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Glasgow City Council has permanently closed one of its six municipal golf courses, bunkered.co.uk has learned.

Ruchill Golf Course, in Maryhill, closed at the end of August in what the council claimed was a temporary measure due to staff shortages. 

However, it is our understanding that there are no plans to re-open the popiuar nine-hole track.

Together with the 18-hole Littlehill, Lethamhill and Linn Park layouts, as well as its two nine-hole sisters – Knightswood and Alexandra Park – Ruchill had been facing an uncertain future ever since the council opened a public consultation into their future earlier in the year. 

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That consultation closed in July and is currently in review, with a decision on the what to do with the courses expected next month. 

However, it appears to have come too late for Ruchill after a well-placed source told bunkered.co.uk that it is “definitely not re-opening”. 

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This is in spite of Bailie Norman MacLeod, who had been heading up a working party looking at the future of golf in Glasgow, telling golfers of his “huge personal commitment” and “huge ambition” to preserving all six courses. 

He told a public meeting in August: “There’s no hidden agenda of selling off any of the council courses to developers.”

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The decision to close Ruchill comes ten years after the course underwent a huge transformation and was re-opened by Ryder Cup hero Colin Montgomerie after a long campaign by local golfers. 

It is the latest Scottish course to close this year, following Eastwood, Mount Ellen, Letham Grange and Brunston Castle, with Dundee municipal Camperdown slated for closure at the end of 2020. 

bunkered.co.uk has contacted Glasgow City Council for comment.


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Michael McEwan is the Deputy Editor of bunkered and has been part of the team since 2004. In that time, he has interviewed almost every major figure within the sport, from Jack Nicklaus, to Rory McIlroy, to Donald Trump. The host of the multi award-winning bunkered Podcast and a member of Balfron Golfing Society, Michael is the author of three books and is the 2023 PPA Scotland 'Writer of the Year' and 'Columnist of the Year'. Dislikes white belts, yellow balls and iron headcovers. Likes being drawn out of the media ballot to play Augusta National.

Deputy Editor

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