Tapping into Central Otago market might save Oreti Sands, Turner hopes

Greg Turner is urging the wider Southland community to look at all potential ways to tap into a booming Central Otago golf tourism market before putting up the closed sign at Oreti Sands.

The Southland Golf Club committee told members this week that the club would not be able to continue to operate and maintain the course beyond April 2018.

Southland Golf Club president Michael Horn said unless a third party with an expertise in golf tourism got involved, the world’s southernmost links course would be closed in April.

However, that is not viewed as a sustainable long-term option.

Turner, a former professional golfer and now a course designer, was a driving force behind the Oreti Sands redevelopment in 2008.

The Invercargill Licensing Trust and Community Trust of Southland both put up $250,000 for the project.

Oreti Sands is regarded a unique course for visitors to play and that redevelopment was seen as a way to help attract more golfers to Invercargill.

However, the visitor numbers they had hoped for have not arrived. On top of that, the Southland Golf Club members have dropped from 400 in 2000 to about 100 this year.

Turner felt a marketing strategy and also the facilities available, would be two areas which would need to be looked at when deciding if Invercargill in fact wants to make a play at trying to get those golfers from Central Otago to the deep south.

“This demise could be the catalyst to get people around the table to talk.

“It better be talked about sooner than later, because once [Oreti Sands] is gone, it’s gone. It would be a hell of an effort to resestablish it.”

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