THE local golf scene has been severely hit by the recent big chill but Eddy Shah, who owns The Wiltshire, believes many clubs could be frozen out not by the weather, but by the recession.

No golf has been possible at The Wiltshire since the middle of December but Shah has noticed an increase in people using the club’s leisure and hotel facilities.

And he believes clubs who do not have similar additional facilities could suffer and even close in 2010.

“I think where golf clubs have been hit is by the recession, for example Christmas meals.

“Hardly any companies booked Christmas dinners this year because of the redundancies they have made.

“This year I think some local golf clubs will go to the wall.

“I think members-only clubs will suffer the most and clubs that don’t offer other facilities like leisure and hotels like us could suffer also.”

Shah believes the rates at his club are competitive and thinks increased membership prices are a big mistake.

He said: “Clubs have to offer more these days and the bigger clubs are doing just that.

“This recent poor weather will have hit clubs hard, but the recession has hit harder and I can definitely see a lot of clubs closing this year.

“I expect to make a loss in January and February but after that we should be fine.”

MARLBOROUGH Golf Club general manager Les Trute has admitted that the current cold climate is hampering preparations for the new season.

Normally at this time of the year, greenkeepers are out at work on the course readying fairways, bunkers and general greenery, in time for the new season in March.

But the snow that has fallen on Wiltshire over the course of the last week has rendered that task impossible, and has left the club well behind schedule, as Trute explains.

“We have got six greenkeepers who are getting paid and they would normally be tidying things up, but they can’t get on the course,” he said.

“We’re trying to work on a third of our bunkers and want to trim trees, but they can’t get on with that because it’s not safe.

“They have not done much recently other than shovel snow off the car park and then go home.

“It starts to get a bit expensive and the work is not getting done.”

And the absence of golfers inevitably has had a knock-on effect on the club’s bar and restaurant takings.

“We have just contracted out our catering and bar in December and they did quite a lot of promotion,” said Trute.

“They have significantly improved the quality of the restaurant, but they have had a couple of weeks without any income whatsoever.”

BASSET Down Golf Course owner Juliette Nutland has admitted that the recent conditions have hit her business hard.

With snow lying five inches thick across the greens and fairways of the nine hole course at Salthrop, just outside Wroughton, Nutland’s frustration is understandable.

The course has remained shut since the snow began falling last week, whilst Nutland has been forced into closing all clubhouse facilities for three of the last 10 days.

“It is driving us mad,” she said.

“We’ve had to close in the evenings, and although our junior lessons went ahead on Saturday in spite of the snow, we only had about a third turn up.

“It has been a tough week for small businesses like ours, from both a cash flow perspective and a staffing perspective. It’s a nightmare.

“Other clubs have their membership to fall back on, but we don’t.

“With all the surface snow at the moment we just have to wait,” said Nutland.

“We can’t get onto it because walking on the grass at the moment would do much more damage than good.

“Even once the snow goes it will be saturated and if it then freezes it will just sit there.”

Underneath the white layer that has hidden the course’s rural setting for the past fortnight the fairways and greens have continued to grow.

And this will inevitably cause further difficulties for head greenkeeper John Richards once the thaw has finally done its job.

“The grass has been left for over a month now without being cut,” said Nutland.

“That’s the longest it has ever gone without being tended to.”