Charlesland closing December 31st

Not surprised really

Some threads on this forum where lads at different clubs were looking for refunds or stopping monthly payments as they could not play.

It's a shame. I used to be a junior member. My dad is still a member and he is gutted. It's been sort of coming, but this news was very sudden and a shock to them all. It's a lovely group of members there, but now they have no idea what they will do. He's known loads of them for 27 years, and now they have no idea if they will all go their separate ways or try to get in somewhere as a group.

Not a nice thing to happen any club.

Skyfloater wrote: »

Anyone know how many members there are?

According to gogolfing.ie 583 members. The info on that site is generally provided by the clubs themselves, but not sure how up to date it is.

Skyfloater wrote: »

Even though the area is particularly well served with golf courses, that's a lot. They could transform Roundwood if they went up there en mass.

Is that Djouce golf club? Afaik, it's only a 9 hole course, but the sub is very reasonable at about €700 a year.

Just thinking that that's now two clubs in the general area that have closed in the last few years. Glen of the Downs and now Charlesland.

First Up wrote: »

Roundwood is a different club.

Is that still open?


No bookings available, no opens on GolfNet. Facepalm page not updated since 2015 and their website not updated since 2017. On the other side of the coin, it did get rated for WHS.

I recently played roundwood a few weeks ago and got a booking on a saturday for 3 fourballs through tee times. Had never played it before, but the place is in massive need of some investment. Never experienced greens as bad - completely overgrown and covered in sand. Saying that, there were some decent holes if it was tidied up

Wouldn't fancy the drive up to Roundwood GC from the Newtown side on a regular basis tbh.

swededmonkey wrote:

Being straight up. They weren't aerated. Just poorly maintained from what we could see. It's a shame because it has potential

Fair enough. It always seemed a shoestring operation. Did they ever finish the clubhouse?

Nice setting though.

Local gossip would indicate a developer purchased options on Charlesland many years ago. Even had land allocated out near Newcastle for relocation if needed.

High fees were intended to keep speculators away, and restrict any spread of a possible windfall for the current members.

yea i believe this is in the pipeline for a long time
if memory serves it did almost close once or twice in the past, maybe even did for a short period of time
its not a bad course, some bland holes, some good holes, some silly ones, (index 1 brings to mind). greystones/charlesland/kilcoole/delgany has gotten huge over recent years. plenty of population for the course to survive. not sure i buy their "future of golf being uncertain" bull, but sure they are private so can do what they want.
sad for the members

SteM wrote: »

Wouldn't fancy the drive up to Roundwood GC from the Newtown side on a regular basis tbh.

agree with this, it would be a weird move for members en mass to move to roundwood. can't see it happening.

swededmonkey wrote: »

I recently played roundwood a few weeks ago and got a booking on a saturday for 3 fourballs through tee times. Had never played it before, but the place is in massive need of some investment. Never experienced greens as bad - completely overgrown and covered in sand. Saying that, there were some decent holes if it was tidied up

without a doubt, the worst greens i even played on. they were not only awful, but weird. they were very spongy, it was like they were a bed of moss. not a bad layout, some class holes, some daft ones.

Seve OB wrote:

agree with this, it would be a weird move for members en mass to move to roundwood. can't see it happening.

That would depend on the deal on offer. Ballinascorney moved to Oldfield and took the name with them. I'd be surprised if Roundwood wasn't exploring it.

Skyfloater wrote: »

As we're in the realms of idle speculation, GotD could still rise from the ashes. The new owners have planted a bit of forestry at the southern end, but that could be pulled easily. It all depends on organized the Charlesland members are. The odds are however, that they will just scatter.

Reality is you will probably need over 600 members to make any course annually viable these days and that's before you look at paying off loans you borrow to build/upgrade/renew. The course is idle for nearly 4 years and the farmer owned all the machinery, so that wont come cheap. There's no doubt the greens, bunkers and fairways are full of weeds and the watering system beyond repair.



I wonder who bought the land at GotDs ? there was talk of the Evans family investing in it as they are friendly with the previous owner, but that was just speculation.

Dtoffee wrote: »

Reality is you will probably need over 600 members to make any course annually viable these days and that's before you look at paying off loans you borrow to build/upgrade/renew. The course is idle for nearly 4 years and the farmer owned all the machinery, so that wont come cheap. There's no doubt the greens, bunkers and fairways are full of weeds and the watering system beyond repair.

I don't think that's something you can state without taking into account how much the sub is, what level of visitors the club gets, societies etc.

One club with a sub of €500 a year and another with €1000 are obviously on different incomes with the same number of members.

I played Charlesland a number of years ago and it took us just over 4 hours to get to the 16th tee due to the slow play ahead of us. Added to that it wasn't the warmest of days so we were pretty miserable and we just went in after 15.

Imhof Tank wrote: »

Glen or Heath?

Find it very hard to believe 60 Charlesland members stumped up the €5k hello money as a group for the Glen that quick, and the higher subs.

And any suggestion of a group discount would definately have the current members up in arms.

The entrance fee has been dropped and membership includes the heath. What level of playing rights or access i'm not sure. But that might add some weight to the glen being redeveloped

Tippex wrote: »

I'm looking a joining next year not sure where I'm gonna join most likely Bray. Pretty limited as I don't drive so that the handiest for me.

The fact that so many courses have closed is crazy. I'm fairly shocked that no one has looked at taking Glen of the Downs (though at this stage it will be a lot of work to get the course into shape)

Glen of the Downs was a very messy ownership setup. Just not a viable proposition for anyone really.

Tippex wrote: »

I'm looking a joining next year not sure where I'm gonna join most likely Bray. Pretty limited as I don't drive so that the handiest for me.

The fact that so many courses have closed is crazy. I'm fairly shocked that no one has looked at taking Glen of the Downs (though at this stage it will be a lot of work to get the course into shape)

Bray took in a lot of new members this year - so it will be pretty close to being full if not full already.
Having said that, a lot of the new members are not 'full' members so there may still be options.

This is the time of year that membership subscriptions are due - so, if you are doing to do it, do it soon.

Panic Stations wrote: »

Sad to see this course going.

Only played it in for the first time about a month ago and really enjoyed it. Wasn't mad about the back 9 though.

Anyone have any idea on what's going to happen to the land? I imagine it's going to be turned in residential developments.

There is no planning permission applied for currently on the land. Although there have been rumours for years that it was going to be developed on. With the wicklow planning rules and history nothing can be ruled out.