Golfers will pay hundreds more each year for passes required to play on Fort Myers’ city courses at Fort Myers Country Club and Eastwood Golf Course.

The increases, which go into effect Sept. 1, will hit golfers who live outside city limits especially hard. City staff decided to change the rates to make them more equitable for Fort Myers residents, City Manager Marty Lawing said. The increases may also provide a small revenue boost that officials speculated could be offset by people who drop out of the program due to the cost.

A handful of golfers, along with two former city council members, asked Council to lower the increases for a specific group of people who are longtime passholders but live outside city limits in Lee County.

City staff said there are an estimated 77 men and women who fall into that category. They are typically retired civil servants in their 70s, 80s and older who have long paid their dues for city golf passes but live outside city limits on fixed incomes and tight budgets. They would see the annual cost for their nine-month, nonresident pass increase by as much as $800, while Fort Myers resident passholder rates would increase by $200.

“Many (nonresident) players have been with us through thick and thin, some more than 40 years,” former council member Forrest Banks wrote to current Council members.

Former council member Johnny Streets also asked officials to reconsider the rate increases, suggesting that Fort Myers Country Club may lose nonresident members who come to play.

“When people come to visit the Edison home, they want to play Fort Myers Country Club right down the street and vice versa,” he said.

Council at its July 21 regular meeting voted 4-2 to move ahead with the new rates. Council members Teresa Watkins Brown and Liston Bochette cast dissenting votes, and Terolyn Watson was absent.

Watkins Brown, seconded by Bochette, made another motion calling for only the estimated 77 nonresident golfers to be grandfathered in so that their rates increase by $200, the same amount the residents’ rates are set to increase.

“They’ve been with us for a long period of time,” Brown said. “Even when we were struggling, they were still paying their rate. I don’t see how we’re losing (by grandfathering them in).”

But that motion failed 4-2 with the other members, absent Watson, disagreeing.

“While I have empathy for those (77 players), I don’t think it’s fair for the citizens of Fort Myers to subsidize those who live outside the city,” council member Fred Burson said.

City staff estimated that there are 400 to 450 passholders for city links.

At the new rates, a nine-month, nonresident pass for players who signed up prior to 2014 would increase to a total of $1,600. The same pass for a resident would increase to $775 for those who signed up prior to 2017 and $1,200 for those who signed up beginning in 2022.

All 12-month rates, as well as daily fees for golfing and electric cart rentals, also are set to be adjusted upward Sept. 1.