Dollar Golf Club Forced to Close after 129 years
Dollar Golf Club is closing its doors at the end of the year after the club fell into insurmountable financial trouble.
The club’s website informed members and visitors on Tuesday that ‘the Club Council could only reach the conclusion that closure at the end of this year was the only option.’
The 18-hole village golf course sat on the slopes of the Ochils and perched beneath the historic Castle Campbell has been around since the late 19th Century.
The club’s annual general meeting was held on November 18 which laid out an explanation of what is going to happen next as the club coordinates its closure, headed by the club’s council.
The announcement has come as a shock to the club’s membership of around 120.
“We, the members, knew that the finances of the Club were in difficulty but thought we had one more year to find a solution. However, without warning, on 5th November we were told the course was closing on 31st December,” said Moragh Dunning, a member of the club for over 40 years.
Dunning spoke out about her sadness following the meeting on Monday evening.
“An AGM had been called and with little fight and the merest whimper, Dollar Golf Club was no more. I mourn its passing.”
A statement on the club website explained the decision saying;
“With falling membership, not alone in Scotland, the Club has been struggling to avert closure for the past few years.
Much effort was put in to keep the Club going but it had been losing money for some time and efforts to find funding elsewhere were unsuccessful.
To meet the resultant commitments, redundancy of staff, etc, it was considered unwise to struggle on only to meet cash problems in the coming year.”
Dollar Golf Club is one of many golf clubs to fall victim in Scotland with Letham Grange Golf Club in Angus being forced to shut in October, as well as the 115-year-old, Mount Ellen Golf Club in Gartcosh, which closed in August this year.
These closures along with falling membership figures across Scotland are sure to be alarming reading for Scottish Golf, the governing body for amateur golf in Scotland.
An annual survey carried out on golf across the continent revealed Scotland lost 7,521 registered members in 2017/18, a staggering 4% of all Scottish members.
The home of golf has lost over fifty thousand members in just a decade.
The statistics in KPMG’s Golf Participation Report for Europe proved Scotland are losing more registered members year on year and the number of members lost per year has grown annually from 2014.
In 2014, Scotland had 209,812 registered club members and in only four years that number dropped to 180,281, with another large decline in membership expected in the next annual report.
As Dollar Golf Club heads into its last month of existence, a difficult road lies ahead for the members having to painfully organise the dissolution of the club.
The club’s council were re-elected by members in the second motion of the AGM and are tasked with carrying out the cessation process.
Scottish Cup: Linlithgow Rose 1 Falkirk 4
Falkirk prove too strong for Lowland League Linlithgow Rose.
Falkirk have comfortably beaten Linlithgow Rose to progress to the fourth round of the Scottish Cup in Lee Millar and David McCracken’s first game in charge.
Two goals from Conor Sammon either side of Tommy Coyne’s equaliser put Falkirk ahead at the break. Declan McManus scored Falkirk’s third with 12 minutes remaining from a Paul Dixon cross, before provider then turned scorer when Dixon tapped in to seal the win.
Over 1,700 fans packed into a sold-out Prestonfield for a hotly anticipated local derby in the Scottish Cup, live on BBC Scotland.
The home side came through four ties to get to this stage, beating the University of Stirling in the previous round whereas Falkirk were entering the competition at this stage.
The Bairns sacked manager Ray McKinnon hours after the club drew against Dumbarton last Saturday and were quick to appoint, Lee Millar and David McCracken as interim co-managers.
The management duo started with a 3-5-2 formation bringing in, Conor Sammon and Lewis Toshney to replace Aidan Connolly and Charlie Telfer.
The fairy-tale start that Linlithgow would have been looking for wasn’t in the script, as Falkirk opened the scoring in the 8th minute.
Declan McManus dispossessed Linlithgow’s full-back McKinlay and played the ball out to Conor Sammon, who peeled of the defender, and the Republic of Ireland International took two touches before slotting the ball under the on-rushing Falkirk keeper.
The Lowland League side’s first real foray into the Falkirk half led to a corner being awarded in the 20th minute.
The in-swinging corner was glanced on at the front post by Ross Allum, as the ball bounced across the six-yard box before finding the feet of Linlithgow Rose’s all-time leading goal scorer, Tommy Coyne, who bundled the ball over the line from a few yards out.
The goal put Linlithgow level against the League One opposition much to the delight of the home supporters, who had turned out in large numbers eager for a memorable Friday evening.
Falkirk pressed Linlithgow straight from the restart and the pressure paid off when a floated cross from Scotland International, Paul Dixon, found his former Dundee United team-mate, Morgaro Gomis, who nodded the ball down and following a missed overhead kick from Declan McManus the ball found Sammon 8 yards out.
The striker side footed the ball back across the goalkeeper into the bottom corner for his second of the game.
The Linlithgow defence found guilty of being flat-footed with the vastly experienced Sammon drifting into space after laying the ball off for Dixon’s cross, the target man stood unmarked and sent the Bairns back into the lead.
The second half started with several hand-ball penalty claims from both sides, which were all waved away by referee Grant Irvine.
Falkirk looked lively with most of the action coming down their left-wing with Paul Dixon providing several dangerous crosses into the box.
Declan McManus sealed Falkirk’s progression into the fourth round, latching onto another Paul Dixon delivery just inside the penalty box, McManus powered past the defender with some tidy footwork and slipped the ball under Michael McKinven in the Linlithgow goal.
Man of the Match, Paul Dixon capped off a convincing victory with Falkirk’s fourth goal of the game in the 85th minute, tapping the ball into an empty net after McKinven could only parry Sammon’s left-footed effort straight into the path of birthday boy Dixon.
Paul Dixon showed his quality throughout the 90 minutes and the experienced left back was presented with a bottle of champagne at the end of the match. A delighted Dixon kicking off his 33rd birthday celebration in style.
The second half started with several hand-ball penalty claims from both sides, which were all waved away by referee Grant Irvine.
Falkirk looked lively with most of the action coming down their left-wing with Paul Dixon providing several dangerous crosses into the box.
Declan McManus sealed Falkirk’s progression into the fourth round, latching onto another Paul Dixon delivery just inside the penalty box, McManus powered past the defender with some tidy footwork and slipped the ball under Michael McKinven in the Linlithgow goal.
Man of the Match, Paul Dixon capped off a convincing victory with Falkirk’s fourth goal of the game in the 85th minute, tapping the ball into an empty net after McKinven could only parry Sammon’s left-footed effort straight into the path of birthday boy Dixon.
Paul Dixon showed his quality throughout the 90 minutes and the experienced left back was presented with a bottle of champagne at the end of the match. A delighted Dixon kicking off his 33rd birthday celebration in style.
Falkirk will find out their opponents for the fourth round this Sunday, 24 November.
Craig Stewart 