HUNDREDS of golfers have been left devastated after their club suddenly announced plans to shut, raising fears that other courses could follow as the sport's popularity continues to decline.
The 350 members will no longer be able enjoy a round at the 18 hole Castle Park Golf Club in Gifford, East Lothian, after close of play on Saturday.
The owners say they have received an offer to sell the land which will be returned to farmland.
It comes amid fears over the future of a number of golf clubs which have been hit by dwindling memberships, with some observers blaming the problem on the sport's sometimes image and strict dress codes.
The club, which opened its doors in 1994, had been put up for sale ahead of their impending retirement but no buyer could be found to continue to run the facility in its present state. Reluctantly, the owners of the 165-acre development have accepted an offer for the plot which will see it reverted to farmland.
A statement on the club's website said: "Since we announced our impending retirement in early December we have had an unprecedented loss of members and as a result the golf course business will not be viable for 2015. We have had offers for the land to revert to farmland and none at all to purchase a golf course. This is not how we intended our ownership of the course to end, but have accepted one of the offers."
The demise of Castle Park is the third golf club closure to hit the Edinburgh area in the past couple of years. In September 2013, Lothianburn was shut down after membership figures plummeted from 800 to less than 300 in just three years. The nearby Torphin Hill club also closed its doors shortly after. In 2011, meanwhile, the Whitemoss facility in Perthshire was reverted to farming terrain.
The Castle Park closure is another blow to Scottish golf in these testing times when membership figures continue to decline. The landscape has changed since club membership reached its peak of around 232,000 in 2006 and the way people play the game has altered. With bountiful pay-and-play, green-fee saver offers available, the nomadic golfer has been on the rise and the fact that the cradle of the game is now at saturation point in terms of available courses and facilities has added to the pressure on clubs.
Recent figures indicated that, since the early 1990s, the number of courses in the country increased by 20 per cent, at a higher rate than those playing the game. Scotland has one club for every 9,800 people, in England it is one club for every 28,000. Over the past couple of years, some 60 per cent of the Scottish Golf Union's 578 affiliated clubs have approached the governing body's Golf Development Officers seeking advice on how to revamp membership structures and put in place plans for sustainable governance to combat the challenges.
Andy Salmon, the SGU's development manager, said: "This is sad news for the members of Castle Park Golf Club, brought about by the retirement plans of the owners. We hope and anticipate that former members at Castle Park find the right membership for them at a local club in East Lothian, with various memberships at a number of courses available.
"This news reminds us all of the need to take a modern business-like approach to managing golf clubs and the need to provide our golfing customers with products and services that meet their needs."
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