HORSHAM Golf Club president John Priestley has warned members to use the club or lose it.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Members attended an emergency meeting on Tuesday night to discuss the club’s financial situation.
Mr Priestley said the club was struggling and there had already been major cuts to services and staff.
He urged members to pay their fees in advance to save the club.
“October, November, December are usually the golf club’s busiest months for catering and functions, but it was disappointing,” he said.
Mr Priestley said the club was still recovering from the Black Saturday fires that decimated the course and clubhouse.
“Like every golf club, we have an aging population. So now on hot days, because there aren’t trees, the older members won’t play because it’s too hot,” he said.
“The course is also much harder now when the wind is blowing because there are no trees to protect it.”
Mr Priestley said the club also had new competition from other Wimmera function centres, such as the Horsham Town Hall.
He said the board had made some tough decisions.
“We had to make our head chef position redundant, and we will continue looking at smarter ways we can do business,” he said.
The club has also stopped opening its bistro on Friday and Saturday nights.
“We are open for brunch though on Sunday between 10.30am and 2pm, and we have had tremendous support so far,” he said.
“We are open to everyone – there is no better place in Horsham.”
Officials told members at the meeting they needed to support to the club more.
“No longer can we survive from people just coming to play golf and going home,” Mr Priestley said.
“We have more than 500 members, and if each member came once a month to a function or to use the bistro, it would solve our problems.
“If members don’t put their money into their club, there is a possibility we could go into administration.
“Those people who don’t want to attend a function once a month, if they could give us a donation to make it fair for all, that would help.
“It is a hard line of business, but we have to pay for it somehow.”
Mr Priestley said the club was still open for business and encouraged the public to use it. “We are still rated one of the best public courses in Australia and we want the chance to cater for any function people have,” he said.
