Borders golf club faces uncertain future due to lockdown restrictions
A golf club in Galashiels says it faces an uncertain future as having to close its course and clubhouse puts pressure on its already fragile finances.
Torwoodlee Golf Club is now trying to raise £10,000 via a JustGiving page to survive the next few months.
"The club over the last five or six years has been struggling because visitors numbers have been dropping and members dropping and that’s a trend that golf in Scotland has seen," explains club chairman Robin Brydon.
"We’ve had to as a club look at increasing membership fees visitor fees so it’s a tough time economically for everyone."
The club’s just giving page has raised almost £7,000 are now trying to raise£10,000 through a just giving page.
It reads, “Due to the devastating Covid-19 pandemic crisis affecting us all, the club now faces an uncertain future and we therefore need as much money as possible to survive the pandemic and beyond.”
Robin added, "We really need every extra penny we can get. Blown away by the generosity of the members over the past 7 days raising £7,000 to date it’s absolutely amazing, it’s all chipping into the pot that’s going to hopefully see us through this short period of time."
Torwoodlee Golf Club isn’t alone in this. The Borders Golfing Association (BGA), who represent 21 local clubs, say a number of them are in the same position. The organisation are doing what they can to help.
"Every golfer in the Borders is levied £2.50 and we’ve returned that to all clubs so there will be no levy this year,’ said president of BGA Alastair Christie.
"And we’ve offered an interest free loan of up to £500 to any club who reallyneeds it. It’s not a lot but it’s all we have in the kitty, it’s all we can afford.
"Clubs may go under, for a lot of clubs it wouldn’t need very much to tip themover the edge and we’d hate that, so we’ve got to try what’s in our powers to do."
It was supposed to be a celebratory year as the clubs marks it 125th birthday.
Some famous former members include rugby legends Gregor Townsend and Chris Paterson, as well as the creator of the world’s most famous detective Sherlock Holmes: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
A few big competitions were organised to mark he milestone which would have generated some much-needed revenue, but they have been called off.
As golf was one of the last activities to be prohibited those involved hope it’s one of the first to start back. Robin added, "This is our 125th year, we wouldn’t want that to be our last year."