Are Club Mergers And Course Relocations The Future of Golf

We are consistently being told that golf continues to enjoy a boom, that golf-club membership is in a healthy place and that the increasing numbers of players who either took up or returned to the game after Covid have stuck with it.

So, if you take things at face value, all would appear to be well. But dig a little deeper and it is clear that there are reasons for concern.

North Oxford Golf Club is 117 years old and has 450 members - from October next year they will all have to find a new club, with the course earmarked for closure. It will make way for a housing development. Caddington Park, near Luton, closed in October.

In Scotland, Dundee City Council has axed the two courses at Caird Park in order to save £500,000. They will close their doors for the last time in April 2025. Torrance Park, near Motherwell, and The Hirsel, located in the Scottish Borders, have also been shut down. 

You get the picture. So what does the future hold?

It may be that mergers and relocations are the way forward. It goes without saying that most golf courses are built on land that housing developers would pay serious money for. That being the case, none of us should be too surprised when a club owner decides to take the money and run. If you own a club that doesn’t make any money and somebody comes along with a life-changing amount of money, who wouldn’t take it?

It has just been announced that Maidenhead Golf Club and Flackwell Heath Golf Club are to merge, with members from both clubs being based at Flackwell Heath from January 1, 2026.

This decision to merge the two venues comes after the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead’s announced plans to build houses on the current site of Maidenhead Golf Club at the end of 2025.

Maidenhead, which was founded in 1896, has been looking for a new home for its members for several years after selling the club to Cala Homes. Flackwell Heath, a 6,142-yard par 71 which was founded in 1904, has emerged as the best option. And, of course, it saves Maidenhead the huge cost of building a new course.

Andy Ferguson, Chair of Flackwell Heath Golf Club, said: "We are incredibly pleased to be merging with Maidenhead. Combining the strengths of both clubs and their respective memberships is the perfect match."

Brian Aldridge, Club Captain of Maidenhead GC, said: "Maidenhead Golf Club are delighted to have found a new home for our members. With our long-shared history and proximity to Maidenhead, Flackwell Heath is a perfect fit."

In Belfast, the Balmoral GC has found itself in a financial hole and considered asking each member for a £1,000 loan to pay off their £1m debt. You can imagine how well that would have gone down. The club also considered entering administration or selling off land and reducing the course to nine holes. But it now looks like the venue is to be sold to a Dublin-based property group.

The Merrion Property Group Merrion proposes to relocate Balmoral to a new course on a 149-acre estate at Ballylesson.

This is nothing new. Royal Norwich Golf Club relocated to a new site some years ago after selling up to developers who built 1,000 new homes on the site of the old course. 

But there are never any guarantees. The new course at Weston Park has received mixed reviews and Royal Norwich found itself in financial trouble earlier this year. A rescue package was put together and the future does now look brighter.

Six years ago, the members at Reading Golf Club voted overwhelmingly in favour of relocating their golf club to safeguard its future. It would eventually merge with Caversham Heath Golf Club in Mapledurham, Oxfordshire. It is a move that has worked out for the best. Caversham is a superb inland links-style course that can be stretched to 7,319 yards. It has been subjected to an extensive renovation and redesign.

It seems inevitable that more courses will be slated for closure in the months ahead. Mergers and relocations to new sites could be the way forward and the thing that saves our game in the long term.