Gosford Golf Club is looking to future-proof itself after a Covid-boom gave it new insights.
Covid lockdowns, restrictions to group sizes and restrictions on people’s movements opened the floodgates for golf.
The club ran at 99 per cent capacity for months and membership was closed with a large waiting list.
General Manager Kieran Moran said the covid boom showed the club how course infrastructure held up the continuous and extra traffic and the flow-on effect to maintenance and operational hours.
He said it provided an opportunity to crystal ball the future.
Mr Moran spoke about the club’s plans at the November luncheon of the Gosford Erina Business Chamber this week.
He was one of a number of speakers who highlighted upcoming developments on the Coast.
Mr Moran asked the luncheon guests to indicate who played golf now and how many had played golf in the 1980s.
He explained the difference in golf clubs between those two eras meant that a golfer in 1986 would hit a ball 200m.
Today, with modern clubs, a golfer could hit 300m.
And that creates a problem of safety.
The club has recently put a proposed master plan in front of members to start a conversation about modernising and improving the golf course and clubhouse.
Mr Moran said the club was cash poor and asset rich.
It owns two blocks of land on which the clubhouse and car park sits and the club leases the course from Crown Land.
“So when it comes to future proofing, everyone wants to cut expenses and golf clubs are no different,” Mr Moran said.
“We are looking at developing a more efficient course and club house facility to keep costs lower.”
He said he couldn’t disclose too much about the clubhouse plans except to say “we have hit a bit of a niche in the market” they were investigating the most at the moment.
Any potential development would go to a general meeting with the membership and all changes would be in line with the constitution of the Gosford Golf Club, he said.
