Scottish golf club receives donation as thanks for allowing exercise on course

Local couple send letter of appreciation to Old Ranfurly GC

Old Ranfurly Golf Club opened up its course to local residents for use in their daily exercise during the coronavirus lockdown.

A Scottish golf club has received a donation out of the blue as a “thank-you” from a couple who have been using it for their daily exercise during the coronavirus lockdown.

The kind gesture has been made to Old Ranfurly Golf Club in the Renfrewshire village of Bridge of Weir after the course was opened up to local residents to walk on.

In a letter sent to the club secretary, the donor said: “I want you to know how much my wife and I appreciate taking our permitted exercise by walking on your course.

“We have lived here for 37 years and I have never ventured on to it despite being an avid golfer. Having seen it I am now looking forward to 
playing it.

“But I feel that I am taking too much of a liberty by not being a paid up member. I hope that you will understand that already being a member of three clubs at my age a fourth would be extravagant. So please accept this cheque as a mark of my appreciation.”

Golf clubs all over Scotland have been used by walkers, runners and cyclists over the past eight weeks, much to the frustration of golfers as the courses lie closed.

However, officials at Old Ranfurly have been delighted to see their course busy with people after making them aware it would be open for exercise purposes.

“The clubhouse area and about eight of our holes are in an area where there are a lot of houses nearby and we are fortunate that we live in quite an affluent area,” said social/marketing committee member Kenneth Barr.

“We were really quite confident that, if we were to let the local community on the course, we wouldn’t have any issues with vandalism.

“So, a month or five weeks ago, we decided to open up our course to the local community and let everyone on as long as they followed a few rules i.e. staying off the greens, out of the bunkers and not kicking a football around.

“We’ve had a huge amount of people using the course for their daily exercise, walking dogs on leads etc, and it has been fantastic to see.

“We’ve had a lot of good feedback from the local community thanking us for that. Then our club manager received this letter yesterday, which was fantastic.

“The gentleman lives about 100 yards from our clubhouse and they’ve lived there for 37 years but never played the course. As he said in the letter, he’s a member of three courses so he is obviously a really busy man.

“It was obviously a nice touch to send us a cheque and to thank us for him and his wife being able to use the course. It’s been heartwarming and a wee reminder what it is all about in a local community.”

With others experiencing the course for the first time, the club are hoping for a membership boost once venues in Scotland are given the green light to reopen.

“I am sure in the future we are going to get positive feedback and get some more social members and golfers we probably wouldn’t have got before,” added Barr. “Kids might also think about taking up golf after getting to run about the course, so it has been a positive story from a desperate 
situation.”

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