£50,000 Thurso golf clubhouse refurbishment is just ace!
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THE £50,000 refurbishment of the clubhouse at Thurso golf course should suit members to a tee.
As part of the extensive renovation, a new £15,000 3-D golf simulator has been installed, primarily for the junior section but available for adults as well.
The facility means aspiring golfers can now test their skills 365 days a year on a variety of top courses all over the world, including Augusta in Georgia where Tiger Woods won his fifth Green Jacket.
Thurso is thought to be one of the few clubs in the Highlands to have a simulator and is hoping it will help attract new members.
Club captain Jocky Begg said: "We have completely renovated the clubhouse at a cost of £50,000. We have a new bar, new flooring, new furniture and fittings.
"The simulator, which cost about £15,000, is located where the bar used to be. We are hoping the improvements and the simulator will attract new members and particularly young ones. The future of the club is with the kids."
It is 30 to 40 years since anything was done in the clubhouse so this is a major investment.
Funding for the project came from the European Union Leader programme, the Baillie Wind Farm and the Caithness and North Sutherland Fund.
"They made it all possible," Mr Begg said.
The simulator has 160,000 golf courses, including Augusta, St Andrews and Carnoustie. It measures four-and-a-half by three metres, allows the player to strike the ball into the screen, and calculates its speed and where it lands so you feel as if you are actually playing the course.
"We want to try and attract new members and having the simulator and making all these improvements to the clubhouse will help," Mr Begg said.
"Reaction so far has been good. We have 254 members at the moment and hope this will help us get more people interested in golf. We have a strong junior section and adult members up to the age of 87."
Main contractor for the renovation was Thurso-based businessman Terry Mackay, who was the project manager. Other local firms involved in the project included A&D Mackay, A&D Sutherland, Ashley Ann, John O'Groat Joiners, MLG Electrical and J Waters. The simulator was supplied by a firm from Glasgow.
Mr Begg said: "The club celebrated its 125th anniversary last year and this renovation is a big step towards the next 125 years.
"The golf course has been much improved over the last few years and is in superb condition. We now have a clubhouse to match it."
Club's proud history goes back 126 years
THE major refurbishment of the Thurso clubhouse is the latest landmark development for a club that had its beginnings in the late Victorian era.
It all began in 1893 following a meeting in the town's Royal Hotel. Mr Torrance from Castletown proposed the motion which was seconded by Dr Durran, also from Castletown, who said golf had become one of the most popular games of the day. It was "a most honourable and healthy one, affording pleasurable recreation and was not connected with vice", he declared. He thought it should be encouraged as it would be an inducement to tourists to visit the area.
And so the club was born. It was agreed that, while smaller courses in the Thurso area might be used for private practice, the main play and competitions would take place at the Dunnet links. The annual subscription for members was set at five shillings.
The first competition took place at Dunnet on June 17, 1893.
From the inception of the club, it was felt that the Dunnet links were rather far from Thurso. Suggestions were being made as early as July 1893 that a course closer to Thurso should be sought. An area at Brims was looked at and, nearer to Thurso, the area around Gallow Hill, Howeburn and Wolfburn. By the end of July 1893 permission was granted by George MacDonald of Pennyland to the golf club to lay out a course in this area.
Around 1900 the course in the Pennyland area was given up and negotiations started to acquire the land at Holborn Head, where golf was played until 1903. Dunnet, however, was still the main course.
A couple of years later, Thurso Town Council took an interest in obtaining a course nearer to the town and it was decided the three "parks" on Ormlie Farm would be suitable. The club prospered over the years, although it was closed during World War I and struggled to get going after WWII.
The advent of Dounreay in the 1950s gave it a boost and helped increase interest and membership. In the 1960s steps were taken to extend the course and in 1963 land was leased from the town council.
By April 1966, the full 18 holes were ready for play, including the signature 13th hole over a burn with heather on the left and the rough on the right, and the 15th green which has a fine view of the Pentland Firth, Orkney and Dunnet Head.
In 1973 the clubhouse was added at a cost of £20,000. It has now had another major renovation which should stand it in good stead for the next chapter in the club’s proud history.
