Balmoral Golf Club – one of Belfast’s most prestigious golf clubs – has reportedly asked its members for a £1,000 ‘loan’ in a bid to raise funds and avoid falling into potential administration.
According to a reports by multiple media outlets, the club founded in 1914 and situated on the Lisburn Road, approximately three miles south of Belfast City Centre, is also considering the sale of the clubhouse and other outbuildings including greenkeeper’s sheds and potentially even reducing the course to nine holes as the debt – believed to be in excess of £1 million – continues to accumulate interest amounting to tens of thousands of pounds annually.
The reports claim that the club wrote to its 450 members last month, laying out the perilous situation it found itself in, and appealed for support, offering three separate options.
- Option one – Immediate appointment of an administrator;
- Option two – Members each lend the club £1,000 to cover the immediate cash shortfall; or
- Option three – Immediately sell around 25 acres of land to a third party developer.
The debt, the club admit, stems from “legacy projects” and the interest repayments have severely impacted the club’s ability to invest in and improve the on-site facilities including the course itself and the additional amenities, with continual APR increases by the Bank of England making it increasingly difficult to maintain and the club reported a financial loss for 2023.
“Our inability to grasp the seriousness of the situation in a timely fashion led to a loss of confidence from our bankers, who made the decision to sell our loan to AB Carval in 2023,” said the letter, which, according to the reports, is signed off by the Balmoral club council.
“However, we have made some progress in discussions in recent weeks and have some expectation that they may be prepared to accept an amount less than par value for the £1 million debt we owe.
“At the same time as seeking to negotiate on our legacy debt position, council sought to ensure that the core trading business returned to profitability so that any remaining debt was able to be managed/repaid and to provide some surplus for reinvestment in the course and facilities.
“Key areas of focus have been retaining or indeed increasing membership numbers, driving income from our bar and catering facilities, enhancing revenue from visiting clubs and societies and enhanced third party income from advertising and other sources.”
Balmoral’s membership dues top out at around £1,400, but report a significant decline in membership in recent years and this, along with “negligible” increases in bar revenue post-Covid, leaves it on the precipice.
The three scenarios laid out in the letter also contain additional caveats for the members of the club who have a long association with 1951 Open Championship winner Fred Daly, though the £1,000 loan option appears to be the most likely to secure the future of the club in its current guise.
This, they claim, would “deliver a credible plan to turn around the business with a realistic prospect of success”, but contains an additional option to sell the existing clubhouse, greenkeeper sheds and adjoining land to a third party developer who would, in turn, build a new, smaller clubhouse close to the 18th green, build new greenkeeping sheds on additional patches of land close to the 13th hole, and pay an additional £600,000 in cash.
The third option, which would see 25 acres of land sold to a developer, would significantly reduce the financial burden, but could result in the golf course being reduced to 15, 12 or even nine holes in the future. Should this scenario come to fruition, Balmoral’s status as a Championship Golf Course would be no more, and the decreasing membership numbers would likely plummet as a result.
The clubs prime real estate location means that it has received numerous purchase offers down through the years, with Dublin-based Merrion Property Group even purchasing the 149-acre New Grove Estate, located three miles further south, in 2020 and commissioning Paul McGinley Golf Course Design to lay out a new championship course on the site.
But the New Grove Estate was put back on the market in September of this year, with an asking price of £3.25 million, suggesting their interest in striking a deal with Balmoral has ended.
The club have declined to comment at this time, but Irish Golfer understands that members have been invited to a meeting next week to discuss the matter further.