British Golf Courses Still Facing Huge Challenges

IF WE are to believe everything we read, club golf in the UK is in an incredibly healthy place. There are those who may not agree. As we start a new year it is worth taking a look at the challenges faced by a number of clubs that would indicate all is not as well as we may think.

Let’s start with  Prestwick St Cuthbert Golf Club, just the latest Scottish golf club to face the threat of closure. It has actually launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise £70,000. The Scotsman newspaper recently reported that the club had £600,000 in the bank two years ago but that has now all gone.

Organised by the club’s general manager, Sarah Eckford, the club’s general manager, came up with the idea of a GoFundMe campaign and it quickly raised more than £3,000.

In a statement, the club said: “Like many community organisations, we are facing financial challenges. With rising costs of maintenance, operations, development and other financial pressures all threatening our ability to continue providing the golf facilities that have been supporting the local community for over 125 years.

“We are asking for your help to ensure that all our members and juniors continue to grow, develop and enjoy the sport for years to come.”

The £70,000 is needed to improve the course maintenance, upgrade club facilities and support junior and community initiatives.

To make matters worse, the club is also involved in a legal battle with its own members after it tried to impose annual subscription fees on certain individuals who were previously exempt.

And in Bath, a planning application has been submitted to turn Tracy Park from a hotel and golf course into a private home. The estate at Wick, which has two championship 18-hole golf courses and a Grade II listed 40-bed hotel, had been on the market last year with a guide price of £12 million.

The estate, which has more than 200 acres, was converted into a golf hotel in 1974. It was acquired by the Shaw family in 2019 and in 2021 they revealed their hopes of turning the estate, which is in the Green Belt and Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, into one of the region’s finest four-star hotel and leisure complexes.

But in July last year, general manager Greg Shaw revealed that the business would be closing. It changed hand sin October and a planning application has been submitted to turn the estate back into a residential property.

Hirsel Golf Club in the Scottish Borders filed for bankruptcy after being hit by declining membership and rising costs and Torrance Park in Motherwell, owned by the Murray Estates development firm of former Rangers chairman Sir David Murray, closed for good in October after running at a loss for several years.

Kirkcaldy Golf Club in Fife is drawing up survival plans while Scotscraig, one of the oldest course in the world, is seeking investment to secure its future following losses of nearly £200,000.

But there is some good news.

Members of another Scottish golf club have agreed to take over the running of the venue from its local council. The members at Winterfield Golf Club are set to sign a 40-year lease to take over the course and its clubhouse, which are currently run by East Lothian Council.

The council expressed a desire to see the club take on responsibility for operations as part of its budget and councillors discussed the details of the lease behind closed doors at the end of a long public meeting.

Club members have voted overwhelmingly to take on operations – currently provided by the council and its arms-length sports organisation Enjoy Leisure – at a special meeting, with 321 members backing it and only eight against.

Winterfield Golf Club was established in the 1930s after the town council bought the land to establish a municipal course. Its current layout was established at the end of World War Two, when it reopened.

It is clear that our sport still faces many tough challenges but, as the members at Winterfield have proved, where there is a will there may still be a way.

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