Golf club grateful

Horsham Golf Club officials have written to supporters and the broader community thanking them for helping rescue the club from financial disaster.

President Leo Delahunty said it was important to let everyone involved in raising more than the $300,000 needed to help return the club to a strong and viable position, that their contribution was far from taken lightly.

“It was just a sensational response from the community and confirmed a strong belief that the people of Horsham district and broader Wimmera have a strong cultural and historical connection to the club and its course,” he said.

“From our perspective, the challenge now is to make the club as inclusive as possible and to always work to draw the community into what we do and what the club offers. It was clearly evident through the process of raising money in a hurry that this is a critical direction we must continue to build on and pursue.” Here is the club’s letter – To the Horsham and Wimmera community,

I thank the community of Horsham and the Wimmera for supporting the golf club during its recent appeal.

The success of the appeal is overwhelming and a testament to the generosity of the community and a statement of the regard that the Horsham Golf Club and its course is held. This appeal will go a long way towards helping the club secure its future.

The funds received have been placed into a trust account with a separate bank while the board deals with issues facing the club. This separate bank account was established to protect the integrity of the donation while the club endeavours to deal with a number of issues.

The board is attempting to secure the club’s future and there are three critical areas of activities that we need to address immediately.

Firstly, we needed to address the club’s liquidity crisis. That is what the appeal was about and as a result of the raising of about $340,000, the board has the confidence to sign the statutory accounts as required by corporation law. It is intended that these funds be used primarily to address the club’s creditor and statutory obligation situation.

Secondly, the club’s debt of $1.4-million – including creditors and statutory obligations – is unsustainable and the board is exploring different potential scenarios in the hope of dealing with this problem.

Thirdly, we have been working hard at addressing the operating performance of the golf club and while we still have a long way to go, progress is being made.

It is the intention of the club board to maintain control of the future for the club. We have a clear understanding of what we want the golf club to look like at the end of this challenging period and we will keep everyone informed of significant developments as soon as possible.

We need to understand what success looks like. Fundamentally, we want to see a continual surge in membership and general community activity.

Our membership was 444 at June 30 but has climbed to 522 over the past six months. We have created new membership categories and will continue to refine these as we look to 700 members in the next 18 months.

We have started running junior clinics and have had positive feedback from these. We want to see these develop to the stage where as many school children as possible are having a regular golf experience.

We are seeing encouraging signs of increased golf visitation to Horsham.

This area is a strong focus of the club, has enormous potential and will have a positive impact on the local economy.

Again, I thank the community and club membership for its generous contribution and for the confidence shown in the club as we navigate through this difficult period. We need the Horsham Golf Club to be a long-term sustainable community asset. Leo Delahunty President Horsham Golf Club