inability of Watson Lake to secure financing to save its golf course, he said.

If the community of Watson Lake golfers can't come up with the money to buy the course and soon the Greenways plan to market it simply as 70 hectares of prime real estate nestled against the Liard River north of Watson Lake, he said.

Durocher said if it is sold or simply permitted to grow in, replacing it would be a mammoth task, financially and otherwise.

Securing the land, said the two-term mayor, would be a task in itself, never mind the years of development before a single club would be swung.

And there is no way anyone these days can build a course of that quality for anywhere close to $350,000, he said.

When Bob Greenway Sr. was expressing a desire to ease his involvement with the course a few years ago, an upstart non-profit organization took over its administration and management during the summers of 1999 and 2000.

For two years, the Liard Basin Golf Association looked after the facility, and paid Greenway $20,000 a year to rent the nine holes, as well as remain on as the grounds keeper and equipment operator.

The association paid other staff as well, and still came away with a small profit of a few thousand dollars.

The non-profit association, said Durocher, has demonstrated its ability to keep Greenways Greens profitable.

He says there's no way, however, it could afford to borrow the purchase money and remain in the black with payments on a loan that size, on top of the regular operation and maintenance expenses.

Fentie said by phone Wednesday from his home in Watson Lake his government will not involve itself in the purchase of a privately-owned facility.

The government is addressing community issues and growing priorities across the Yukon, including improvements to community infrastructure in the Town of Watson Lake, the premier insisted.

He noted the commitment to rebuild Robert Campbell Highway that heads north from the community.

'If there is a way we can work things out in matters impacting the southeast Yukon, we always will,' Fentie said. 'But in this case, this a privately-owned facility and the government has made no decision to involve itself.'

In a letter to Durocher in February, the premier did mention a number of government programs and funds that might be of interest to the golf association, as well as recommending he contact the Business and Trade branch of the Department of Economic Development.

'I wish you and your association success in this worthy venture and look forward to Greenways Green remaining an integral and viable enterprise in our community,' Fentie wrote on Feb. 21.

Robert Greenway, son of Bob Sr. and a partner in the course along with his brother, Bill Greenway, explained yesterday that with their families and other priorities, they simply don't have the time to devote to the course anymore.

The course does make a profit, and it's possible to sell it as viable business venture but any buyer would also need to invest a great deal of his or her own time and effort to make it go.

It's likely more attractive as a piece of real estate, he said, adding they've been advised its value as raw land alone is in the neighbourhood of $500,000.

Robert said they've offered the course and equipment to the association at a cost below the real estate value because they want the golf course to remain as is.

'I mean, we have put a lot of sweat and effort into this,' he said. 'We basically put all the profits into just keeping it going because it is a beautiful course, and it does keep tourists around.'

Robert said there have been a couple of golfers who have come on their own private aircraft to play the course, after seeing a virtual tour of the fairways and greens on the Internet.

The Greenways have told the association they'll likely be listing it on the market in May.

Anne Gervais, an avid golfer and Watson Lake's barberette, as she describes herself, has begun circulating business-style cards with Fentie's 1-800 number to those who want to call and lobby the premier for the required financial assistance.

In the last couple of years, she said this morning, the number of youth golfing has doubled or even tripled with the assistance of a golf program through the Liard First Nation.

'Last year, we had so many youth out there it was incredible,' Gervais said. 'And these youth live across the street at Upper Liard.

'And if these youth don't get to play, what is it going to do to them, to the justice system, to the social system? Has the government thought about that?

'This is a wellness thing,' Gervais insisted.

'And it's also a tourist thing,' she added. 'Our government of the Yukon always promotes stay another day.'

'You know how many tourists come here and say, we are staying another day because we have to get a grip on your golf course?''

Durocher said he is aware of the Community Development Fund, which the premier did point out in his February letter.

It was suggested to him through the grapevine, however, that the likelihood of the golf association getting a grant to buy the facility is next to nil, he said.

Durocher said it wasn't his wish to go public or make this a political issue, particularly when you sit back and look at it; common sense says buying the golf course and keeping it as a golf course for the community under a non-profit organization is the right thing to do.