First Covid closure could reopen

The first golf club to ‘permanently’ close because of the Covid pandemic could reopen as a new golfing venue.

While many clubs feared for their future during the first lockdown in early 2020, Magnolia Park Hotel and Golf Club in Buckinghamshire was the first of what turned out to be just a few to close, in July 2020. Golf resumed at the venue in May 2020, and the club reported that participation was strong, but, probably due to the additional revenue streams that it relied upon, it announced its closure just a few days later.

Buckinghamshire Council is now considering a planning application to demolish the existing 40-bed hotel and clubhouse, and build a new 100-bed hotel and golf club on the site.

Magnolia Park Hotel and Golf Club. Image from Facebook

This would comprise an all-day dining restaurant, spa facilities, conference room, restaurant, orangery and an event space to host weddings.

A separate golf club with changing rooms, gym, a pro shop and bar would also be accommodated to the east of the main hotel building.

The venue has been designed as ‘very much a country hotel that embraces its setting to provide guests an experience intrinsically linked to the golf course, its rural surroundings and the views off the surrounding landscape afforded to this site,’ according to the application.

A planning statement drawn up by Savills notes that the proposals would provide approximately 130 jobs during the construction period, which would be approximately two years.

Officials have visited the site and decided to delegate the decision to the council’s director of planning and environment for approval, as long as a legal agreement is reached between the council and developers.