Torrance Golf Club members chip in to help
Torrance House Golf Club haveendureda “nightmare”Covid lockdown, butcame through it by sticking together.
Committee member SteveMcKinnon says golfers at the East Kilbrideclub have chipped in to help, and with extra fees overthe last two years, theywere able to renovate theclubhouse.
Hesaysit will all be waiting forthem when they are able to properly re-open, and thatshowsthespirit of theclub.
Steve said:“It has been a nightmare. The greenkeepers,because we’re nota private course, theyhad all been stood down, sothey couldn’t fulfiltheir duties on thecourse, it went to rack and ruin, and there was nothing anybody could do.
“Theyhadworked so hard the year before, so I reallyfelt forthem, because it wasn’t as if theywanted timeoff.
“We got people to help outonce we were able to get back on; we’d say to five guysto dothe 18thgreen, the next five woulddothe 17th, just to help the green keepers out. Attheend of the day they were all benefiting from, but I thoughtit was quite good of the members.
“We got a reduction on the season ticket down to£300, whichwas fair, and we weren’t allowed to host competition golf, so it was justa kick of the ball.”
In unprecedented times,Steve has beenblown away by the solidarity shown across theclub toensurethere is a clubhouse to go back toin May.
Headded:“We all pulled together as a committee and tried tosurvive, and not oneof the members outof the200 actuallywantedmoneyback.
“We managed to makeends meet, basically, we didn’t makeany money, but we didn’t lose any.
“Forthe last two years we had taken an extra £25 from all the members who were prepared to doit, saved it up, and under the restrictionstheclubhouse was closed anyway, so we decided to usethe money and reinvested it back intotheclubhouse.
“I was personally involved indoing up the bar because I’m a joiner to trade, so we got it all done up, it’s looking amazing, and we had all the furniture recovered and thingslikethat.
“It was guys doing itoff their own bat, whichwas unbelievable, and it has basicallykept usopen.”