Two major golf clubs to close down ‘next month’
By Alistair Dunsmuir
Two premier golf clubs, both in the south west of England, are both set to permanently close down this November.
The plights of Taunton Vale Golf Club and Lostwithiel Golf & Country Club suggest that what some have described as an industry recovery has so far had a limited or no impact on a number of venues.
The owners of Taunton Vale, in Somerset, which was established in 1990, Steve Welch and Mead Loxton, recently announced that they wanted to sell the club and retire, but while members raised nearly £400,000 towards a buy-out, the only buyer who was able to provide an offer that was accepted, of £1.8 million, will turn the golf course into agricultural land.
At the end of November the fairways and greens will be ripped up and the clubhouse and other buildings bulldozed.
A letter by the management to members said: “The owners have announced that the golf club has been sold – it’s been confirmed that the new owners will be converting the land back to agricultural.
“It is with regret, therefore, that we have to inform you all that the club will be closing its doors for the last time on Sunday, November 30.
“The club wishes to thank members for their support over the years and again to the staff for their loyalty.”
Jenn Gollings, spokeswoman for Save Taunton Vale Golf Club Members’ Campaign Group, said: “It’s taken four short months to destroy the club after 24 years of hard work and nurturing.
“The short campaign since September to try to save the golf club has brought out the best of so many members, capturing the spirit and goodwill of members and staff.
“Thank you to everyone who offered pledges or support or advice in any form.”
Meanwhile, Lostwithiel’s secretary, Dave Vine, has said the club’s owner, Michael Davey, had revealed the club could close in November, according to the Cornish Guardian.
Mr Vine said: “We had a meeting because we had heard unconfirmed reports from staff saying things seemed to be changing.
“Mike Davey came to that meeting and told us that the club would be closing on November 1.
“There are other golf clubs near to us, so that is an option, but obviously it will have an effect on the town because some of the staff have worked there for years.”
The number of staff affected has not been confirmed, but Mr Vine said some had been offered the option to move to Mr Davey’s Boringdon Park Golf Club in Plympton.
Lostwithiel Golf & Country Club opened in 1991 and includes an 18-hole golf course, driving range, indoor golf simulator, 27 en suite letting bedrooms, a clubhouse with function room and an indoor swimming pool.
Companies House registered Lostwithiel Hotel Golf and Country Club as being dissolved as a business in March this year. The spokesman for the company told the Cornish Guardian that the reason for that “cannot be disclosed at the moment”.
By Alistair Dunsmuir
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This is just the beginning of the evolution of the golf course. Some may fail while others thrive.
The smarter one’s will “downsize” realizing the changing cultural attitudes for enjoyment, efficiency & economy.
This is the result of the 1999 Sports Order and the three elements of taxation distortion, VAT. CT, and CASC that make it impossibly unfair to compete against the member owned businesses. Hopefully the pressure we are applying on HMRC and the government will make a difference before it is too late for many more clubs that genuinely introduce many new people in to sport.
Andrew Sutcliffe PGA Fellow + Board Member UKGCOA
Sadly these latest closures are just the tip of the iceberg and we are starting to mirror the trend in the USA where 100 clubs are closing every year. There are bound to be further closures, but individual members’ clubs can avoid becoming casualties simply by taking action now, rather than waiting until they have an illness that cannot be cured. On the management front there has to be a fundamental change in the way clubs secure their income. From early days the ‘unit of production’ for a golf club has been the membership fee. Fiddling with membership categories and holding membership drives have their place, but will make a very minor contribution to future health. Increasingly in future years it will be visitor fees that will determine success or failure and that means there is a need for greatly improved marketing and a change to treating people nicely. Clubs will also have to examine their spending habits. Many do not even realise that they carry unnecessary expenditure of up to 100 membership fees each year! It has always been there, but it arrived and was sustained under quite different circumstances.
Many clubs will simply sit on their hands and hope that the storm will pass. It will not. This almost guarantees that those clubs who engage in lateral thinking and change to meet modern market conditions will survive and prosper.
A letter from the owners was sent to the members on 27th May stating that;
The club would be sold as a going concern, a proviso would be included in the sale to protect the members interests and benefits and the members would be kept fully informed of any relevant matters as negotiations proceeded.
In September a letter was posted on the club notice boards stating that the club had been sold as agricultural land. At no time during the intervening period did the owners inform the members of any ongoing negotiations. We have since found out that the club was marketed in The Farmers Weekly as early as June but no literature marketing it as a golf club was available until August.
There were at least 2 prospective buyers who wanted to maintain it as a golf club but the agents, Humberts, would not give them sufficient time to formulate bids, indeed there is proof that the agents turned away at least one other prospective buyer. The club had a membership of around 540 and with an improving course was in a good position to attract more members from vast new housing developments going on around the area. As stated in a previous comment, the club could and should have been sold as a going concern as stated by the owners in their original letter but for whatever reason they decided not to honour their promises.
This story isn’t entirely accurate. In addition to the members’ buyout money raised, there was another investment backer and a second separate investor who put a bid in to keep Vale going as a golf club, but this was denied by the owners. The Vale could have survived. Who sells a golf club in four months? It takes longer than that to sell a house. Members now know the deal was done long before members were told. We just hope other club owners treat their member better than ours did.
This story isn’t entirely accurate. In addition to the members’ buyout money raised, there was another investment backer and a second separate investor who put a bid in to keep Vale going as a golf club, but this was denied by the owners. The Vale could have survived. Who sells a golf club in history four months? It takes longer than that to sell a house. Members now know the deal was done long before members were told. We just hope other club owners treat their member better than ours did.