Two golf clubs have administrators appointed

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A leading golf club in Northumberland and a top venue in Hertfordshire have both had administrators appointed to them.

Both venues were built during the boom of new golf clubs in the early to mid 1990s.

Burgham Park Golf & Leisure Park in Northumberland is host of the PGA North Region Championship and was part-designed by former Ryder Cup captain Mark James.

The club, which opened in 1994, had been hoping to raise funds after getting planning permission to build 50 holiday homes, eight of which have already been built. It had also been working on plans for an executive housing development and had been talking about building a new pavilion with a world-class golfing academy.

The club has 300 members. Its administrators have said the golf course will continue to be maintained as they will work with professional advisers to maximise the returns to creditors. However, the clubhouse has been closed for the rest of winter.

Steven Ross of RSM Restructuring Advisory LLP said: “We have made a decision to close the clubhouse for the winter and we’re hopeful that this position will quickly change.

“We continue to work with our advisers to progress development opportunities for the site, which includes planning permission to build 50 high-quality holiday homes adjacent to the course.”

It has also emerged that Great Hadham Golf & Country Club in Hertfordshire was acquired out of administration in a pre-pack deal.

Kirstie Provan and Gary Shankland of Begbies Traynor were appointed as joint administrators.

Founded in 1992, Great Hadham has an 18-hole championship course and a nine-hole academy course. In addition to its golfing facilities, it also boasts an on-site gym, bar and function rooms for events including parties and weddings.

The appointment of administrators was made by the directors as a result of “significant cash flow pressures” which resulted in the failure of the previous company voluntary arrangement (CVA), which had been in place since 2014.

Prior to making the appointment, the directors sought additional investment from new lenders but were unable to procure enough funding.

The business and assets were marketed for sale by the joint administrators and immediately following the appointment, the business and certain assets of the company were sold as a pre-pack to Great Hadham Country Club Ltd for an undisclosed sum.

The business has continued to trade and no redundancies were made as part of the administration process.