In the stream of news on the "Golf Courses in State Parks" bill that was withdrawn on Friday, this one might be the most intriguing: Arnold Palmer helps sink nutty plan for Jack Nicklaus golf courses in state parks, by Scott Maxwell of the Orlando Sentinel. Palmer's golf course design company released a statement last week lambasting the state for planning to use public lands for the courses and then for not accepting competitive bids to determine who gets to build them.
Readers described it as a betrayal of the public trust. Environmentalists, led by the Audubon Society, called it an assault on what should have been protected land. And supporters of the free market blasted it as a painfully obvious attempt to rig a business deal in an already overdeveloped industry.
