124-year-old Lincolnshire golf club closes with immediate effect

Alistair Dunsmuir
By Alistair Dunsmuir December 15, 2018 20:17

A Lincolnshire golf club that was due to celebrate its 125th anniversary next year has closed down with immediate effect – at least the seventh golf facility to do so in the last seven weeks.

Sandilands Golf Club, which opened in 1894, saw its membership fall to just 100 in 2014, although it had bounced back to 180 this year.

This, however, was still significantly less than the more than 300 members it had in 2008 and the recent closure of a supporting hotel has meant the club can no longer afford to continue operating.

In a statement posted on Facebook, the club said: “It is a combination of the recent closure of The Grange & Links Hotel, the resulting loss of golf break and green fee income, local demographic factors and declining interest.

“Most golf clubs face prices pressures and it makes the course uneconomic as a business enterprise.

“We have worked tirelessly to grow the membership from just over 100 in 2014 to just over 180 now, however this is a long way short of the halcyon days of 300-plus members that enjoyed the course a decade ago.

“These numbers are insufficient to support our aims of presenting a quality course with a strong greenkeeping and clubhouse team.”

Sandilands was recently taken over, but the new owners haven’t been in a position to invest to keep up standards, added the statement.

“With annual losses incurred since acquisition, regrettably we haven’t been in a position to invest further in the clubhouse to keep this to a standard expected of today’s golfer,” it states.

The statement concludes by revealing that the club has been placed into liquidation with immediate effect.

While many golf clubs have come through the difficult economic conditions of the last 10 years, Sandilands becomes at least the seventh in the last seven weeks to go under.

Potters Bar Golf Club in Hertfordshire, which had been open since 1923, has ceased trading while Carrick Knowe Golf Club in Edinburgh closed – with reports suggesting that its membership had fallen to just 20 people. The club had hit ‘acute financial difficulties’ according to Edinburgh Evening News, which had seen the facility struggling ‘to pay its creditors’. The venue was established in 1905.

Fishwick Hall Golf Club in Lancashire entered administration with the loss of 11 people’s jobs. The club was established in 1912.

Raglan Parc Golf Club in Wales announced that it was closing with immediate effect. A statement published on the club’s website suggested the club had been unable to secure a new lease with its landowner. The club had 400 members.

Just two days earlier, Canwick Park Golf Club in Lincolnshire’s members voted to enter voluntary liquidation at the club’s EGM. The club recently said it was struggling to pay the £25,000 per year rent to its landowner, Jesus College Oxford. Reports suggest that the club’s future will now lie in the hands of the liquidators.

Southwood Golf Course in Farnborough also closed in October – months earlier than it was due to, because of the collapse of Mack Golf. 

 

Alistair Dunsmuir
By Alistair Dunsmuir December 15, 2018 20:17
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1 Comment

  1. Pete December 20, 13:45

    Sorry for your course demise, but the tides for golf have changed to a more time efficient golf round. Today we must be aware and promote a quicker, affordable & less frustrating one.
    This is easily done through the use of the new Hybrid Golf Ball and adjusting the course tees for shorter play, allowing the game to be played in half the time.

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