West Sussex Gazette

Analysing availabili­ty of golf courses amid interest uptick

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I was interested to learn recently that Ifield Golf Club has enjoyed a 25 per cent increase in membership between 2018 and 2021 – an additional 100 fully paid-up members – and a 150 percent increase in the number of ‘visitor’ players (paying green fees).

This led me to look at how both the supply and demand for golf have changed since 2018, i.e after the period covered in the golf studies currently used as evidence for both Horsham and Crawley local plans.

There is evidence of a recent uptick in membership nationally; England Golf reports an increase in golf club membership of around six per cent, mostly in 2021 suggesting a possible ‘Covid effect’.

But the growth at Ifield is four times this size, and started in 2019, i.e pre-pandemic.

A more plausible explanatio­n is that Ifield has attracted new members made ‘homeless’ by the closure of other clubs. The trend over recent years has been one of declining golf club membership, which together with developmen­t pressures, has led to the closure of at least five neighbouri­ng courses.

It would appear, however, that these closures have gone beyond absorbing any excess supply, and instead have increased demand at the remaining clubs such as Ifield.

This reduction in supply is likely to continue. With Cottesmore under threat of closure another group of golfers will be looking for a new home of similar standard. With Cop thor ne and West Sussex full, they will look to other affiliated clubs such as Ifield, although these are increasing­ly few and far between.

What is clear is that the Horsham and Crawley councils’ studies of golf supply and demand are no longer fit for purpose as evidence for their local plans.

The pictures they paint are now hopelessly out of date, on top of the many errors and omissions in the Horsham study.

The two studies are quite different in their approach, and the omission of a wider catchment analysis in the Horsham study is a fatal flaw. What is needed is a much more robust analysis of the current situation, ideally coordinate­d across the two districts.

FENELLA MAITLANDSM­ITH Chair, Save West of Ifield campaign, The Mount, Ifield

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