Concern for golf club’s future
Southland Golf Club officials are gathering their members to discuss the club’s future.
The declining membership and financial squeeze on Invercargill’s four golf clubs have been well documented throughout this year.
It has created plenty of debate and calls for an independent review to look into the future of the four clubs - the Southland Golf Club (Oreti Sands), Invercargill Golf Club (Otatara), Queens Park, and Green Acres.
As of last year, the four clubs had 1200 members between them, compared to 1991 when the Queens Park club alone had 1400 members.
Sport Southland last week led a forum with Southland clubs looking at the current challenges and possible opportunities for clubs to work together.
It is understood numbers at the Southland Golf Club at Oreti Sands have dropped to under 90 which has prompted genuine fears for its future operation.
The Southland Golf Club has the smallest membership of all four Invercargill clubs but has been able to keep their head above water financially because they haven’t employed any staff to maintain the course.
Instead they have been able to rely on volunteers to maintain the course, but that obviously requires a huge effort.
Southland Golf Club president Michael Horn said he would discuss the situation with club members before talking publicly about the future of the club.
A possible closure of the Southland Golf Club at Oreti Sands would be a huge disappointment for many, not just within the Southland golf community but Invercargill in general. It is the world’s southernmost links golf course and the course has received many glowing reports from visitors.
In 2009 the Invercargill Licensing Trust and Community Trust of Southland both put up $250,000 to ensure a significant redevelopment of four holes at the course was able to be carried out.
The course development was co-designed by former golfer Greg Turner, with top professional golfers Peter Senior, Peter O’Malley, Mahal Pearce and Peter Fowler on hand for the opening in 2009. Senior gave the course a glowing pass mark at that opening.
‘‘What a wonderful piece of land you’ve got here. It will take some time for the grass to settle but I’ve played in British Open’s and this is (course) is on par with them. It’s a tough course,’’ Senior said at the time.
Turner has previously described Oreti Sands as the best links courses in the southern hemisphere.
’’Even the small number of guys who I’ve brought out there - the likes of John Huggan who’s one of the top Scottish golf writers and writes for Golf Digest in America - he was surprised.
‘‘Michael Campbell was shocked and amazed. He didn’t know Oreti existed,’’ Turner said soon after the redeveloped course was opened.
The push for the upgrade was fuelled by a quest to try to ensure Invercargill would be a destination for visiting golfers.
‘‘With what’s happened in Queenstown with The Hills and Jacks Point and new investment at Millbrook, and now down the road there’s the southernmost links and a championship course at Otatara which has always been highly regarded as well, all of a sudden you have a quorum of golf,’’ Turner said.
A possible closure of one course may provide a boost to the other three Invercargill clubs, in terms of increasing their playing numbers and potential financial income.
However, if the Southland Golf Club was to merge with another club it wouldn’t free up any capital to use to help try to grow golf in the region.
The Southland Golf Club lease the land from the Invercargill City Council where the Oreti Sands course is situated at Sandy Point.