Three more golf clubs to close down

By Alistair November 27, 2019 12:55

Another three golf clubs, one in Scotland, one in Yorkshire and one in Norfolk, have announced they will close down by the end of this year.

One will still see golf played at the venue as it will be converted from a members’ club to a pay-and-play facility due to a declining membership, while there are no plans to continue offering golf at the other two.

The first of the three clubs to go is South Leeds Golf Club, which has said it will cease trading before the end of November after attempts to secure its financial position failed.

Vandalism, declining membership and the rising price of bills have all been listed as reasons the club – founded in 1906 – has been unable to survive.

Director David Appleyard said: “We’ve been trying to fulfil memberships and keep it running until the end of the year, but circumstances have forced us to close, sadly.

“There is a decline in membership, and a decline in people playing golf in general. We have had issues with vandalism at the club.

“Vandals come onto the course with quad bikes and that puts people off wanting to play. It works on a pay and play basis, so people aren’t going to pay to use the course if there’s a chance it could be in a bad condition.

South Leeds Golf Club. © Facebook

“Many of our members understood that this would probably be the last year. Some have been expecting it but even so, it is still a shock.”

Dollar Golf Club in Clackmannanshire was founded in 1890.

Following its annual general meeting a short statement was released on its website that the club would be shutting down at the end of the year.

It read: ‘The closure of Dollar Golf Club was confirmed at the AGM on 18th November and golf operations will be discontinued from 31st December 2019. With falling membership, not alone in Scotland, the club has been struggling to avert closure for the past few years. Much effort was put in to keep the club going but it had been losing money for some time and efforts to find funding elsewhere were unsuccessful. To meet the resultant commitments, redundancy of staff, etc, it was considered unwise to struggle on only to meet cash problems in the coming year. Accordingly but reluctantly, the club council could only reach the conclusion that closure at the end of this year was the only option.’

Dollar Golf Club. © Facebook

At the same time, Costessey Park Golf Club in Norwich has announced it will also close on December 31 – with the course becoming a pay and play centre from the new year.

Larry Rowe, managing director, said the decision to close it had not been an easy one but declining membership numbers meant it was no longer financially viable to keep the club going.

He said: “At its peak the club had 450-plus members but membership has declined over the years and it has been making a loss for some time.”

Costessey Park Golf Club. © Facebook

Rowe previously put the course up for sale but after potential developers failed to secure planning permission for the site, sales fell through.

He said: “I could see [after planning permission was refused in June] that it wasn’t really going to sell.

“So now, to reduce my costs, I’m reducing it to a pay and play course.”

He said the club’s current 280 members had been disappointed by the news.

“The members we have are very loyal and when your membership is reduced you’re left with the most loyal members but it’s just crazy to run it with the level of losses [it currently has],” he said.

“It was a difficult decision to make, it’s not that I have run out of money but it’s just silly to keep pouring money into it.

“As a pay and play facility, I’ll have better control over the expenditures.”