Newcastle Golf Club to develop two holes

PARTS of the iconic Newcastle Golf Course could be developed to ensure the club’s long-term future.

Member’s of the club voted on Wednesday night to allow the board to begin “exploring” development opportunities for golf course land fronting Nelson Bay Road, according to board member and Newcastle real estate heavyweight Chris Chapman.

“We had a very positive meeting with members [at which] the board was given permission to explore development opportunities for certain parts of club land,” Mr Chapman said.

Holes 16 and 17, which front Nelson Bay Road in the north-west section of the course, are understood to be the initial development targets, but there is scope to extend the areas open to development.

“We have looked to possibly develop other land in that vicinity some time in the future,” he said.

“It’s main road land on a road that is very busy these days and it’s obviously of great value.”

While Mr Chapman would not comment on specific developers, saying there were “a range of businesses we’ll talk to”, it’s understood the club has already held talks with Woolworths.

The supermarket giant had a planned 3800-square-metre supermarket proposed for Fullerton Cove knocked back in 2014, and a spokeswoman said at the time that it was “continuing to look into our options to bring a store to Fullerton Cove”.

A spokesman did not comment directly on whether it had been in talks with the golf club, but did not rule it out.

“Woolworths regularly investigates opportunities to bring a convenient community supermarket to new locations,” he said.

“We consider a variety of elements when deciding if we should progress with a development proposal including the area’s population growth and community support for a new supermarket.”

The club will not sell the land in question, and Mr Chapman said it would always be an 18-hole course.

“We’ve got enough land to possible add an additional five holes in the future,” he said.

“It’s not like we’d be doing something that would cause irreparable harm.”

The Newcastle club’s decision to investigate development opportunities comes almost a year after Merewether Golf Club announced plans to rezone and sell a 2000-square-metre block on Ella Road as three residential lots to bank some much-needed cash and keep itself afloat.

At the time club’s general manager, David Grime, said Merewether had recorded losses for the past two years and without the sale of some assets it would be unsustainable by 2017.

While Mr Chapman insisted Newcastle was still in a strong position, an ageing membership coupled with a general downturn in the sport’s take-up would have long term consequences if it didn’t act now.

“It’s no secret that golf as a world wide sport is struggling, we’re a nationally iconic club and we have got to make sure that we’re sustainable in the long term,” Mr Chapman said.

He said that in the short term the club remained sustainable, but that long term “we face the same challenges as all other golf clubs”.

“We have a larger proportion of members who are older than 65 than we think is healthy,” he said.

“In the years to come some of these members will retire from golf or move on [and] as we are looking at this as a two to 10 year journey now is the time to start dealing with it, you don’t wait until you have a problem before you tackle it.”

Source: Newcastle Herald