CRAIBSTONE GOLF CENTRE - WHAT HAPPENS TO 500+ MEMBERS?

Craibstone Golf Course ... to be returned to parkland?

By COLIN FARQUHARSON

Colin@scottishgolfview.com

Craibstone Golf Centre at Bucksburn near Aberdeen is closed - almost certainly never to open again.

That was the clubhouse talk at yesterday's North-east Alliance competition at Newburgh.

Quite a few Craibstone members play in the Alliance. The golf club, apparently, has over 500 members. So what's going to happen to them?

Without a home club to administer their handicaps, the Craibstone members are in limbo.
Then there's the professional staff at the Centre and the greenkeepers. Not easy to find new places of employment in the current economic climate.

It's the second golf course in the Aberdeen area to cease operations. The first was East Aberdeenshire Golf Centre on the opposite side of the Aberdeen to Ellon Road from Balmedie. It closed because it was a pay-and-play course that was not popular with the public.

The owner's plan there - subject to planning permission - is to build houses. I understand, again from clubhouse chat, that the new owner of the Craibstone Golf Centre and 18-hole course, when the deal is completed, may have a similar, long-term plan in mind, after returning the course to the parkland it was not so long ago  ... before the Scottish  Agricultural College were given a substantial chunk of Lottery money (our money) to build the course little over a decade ago on its Craibstone Estate.
I looked up my files to check out the level of grant aid given to the SAC in late 1997 and it was £517,000 from the Lottery Fund plus £100,000 from the R and A.

The course was designed by Greens of Scotland and  constructed by Oldmeldrum man Graeme Webster's Glen Andrews company.

The SAC talked about running greenkeeping and golf course management courses based at the Craibstone Golf Centre. It never happened. Cupar's Elmwood College was never challenged for its market-leading position in that branch of golf.   
The 18-hole course opened to the public in the autumn of 1999 - but within five years the Scottish Agricultural College, who had received so much money to build it, had put it on the market with a price tag of "offers in excess of £665,000" for a package which also included the clubhouse, office block, woodland, sheds and two former steadings.
So what happened to the grand plan?
London and Scotland Golf Courses (LSGW), who bought the course and its attachments, recently went into provisional liquidation with debts of more than £500,000. LSGW were apparently based at Letham Grange - yet another golfing disaster story!
And so the Craibstone Golf Centre came up for sale again, this time at a "guide price" of £450,000. The selling agent, Savills, have let it be known that they are currently negotiating with one of several bidders but his identity is not being revealed meantime. 

When the course was sold for the first time, bearing in mind the amount of public money used to construct it, there should have been a conditional clause that it remained a golf course for at least 50 years to thwart any potential housing developer.

Too late now!

Any comments? You can E-mail your view to Colin@scottishgolfview.com if you don't mind it being published.