GRANGER — The next time you play a round of golf, take a good look around. Does all that green space look like a business or farmland?

Indiana golf course owners are pushing the state to consider their land as agriculture. In many cases, that could save them tens of thousands of dollars in taxes.

To golf course owners, it's very simple. They say they're more of an agricultural operation than a traditional commercial business.

Why do they care so much? You would too if you saw their property tax bill.

“Golf courses are paying anywhere from $30,000 to well over $100,000 in property taxes,” explained Linda Rogers, owner of Juday Creek Golf Club in Granger and member of the Golf Course Owners Association.

Classified as a commercial business, taxes are capped at 3 percent of their property's value.

“Some golf courses are truly struggling,” Rogers said.

So they're lobbying state lawmakers for a change in identity.

“As golf course owners we feel that we fall more in line with agriculture,” Rogers said.

That's right, agriculture. It may be a long-shot, but owners say it could slice their tax bill considerably.

Tax bills for agricultural operations are capped at 2 percent of the property's value.

At Juday Creek, the difference would save them nearly $14,000.

“We have large tracts of land like agriculture, we're seasonal, and of course we're weather-dependent,” Rogers explained. And grass, she says, is their crop.

Some courses in other states are considered agricultural; but it's not without controversy.

“That's not the appropriate way,” said St. Joseph County Commissioner Steve Ross. “Do the ice cream parlors that close during the winter, do they get a tax break because they're closed? That's their choice.”

Even golfers are split.

“That's a tough question,” one golfer told WSBT News. “It’s more of a business.”

“It's a business but again it's seasonal also,” another said. “Especially up north here; down south I could see where it'd be more of a business than agriculture.”

Owners will have to wait until January when lawmakers return to the Statehouse to get an answer to their plea for relief on the links.

County officials estimate they'd lose more than $100,000 in property tax money if those caps were to change for golf course owners.

But half of the 14 golf courses in St. Joseph County are publicly owned by the city or Notre Dame so they don't pay taxes.

Private course owners say, with these property tax bills, they're forced to subsidize their competition. That's another reason they're pushing for relief along with fairer assessments.