Willingdon Golf Club in Eastbourne has raised more than £30,000 towards a borehole that will cut its reliance on mains water, after members hit a £15,000 Crowdfunder target in little over a fortnight and unlocked a matching £15,000 National Lottery grant from Sport England.
The East Sussex club, founded in 1898 and home to an Alister MacKenzie course on the edge of the South Downs, launched the appeal to secure a sustainable water supply for its greens and tees in the face of hotter, drier summers and rising water costs.
By this weekend the campaign had passed £32,800 from 103 supporters – 109 per cent of its revised £30,000 target – with pledges closing at midday on 12 August.
The £15,000 match funding came from Sport England’s Movement Fund, for which the club qualified through its Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC) status. CASC registration also allowed the club to claim Gift Aid on donations from UK taxpayers.
“We are absolutely thrilled by the incredible support we have received,” said Jim Scott, chairman of Willingdon Golf Club. “Reaching our £15,000 target in just over two weeks is a remarkable achievement, and unlocking Sport England’s match funding grant has brought us a huge step closer to making the project a reality.
“This investment will benefit not only the golf course but also future generations of members and the wider community by creating a more sustainable and resilient water supply.”
What the money will pay for
The borehole will draw on an underground source beneath the club’s land, giving the greenkeeping team a reliable supply for course irrigation and dramatically reducing the volume of treated mains water it uses — conserving drinking water for the wider Eastbourne area at a time when supplies across the South East are under strain.
Willingdon’s position on free-draining chalk soils gives it good year-round playability, but the club says the escalating cost of keeping greens and tees in first-class condition through increasingly dry summers made the case for its own water source.
The total project cost is around £50,000, so the club is continuing to accept donations from current members, past members and non-members to close the remaining gap. Work is expected to begin later this year.
The club, which has served the Eastbourne community for more than 125 years, offers golf to both members and visitors across the region. Its MacKenzie layout — including the architect’s signature two-tier greens — remains largely intact.
Donations can be made at crowdfunder.co.uk/p/willingdon-golf-club-borehole-project.
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