Royal Canberra Golf Club postpones final stage of redevelopment

Royal Canberra Golf Club insists the final stage of their 27-hole redevelopment isn’t on the scrap heap, despite postponing the upgrade of the final nine holes for at least a year.

President Mac Howell said the reasons for putting the last step of the $6 million upgrade on hold were three-fold – financial, to avoid damaging the new 18 holes through over use and to await the appointment of a new course superintendent.

The first nine holes were completed last year with the second nine expected to be ready for play in September or October, with each nine-hole rebuild costing about $2 million.

But the board notified members via email on Saturday the final stage had been suspended and Howell said they would re-evaluate next year.

“There’s a number of reasons that we’ve taken this decision. There’s the need to consolidate the club’s financial position, there’s the need to allow the new holes to settle down and the other significant one is we are in the process of engaging a new course superintendent and that probably won’t happen for another month or so,” Howell said.

The email states: “The club is not currently in a position to support the additional borrowings that would be required to proceed with this final stage of the plan.”

It also said the club had a “downturn” in income from new members, as well as “disappointing sales” from golf, food and beverage, but they were implementing new revenue strategies.

Howell said there would be “absolutely no problem” with the club being able to afford the final stage next year.

“There’s no cash flow issues at all, but this is a significant investment by the members of the golf club,” he said.

“The master plan was in three stages – the first nine, the second nine and the third nine – and we were always going to assess the situation after each stage of the development.

“We’ve finished the first two stages and we’re comfortable with the outcome of those two and we want to consolidate our position … returning to 27 holes, let the new two immature nines mature a little and then we’ll get on with the third stage.”

Howell said Royal Canberra was still interested in hosting major tournaments in the future.

They hosted the 2013 Women’s Australian Open, which Golf Australia labelled “one of the best ever”, and Howell said he’d like to host it again.

South Australia has secured the hosting rights at least until 2018, but then Royal Canberra could make a bid after that.

He said they’d also be interested in hosting a men’s tournament, but felt they were normally restricted to the major cities.

“There’s the possibility that after [the South Australian deal has expired Golf Australia] might be interested in bringing it back here,” Howell said.

“All those things rely on money – sponsorship and support from the government … [but] we’d love to do it.”