High-profile exits coincide with sale of Loch Lomond

A MEMBERS' buyout which has just been completed at Loch Lomond Golf Club has coincided with a brace of high-profile departures from the now former home of the Barclays Scottish Open.

Ken Lewandowski, the former Hibernian chairman, has resigned his membership, while Niall Flanagan, the club's president and chief executive for the past four years, has left by mutual consent.

A one-time Captain for Scotland at the club and close friend of former owner Lyle Anderson, Lewandowski spoke on behalf of a Members' Executive Committee along with Satty Singh, the Glasgow-based restaurateur, when a buyout was first mooted towards the end of 2008.

At that time, it was claimed that there was interest in the club from "eight or nine parties from the Middle East, Europe and America" but now a deal has finally been concluded with a members' group.

However, the club's new owners don't include Lewandowski, who has held senior positions in the technology and manufacturing sectors in Scotland, England and America and is currently a local chairman for the Clydesdale Bank, after he decided to terminate his membership.

Flanagan's departure, meanwhile, has led to a significant vacancy at the club, where the jobs of 100 full-time staff and a further 200 seasonal workers have been secured thanks to the members' buyout.

Flanagan moved to Loch Lomond in 2006 after spending the previous six years as director of operations for the St Andrews Links Trust.

Prior to that, he had a spell in Dubai after cutting his teeth in the golf industry as a tournament director with the PGA and also working at both Wentworth and Celtic Manor.

As a result of the successful buyout, the management of the club will now be overseen by a board of directors chaired by Sir Nigel Rudd, a member and chairman of BAA. A week after it was confirmed the Barclays Scottish Open would no longer be held at Loch Lomond, it appears the aim of the new owners is to make it ultra-exclusive once again.

"Loch Lomond Golf Club is a very special place and our goal is to re-establish it as one of the foremost members' clubs in the world," said Rudd. "We intend to protect everything that is special about the club and our aim is very much to enhance the levels of service, friendliness and excellence for which the club is famed."

On Flanagan's departure, he added: "Niall has played an important role in managing the club during the uncertainty of the past two years.

"We wish him well for the future and feel sure it won't be long before he accepts another important role within the golf industry."