Irvine Ravenspark Golf Club is ready to come out swinging after the coronavirus lockdown threatened to leave them teetering on a financial cliff edge.
The 113-year-old municipal club is poised to reopen on June 5 after the Scottish Government relaxed restrictions on non-contact sports.
And Ravenspark captain Colin McKinnon this week insisted that date can’t come quick enough as he admitted they were just a month away from a potential disaster.
Now he’s hoping members, past and present, and casual golfers will back the club in healthy numbers to ease them back out of the crisis.
He said: “Not many clubs have escaped the effects of lockdown — and we’re no different.
"We weren’t in the best position to begin with and it’s fair to say if this had gone on for another month, then we’d have been close to going over the edge.
“Our only sources of income come from fees and the bar. Up until this week, we only had 30 per cent of last year’s 250-strong membership signed up.
“We need £50,000 just to break even every year. We managed to get a £10,000 government grant which helped massively but we are going to have to be very prudent this year.
“We’ve had five new members sign up so far and if we get that up another 35 then that equates to £10,000 in fees.
“Hopefully now that we’ve got the green light to resume in some capacity we’ll be able to welcome members and new faces to back to the course.”
The club have issued advice to members regarding new rules on the course and off it.
These include no sharing of equipment or touching of flags ore flagpoles on greens.
Players will also be encouraged to take their own hand sanitiser onto the course for regular use.
