Third English golf club may close due to Covid-19

A historic Nottinghamshire golf club could become the third venue in England since the start of the pandemic to close down due to Covid-19.

According to My Nottingham News, the 110-year-old Bulwell Hall Golf Course and Country Park is set to close from November.

The club, which is also known as Nottingham City Golf Club, offers membership for just £85.

Unlike Patsull Park Hotel, Golf and Country Club near Wolverhampton and Magnolia Park Hotel and Golf Club in Buckinghamshire, which both closed in July, Bulwell Hall’s problem is not due to its vital additional revenue streams, such as a hotel, being hit by coronavirus, but because it is a municipal golf club and is run by Nottingham City Council, which needs to make savings of £12.5 million per year.

Bulwell Hall. Image from Facebook

The council says it has seen estimated costs and lost income due to Covid-19 soar to £87.9 million since the pandemic began. Emergency funding has been needed to care for older and vulnerable people and provide PPE while at the same time income has been lost from leisure centres, trade waste services, car parks and many other areas.

There is some hope for the club however – the plan to close the club is a proposal that will be consulted on, and in the reports about the closure the words ‘seek an external operator’ are added, suggesting the club could go the way of many former municipal golf venues and be run by a private enterprise or a charity.

In July Donnington Valley also announced that it had been so badly hit by Covid-19 that it cannot afford to have members anymore – and will become a pay-and-play venue instead.