Smaller clubs enjoying a surge in player numbers

DISTRICT golf clubs are experiencing record numbers as major courses reach capacity in competition and social fields.

Many golfers are getting out to some of the region’s smaller clubs as more high-profile options are overrun with players.

Bannockburn president Dick Van Den Bosch said it was the busiest the Golden Plains club had been in his six years. He said competition fields had increased from numbers in the mid-20s to more than 40.

Van Den Bosch said bar takings remained limited but its financial health had improved since the restart in mid-May.

“It’s made up for what we lost during the period that we lost money,” Van Den Bosch said. “The financial year, we’ll probably come out reasonably good.”

Lara secretary Phil Morgan said it had witnessed a “huge upsurge in social golf and green fee players”.

About 30 members from the western suburbs are locked out of the club during the Melbourne lockdown but Morgan said numbers remained strong.

“The course is probably in better condition than it’s been for a hell of a long time and there’s no doubt people are starting to realise Lara’s not full of cracks like it was in the 2000s,” Morgan said.

Inverleigh secretary Dianne Morgan said it had been “ticking along nicely with green fee numbers”.

Inverleigh is running a Term 3 junior clinic, which has been made possible through a Victorian Golf Foundation grant.

“I get quite a few calls during the week of people just inquiring about playing on the course,” Morgan said. “We’re thrilled to see the numbers out on the course and hope they might in due course want to join up as members. That’s what we need is more members.”

St Leonards captain Daryl Gabriel said visitors had played the course more often. “Some of the big clubs are reducing their fields and at least they can be guaranteed a game of golf with us,” Gabriel said.