An England golf selector has branded the possible closure of Ifield Golf Club to make way for housing as \u201ca disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n
The club, based in Crawley, was bought by Homes England in 2020 as part of plans for a 3,000-home development west of Ifield. A hybrid planning application was submitted to Horsham District Council in August.<\/p>\n
Attracting around 6,000 unique visitors each year, the club is set to celebrate its centenary in 2027,\u00a0 just one year before its land lease runs out. But the milestone is now under threat, with members fearing the doors could close instead.<\/p>\n
Alan Covey, a member of the club and an England under-18s selector, said: \u201cIt would be a disaster. Not only for Crawley. In my mind as an England selector [for the under 18s], we\u2019re not encouraging kids to play golf.<\/p>\n
\u201cI deal with the elite players in the country but I need places like this to develop kids to get to my level.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s good about this place is that it\u2019s welcoming to the kids. They don\u2019t feel intimidated, they come along, play golf and feel relaxed. And that\u2019s what we need as a country, places like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
The club has members ranging from just seven years old to 101. Alan also highlighted the importance of the sport for older players, calling golf in retirement \u201cabsolutely critical\u201d for both body and mind, from the five-mile walk around the course to the simple act of socialising and having \u201ca reason to get up in the morning.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cWe\u2019re all flabbergasted. It\u2019s a great community and it will be very sad if that goes. I don\u2019t know where our 500 members would go. It\u2019s not just about a golf club,\u00a0 they\u2019re friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
In its application, Homes England admitted that Ifield Golf Club was not surplus to requirements but still labelled its position as \u201cmarginal.\u201d As a result, it ruled that a like-for-like replacement would not be \u201cproportionate or warranted.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead, the developer has suggested improvements to Tilgate and Rookwood courses, in Crawley and Horsham, with the final mitigation package to be agreed with Horsham District Council, Sport England and England Golf.<\/p>\n
But Alan was unimpressed. Rather than losing facilities, he argued the country needed \u201c100 others just like it\u201d to get more children into the game.<\/p>\n
With Europe\u2019s Ryder Cup win over the USA fresh in the memory, he noted the boost such success could give to the next generation of golfers.<\/p>\n
Alan said: \u201cMitigation to me is to give similar to what we have got. Do they build another golf course as good as this? Mitigation is so wide open.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to have houses but not here. It would be so sad if we lost this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An England golf selector has branded the possible closure of Ifield Golf Club to make way for housing as \u201ca disaster.\u201d The club, based in Crawley, was bought by Homes England in 2020 as part of plans for a 3,000-home development west of Ifield. A hybrid planning application was submitted to Horsham District Council in August. Attracting around 6,000 unique visitors each year, the club is set to celebrate its centenary in 2027,\u00a0 just one year before its land lease […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":31024,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[445,9],"tags":[3295,3296,935,3294],"class_list":["post-31023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-golf-news","tag-alan-covey","tag-crawley","tag-england-golf","tag-ifield-golf-club"],"yoast_head":"\n