Gainesville city commissioners will spend $25,000 on a contract with the National Golf Foundation to see how the city can improve Ironwood Golf Course.
The course lost almost half a million dollars last year, and the city has lost more than $3 million on the course since the city bought it in 1992.
On Thursday, commissioners voted to spend $1 million on improvements - money Commissioner Jack Donovan thinks should be spent elsewhere.
"I think we help Gainesville's future a lot more if we invest in our children," Donovan said.
Back in February, the commission voted to keep the course over other options, including selling or leasing it.
Commissioner Scherwin Henry stated at that meeting, "The city commission really should make the commitment to go in, re-do those greens, give Ironwood the chance that it deserves to survive."
Ironwood worker John Herceg says, "The course offers many attributes to this society, a place for everyone to come together, a place for functions on and off the golf course, and the golf course needs the improvements."
The million dollars will primarily be used to update the greens, which sit just above clay, causing the course to become rough and slow for golfers.
"Under the greens, it's clay as opposed to what is the norm, which is sand. Sand drains well, clay does not. Consequently, our greens are always infected by mold and so they're very rough and not good," Donovan said.
The change would not only improve a golfer's score, but it could also help Ironwood and the city financially, bringing in more players and more revenue for a course already in the red.
A $2 increase in green fees is already in place to help pay for the deficit. It has also been proposed to increase each round of golf by $5.