Last year, I wrote an article about the state of Brookline’s playing fields, namely the scarcity of synthetic turf playing fields, which in my opinion was – and still is – restricting youth athletes in our town.

A proposal in the Parks and Open Space 2022 Master Plan to add four new lighted, synthetic turf playing fields had seen heavy community resistance. Opponents of the proposal argued that there was a possibility of harmful polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which were used in the production of the synthetic blades of grass, potentially leeching into our drinking water and seriously affecting residents’ health.

It wasn’t an irrational concern, and after reading their presentation, I understood the petitioners’ reasons for the rejection. I wanted turf fields badly and knew they were more cost-efficient than grass ones, but I could respect the town’s desire to protect the climate and our health. It wasn’t until later in the year that my opinion started to change.

Take this statistic: the Robert T. Lynch Municipal Golf Course (RTL), Brookline’s very own 18-hole golf course, is twice the size of the Town’s largest park, Larz Anderson. It’s made available to the public for non-golf purposes only on Monday mornings, rendering it largely inaccessible to anyone with a job or school. And this is public property.

In 2022, six Town Meeting members brought a proposal to switch the 18-hole municipal golf course to a nine-hole course, reserving the rest of the open space for bike routes and natural preservation. But Town meeting voted down the proposal, showing a disregard for the safety and ease of students who have to commute through the highly dangerous Hammond Pond traffic circle, when bike routes through the golf course could allow them to avoid that.

My classmates at school never talked about this and were usually surprised by how much space the course occupied—let alone that it existed at all.

What most infuriated me, though, was the fact that the course was using pesticides containing PFAS on its grounds. According to data collected by the Town Meeting Member Clint Richmond in 2022, eight of the 73 total pesticides RTL used contained the infamous PFAS “forever chemicals.” We’d been terrified of PFAS in synthetic turf making its way into our water systems and used that argument to stop the construction of new turf fields, but we completely ignored the spraying of PFAS-containing chemicals on a golf course abutting wetlands and a wildlife area—even as state law calls for the avoidance of chemical pesticide use.

The 62 students at our high school who played golf in 2024 got nearly two acres of highly maintained town land—each—while the 420 students who played football, field hockey, soccer, baseball, lacrosse, softball and ultimate disc fought for space on grass fields that are practically unplayable after a few weeks of consistent use. I understand that golf requires much more space than any field sport. But this is not fair.

A survey conducted this year by the Town’s Open Space Department found that a significant portion of Brookline adults supported having more walking paths and trails. While 91 percent of respondents had used parks and playgrounds in the past year, only 11 percent had used the municipal golf course. Data collected by those advocating for reducing the size of the golf course shows that between 2020 and 2021, only 1-4 percent of RTL’s users were Brookline residents.

Financially, the course operates under an enterprise fund. This means it “pays its way,” using revenue to fund its projects and maintenance. It does not use taxpayer money, although it used to pay a $200,000 fee to reimburse the town for the land. The course has not paid this reimbursement since 2004.

Nothing exists in a vacuum, and the golf course is no exception. It “pays its way” as a disguise, making us believe it does not impact residents. While it may not use our money, the golf course’s mere existence is a tax on Brookline residents.

Our town provides a massive plot of land to an exclusive course that does not meet the needs of the vast majority of Brookline residents. Town Meeting is dominated by older homeowners. It’s no wonder the golf course survived a scorching, well-researched Town Meeting campaign.

We cannot afford to fall into the mentality that the golf course is a neutral, non-intrusive institution we don’t have to worry about. That’s what it thrives on as it deprives students of safer biking paths and elderly residents of beautiful walking paths and takes up land that could be reserved for natural habitats.

I believe the people of Brookline would support a movement to reallocate land from the golf course and allow more residents to enjoy this gorgeous urban garden. That starts with—you guessed it—talking about it.