Fundraising golf club closes

A golf club that used to donate all its profits to a charity has been closed down after its membership dropped to just 50 people.

Fairthorne Manor Golf Club in Hampshire, which was opened in the early 1970s and was owned by a subsidiary of the young people’s charity the YMCA Fairthorne Group, generated a profit of £50,000 per year for its parent organisation in the 1990s, when it had around 250 members.

However, its membership dropped to approximately 50 over the last ten years and by the time it closed earlier this week the club was making a loss of £50,000 per year.

The course was reduced from 18 holes to nine last year in a bid to cut costs, but this failed to stop the losses. It will now revert to its original use as a campsite for young people.

A PGA professional in Hampshire, Shaun Hall, said the club could have made a profit if it had been run more professionally.

“It’s closure has nothing to do with the economic climate and everything to do with no greenkeeping, no maintenance, no professional golfer to help run the club, advise and bring in more clients, no advertising and overall minimal effort,” he said. “People had money to spend there.”

YMCA director Sally Arscott added: “It was simply losing money – we’re a charity and we can’t afford to continue to have operations which are losing money.

“Originally the golf course was a trading subsidiary which would Gift Aid its profits over to the charity. It was a way of fundraising.”