Club forms ‘staycation’ partnership with local hotels for 2021

A Yorkshire golf club has formed partnerships with local hotels as the demand for ‘staycation’ golf holidays is set to be strong this year.

Kirkby Lonsdale Golf Club has set up a range of ‘Stay and Play’ offers with local hotels featuring packages that include accommodation, meals and rounds of golf at the club.

It is also creating a special promotional leaflet – ‘Destination Kirkby Lonsdale’ – aimed at encouraging people to visit the area and take in a round of golf at the same time.

“The idea is to attract golfers with their partners and families for ‘stay and play’ visits to the area,” said club member Robin Ree. “We are in South Lakeland and the Yorkshire Dales National Park and close to the Lake District. This is fabulous walking country and the town of Kirkby Lonsdale has such a lot to offer.”

“We just want people to come to the club to play a game of golf and hopefully they will be impressed and want to play again,” added vice-captain Graham Bywater.

“We enjoyed the best first week in April for five years – there is a real hunger for golf,” said secretary and manager David Towers.

Kirkby Lonsdale Golf Club. Image from Facebook

Membership is on the increase and stands at around 380 members, including an active and growing group of lady members.

PGA trainee professional Ellie Broome has boosted the number of juniors, aged from five to 18, at the club to around 60 over the past year by running regular Saturday classes and school holiday golfing camps when Covid restrictions allowed.

“We are also making contact with local schools to encourage their pupils to come along and are looking to organise an inter schools golf competition here later this year,” said Mr Bywater.

The club also took the opportunity during the lockdowns to refurbish the clubhouse. The greenkeeping team has continued to work and has improved the playing surfaces. Covers for four of the ten driving range bays adjacent to the club have also been added.

It had been ‘frustrating’ not to be able to play golf for so long and there was now a sense of ‘total relief’ that players could get back on the course, said Mr Ree.

The club was established in 1906 and has been at its present site since 1991. The 18-hole course measures 6,594 yards and is laid out in more than 160 acres of spectacular countryside. The layout provides two nine-hole loops out and back to the clubhouse.