Redundancies as Drumoig closes

Mike Aitken, The Scotsman, 21 November 2003

The doors of the Scottish National Golf Centre at Drumoig, near St Andrews, closed yesterday after the receiver was unable to find a buyer in the short term. Although a number of parties have expressed an interest in purchasing the facility, continuing losses made it impossible to keep the enterprise going.

Opened at a cost of £4.3million by the Scottish Golf Union in 1999, the facility has been described by Butch Harmon, coach to Tiger Woods, as one of the best in the world. However, its remote location meant the Centre haemorrhaged significant annual losses of between £300,000 and £400,000 before going into receivership three months ago.

Blair Nimmo, head of KPMG’s Corporate Recovery in Scotland, yesterday confirmed that 11 of the 13 employees at Drumoig would now be made redundant. "Unfortunately, at this time of year trading is such that we have had to close the Centre as it continues to incur significant losses," he said. "We will operate the Centre on a care-and-maintenance basis while we pursue a number of interested parties.

"Obviously it is with disappointment that we have had to make this announcement and we would like to thank all those concerned for their co-operation to date. Despite the present situation, we are still hopeful of achieving a sale that will allow the Centre to re-open."

The Centre, which offers state-of-the-art teaching, coaching and practice facilities, was built thanks to a combination of £1.2million in lottery funding and a £2.2million levy on all Scottish golf club members.

The Royal and Ancient also contributed £150,000. The terms of the lease are such that any interested buyer must run the facility as a golf academy and should be some sort of golf organisation.