Like the meek in Life of Brian, golf has had a hell of a time of late, with rapacious local and state governments coveting all that green space so they can turn it into green space. 

The Save Moore Park Movement, made up of Golf Australia, PGA of Australia, Golf NSW and Moore Park GC, has hit back, and come up with an alternative plan to cutting the popular public course in half so that the teeming masses packed into nearby high-rises can take their cavoodles for whoopsies.

And the plan is this:

On a 15-hectare chunk of relatively unused piece of green space - what might also be known as "space" -  it is proposed there be a footy oval, dog park, BMX track, three-kilometre pedestrian and cycling path – to complement the five-kilometre one over the road at Centennial Park – and a 500-berth multi-storey carpark.

The course itself would stay 18 holes but be shorter. The driving range would be shorter, too, though with extra bays. And there would be putt-putt for the kids.

In a nod to Sydney's desire to be a City That For The Most Part Never Sleeps, there would be golf at night under lights.

As Golf NSW chief Stuart Fraser said: “The proposal provides a win-win solution for the NSW government and a growing Sydney by offering a multitude of recreational activities, whilst continuing to service the massive demand for publicly accessible golf via an 18-hole course.”

Given the state government’s plan is to turn Moore Park into a nine-holer and use the rest of the land for undefined “recreational space”, one assumes NSW Premier Chris Minns and Sydney Mayor Clover Moore will at least have a look, and consider that the golf course is already “green space” and highly-utilised by the citizens (and voters) of Sydney who gain great physical and mental health benefits.

Yes, times one hundred - the 700,000 punters in the high-rises need somewhere to exercise, to read the paper, to meet other owners of schnauzers and exclaim, Why, your dog looks quite like my dog.

Though, perhaps, said governors might have considered these things before giving the developers the tick to build the great big monstrosities that so packed everyone in.

Just a thought.

Save Moore Park warriors (L-R) Jared Kendler, Damien de Bohun, Stuart Fraser, Carly Goodrich, David Barker. PHOTO: Moore Park Golf Collective

Another is this: someone – and I nominate me - should come up with an alternative to the Save Moore Park Collective’s alternative.

Yes, have all that stuff, the BMX track, the parking. Even hive off a few more hectares and tell the government, here you go, dedicated party zone for pooch birthdays.

But the golf course? Flatten it, start again. Take out 90 percent of the trees and let Ogilvy, Clayton, Kruse, Crafter, Cocking, I dunno – Doak! – turn the joint into the greatest 12-hole course in the world.

Make it the Barnbougle of Sydney - a golf tourism attraction. Build it and they will talk and they will come, as Seven Mile Beach proprietor, Mysterious Mat Goggin, will tell you.

And if you live here you can play, because it would be public. Like the Old Course at St Andrews.

It wouldn't be like the Old Course at St Andrews. But it would be really, really good.

Imagine what it could be, you let those guys at it.

Swales and rolling bowls. Amphitheatres. Trees as decoration rather than impediments as the good Dr Alister MacKenzie would have it.

Multiple tee-boxes. Sandy-waste. Undulating, multi-tiered greens with tight-mown surrounds. Bring the Sandbelt to Sydney. 

And entertain people. Music! Food trucks! The sweet siren song of mobile beer carts! 

It would be Fun City. It would be the greatest 12-holer in the world.

Moore Park is a green oasis in the teeming City of Sydney. PHOTO: Save Moore Park Collective

And all of it over in 2.5 hours rather than the norm at Moore Park which, given all the punters having a hit, can be well over four hours and sometimes up to five, which is bad.

And all of this golfing happy-joy-joy surrounded by the smiling, exercising, dog-walking citizens of the City of Sydney, revelling in the great outdoors, and voting for the man who made it happen.

Win-win-win, Minnsy.

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In other news...

Rory McIlroy has pondered whether the recently-elected criminal, sex offender and charity ripper-offer who cheats at golf and invents club championship titles might bring the PGA Tour and LIV Golf together. And, in these interesting and vexed times, it's telling that our Rors could well be right, may the ghost of Old Tom Morris help us all.

In sunnier news, shout-out to the lone patron at Richmond Golf Club on Sunday who was following the Australian PGA Seniors Championship - won by five shots by Andre Stolz - while dragging around an Esky that served as both vessel for refreshments and seat. 

Shout-out, too, to entrepreneurs who must invent a motorised ride-on golf-buggy-esky immediately.