But a temporary reprieve was announced at the beginning of December after local backers pledged to cover the club’s losses for the next two playing seasons, providing some stability as Craigie Hill seeks to boost income and membership numbers. Incoming club captain Graeme Lundberg explains how the club intends to use its new financial platform to achieve this.
What’s it’s been like these past two years that you’ve been vice-captain?
It has been hand-to-mouth, so you’re a little bit constrained and restricted.
With a lot of support from local clubs, donations and vouchers and things like that, we’ve been able to keep going with good attractive open competitions and events. We’ve tied in with football clubs, rugby clubs and other sports and other areas of interest, and we will continue with that.
The overall difference between the last two years and now is we have that platform which gives us a little bit of a breathing space and a little bit of planning wriggle room to work out things on a bigger scale.
What brough the club to this point?
Golf is this area is a buyer’s market – you have so many options, every other course is providing so many deals and things like that.
Part of the problem with Craigie Hill is over time people have moved away to other, bigger courses. We’ve had Craigie Hill members moving to Blairgowrie or Crieff…so we’re looking at a new thing, a dual membership, that would allow us to go back to those guys and say here’s an option for you, five minutes from your door and still competitive in summer leagues and medals and things like that. We hope that will be of interest for them.
What else is changing?
For the here and now it is the winter league format, which I think started in 1932. We think, not officially, but that could well be the oldest winter golf competition format basically on the planet. We haven’t had that vetted, but that’s the feeling.
This year is the same structure as usual but with the new carrot, if you like, of a top prize of a week’s holiday in Elie, which is quite an exclusive area. It does create quite a buzz and banter about the place. That is absolutely brand-spanking new – we’ve never gone to the level that we have here.
Other prizes will be quite exclusive as well: green fees and fourballs to Gleneagles, the Duke’s course in St Andrews, single malt whiskies, and things like that. It’ part of the revitalisation programme that we’re going though just now with this new financial platform to support us.
Who can compete in your winter league?
For the first time ladies and juniors are welcome to participate, and for a £150 fee any non-member can take up a winter golf membership that covers the winter league period. It’s a little bit of revenue generation, but also a celebration of the oldest winter league format while breathing new life into the club.
Sounds rather jolly – quite appropriate for this time of year.
To be frank and honest it’s not 100% benevolent. We are going through a process of pricing restructure and new marketing to basically revitalise the club membership as our prime focus, and in turn generate footfall on the course and bums on seats at events that happen around about the place. The new financial platform will be enabling us to drive harder at regeneration and new membership schemes.
The course is noted for the quality of its greens, and what is said to be one of the most challenging holes in UK parkland golf?
The Spion Kop is hole number five and from up there you can survey all of Perth and the entire surrounding area. You can probably see as far as Crieff – it’s a very panoramic view.
Yardage-wise it is fairly short for a Par 5, but it doesn’t half-pack a mighty punch because of all the difficult bounces and very restricted fairway space you’ve got to aim into.
It does at times seem a little bit Marmite – some people love it, and others genuinely don’t. I have had some guys from other courses in the area come up to me at events and the initial impact of it was almost hatred, but they’ve come back over the last few years and they’re now at the stage where they’re asking me when’s the next open, because they kind of grow to love it.