Glenisla Golf Club, is set to close at the end of this month. The 18-hole course, near Alyth, Scotland, was sold to housing developers last week, with staff informed of the news at a meeting last Friday. It will close its doors for the last time on 31st October.
Glenisla opened in 1995 and was designed by Tony Wardle, a golf course architect who has worked alongside the likes of Robert Trent Jones and Jack Nicklaus.
Developed originally by the Glenshee Chairlift Company as a summer business to make use of its full-time ski employees during the off-season, it was bought out of receivership by the Somerville family in 2004.
In 2014, it was recognised for its value for money at the Scottish Golf Tourism Awards.
It currently has around 150 members, all of whom will now have to find somewhere else to play.
Speaking to bunkered.co.uk, club employee Pat Heys described the news as 'absolutely devastating'. "The course had been up for sale for some time before coming off the market," explained Heys. "So, it came as a real shock to everyone to be called into a meeting where we told that the sale of the land to a property developer had been completed the day before. As you can imagine, everybody is very upset.
Glenisla currently employs around a dozen full-time staff. "I'm close to retirement, but you feel for people like our greenkeepers who have young families to provide for and who now need to find other work," added Heys. "It's terribly sad. We have been told that there's a chance a new nine-hole course may be developed on the site at some point in the future but, if that happens, it would be years from now."
You can read the original article from bunkered.co.uk HERE
