Course Development
HAWKES BAY GC (NZ) SELLS
11.6HA TO WIPE OUT MORTGAGE
Work has begun to turn Hawkes Bay Golf
Club into a viable entity and to counter
declining membership that all clubs are
grappling with in the country.
Club president Mike Maguire said last night
the club had sold 11.6ha of the 56.4ha course
property in a bid to repay about $500,000
debt, believed to be a mortgage dating back
to late last century.
“The challenge for any golf club is financial
sustainability and, as a club, we’ve been
carrying a substantial mortgage for quite
some time,” he said.
A member at the club since 2001, Maguire’s
research revealed the debt dated back
almost three decades from the time he
started there.
“We managed to stabilise our debt but for a
small club, or even a larger one, to service a
debt like that takes a lot of your funds and
you’re not reinvesting in the game to enable
your course to develop properly.”
He said the club was managing “to hold our
head above water”. In the past four years,
bar one year, it posted a modest surplus.
The club has a sale of purchase agreement,
which has passed “its traditional stage” and
should be done and dusted come January.
Gourmet Blueberries Ltd, a neighbouring
business, has bought the 11.6ha property.
Everything adhering to the script, the
course redesign and redevelopment will be
completed by June next year.
Grant Puddicombe, based in Auckland but
whose course designing and building services
offshore to Canada, the United States and
Japan, is the architect behind the revamped
course.
Golf Industry Central I Spring 2017
31