Wet courses hit golf club books | Sunshine Coast News | Local News in Sunshine Coast | The Sunshine Coast Daily

Wet courses hit golf club books | Sunshine Coast News | Local News in Sunshine Coast | The Sunshine Coast Daily

Nambour Golf Club secretary manager Stephen McMahon checks out the state of the course and, left, the saturated course.

Nicola Brander
SUNSHINE Coast golf clubs are being sucked into a financial blackhole, thanks to the big wet.

Clubs are reporting income losses in the hundreds of thousands of dollars as fairways have too often become lakes in recent weeks, keeping both members and weekend hackers at bay.

The non-stop nature of the rain over the past month has meant many courses have failed to drain, rendering them unplayable.

Nambour Golf Club secretary-manger Stephen McMahon said the constant downpour had wiped $100,000 from the club's books over the past six months, the equivalent of 10% of its annual income.

“We own the golf course so we have a huge asset base, which enables us to look at our loans and what have you,” he said.

“We review everything every week. We never want to lay off staff. But our casual bar staff aren't getting work because the clubhouse is closed.

“We haven't played one Sunday this month. That's a lot of money for staff who work on a Sunday because of penalty rates.”

Yesterday, only nine holes of the Nambour course were playable.

While only two were covered in water, most were muddy and heavy under foot.

"Sustainable Golf" "Environmentally Friendly Golf" "Green Golf" "Audubon Golf" "Golf Environment Organisation" "Turfhugger"