Torrance House Golf Club have endured a “nightmare” Covid lockdown, but came through it by sticking together.
Committee member Steve McKinnon says golfers at the East Kilbride club have chipped in to help, and with extra fees over the last two years, they were able to renovate the clubhouse.
He says it will all be waiting for them when they are able to properly re-open, and that shows the spirit of the club.
Steve said: “It has been a nightmare. The greenkeepers, because we’re not a private course, they had all been stood down, so they couldn’t fulfil their duties on the course, it went to rack and ruin, and there was nothing anybody could do.
“They had worked so hard the year before, so I really felt for them, because it wasn’t as if they wanted time off.
“We got people to help out once we were able to get back on; we’d say to five guys to do the 18th green, the next five would do the 17th, just to help the green keepers out. At the end of the day they were all benefiting from, but I thought it was quite good of the members.
“We got a reduction on the season ticket down to £300, which was fair, and we weren’t allowed to host competition golf, so it was just a kick of the ball.”
In unprecedented times, Steve has been blown away by the solidarity shown across the club to ensure there is a clubhouse to go back to in May.
He added: “We all pulled together as a committee and tried to survive, and not one of the members out of the 200 actually wanted money back.
“We managed to make ends meet, basically, we didn’t make any money, but we didn’t lose any.
“For the last two years we had taken an extra £25 from all the members who were prepared to do it, saved it up, and under the restrictions the clubhouse was closed anyway, so we decided to use the money and reinvested it back into the clubhouse.
“I was personally involved in doing up the bar because I’m a joiner to trade, so we got it all done up, it’s looking amazing, and we had all the furniture recovered and things like that.
“It was guys doing it off their own bat, which was unbelievable, and it has basically kept us open.”
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