Kames is latest Scottish club to close

• Another Scottish club goes to the wall
• Kames to become, amongst other things, a wind farm
• Club had been in difficulty for some time
• “It’s very sad news… it had a healthy membership”

bunkered.co.uk has learned that Kames Country Club in Lanarkshire has closed.

It is our understanding that the sale of the facility and its two 18-hole courses – Mouse Valley and Kames – to a haulage firm was completed within the last three to six months, although details are only just starting to emerge now.

Amongst other things, the site is expected to be used to accommodate a new wind farm.

The news of Kames’ closure follows news earlier this year of Castle Park in East Lothian and Rutherford Castle in the Borders going out of business. It is the fifth Scottish golf club to go to the wall in the last 18 months.

Concerns for Kames’ future first emerged early last year when it was placed into administration and, subsequently, put up for sale. An attempted members’ buy-out then failed before Lanark firm Tennant Transport Ltd swooped in.

The news of the club’s closure comes just four years after details were published of a £40m proposal to upgrade the facility to five-star status in the hope of attracting European Tour events. Those plans, however, failed to materialise.

“It was a family-run business and it seems like it all just became too much for the owners to keep it going.”

A source told bunkered.co.uk: “It is really sad news. Despite really being in the middle of nowhere, Kames was a popular club with a healthy membership. When it closed, it had just under 200 members, which is good going for a remote club like that.”

It is believed that the club owed quite a lot of money to the bank and it was when the bank came knocking for some of that to be repaid that things started to go wrong.

“It was a family-run business and it seems like it all just became too much for the owners to keep it going,” added the source. “It’s a real shame.”

Spanning almost 200 acres, Kames Country Club had a purpose-built clubhouse, greenkeeping facilities and a large practice area and driving range in addition to its two 18-hole courses. However, our source told us that, within months, “it will be as though there had never been a golf club there”.

On a positive note, it is thought that some of the club’s members have taken up new memberships at Torrance Park Golf Club in Motherwell.

Closure of Kames :: your thoughts

Did you ever play golf at Kames Country Club? What do you make of the news that another Scottish club has closed? Leave your thoughts in our ‘Comments’ section below.

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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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