Nazeing Golf Club is situated in Nazeing in the county of Essex, it was the brainchild of a local farmer, this man owned several acres of land, and as i understand, at the time farming was not going to good, now all the dates and years i give are not necessarily the right ones, as precise dates is not my thing, having said that this all started about 20 years ago, the man in questioned had a membership at one of the local golf courses, quite prestigious, and his dream was to build his own course and make it as prestigious, apparently he only had enough land to build half a course, so he enquired around the local land owners, and found one who would throw in with him to build the course.
Subsequently the course was started, and a golf course designer by the name of David Gillett was put in charge of the design, in all honesty he did a fair job, The course took a few years to finnish and eventually opened about four or five years later, that's when i first heard about its opening, i was a member at another course and my playing partner had heard that Nazeing had just opened and that we should go there and black our noses, and that's exactly what we did, there was a long drive from the gates of the course to the car park and the road meandered through much of the course, i must say at that time the road in, was not much more than a dirt road but the course looked in pristine condition. Once into the car park my first thought was wheres the club house,i looked round and there were two porta cabins one of which was the makeshift Pro shop and the other a snack bar and toilets and that was it,
We entered the cabin with the pro shop sign on its door and met the resident Pro, we informed him we were looking for a round of golf and possibly membership, he was very informative told us lots about the course and the future plans of the owners to make this course one of the best around and that now was the time to join as this course will take off and how it would be harder to join later. we paid for our round and started, after 2 or 3 holes we realised that it was in very good condition for a new course and continued. We saw the pro as we finished nine holes and he asked us what we thought, as we stood chatting he said why don't we have a cup of tea in the snack bar before we continued so we did, once inside we were introduced to one of the owners who was running the snack bar at the time, and he was telling us about their plans to build a club house, and how he had plans of what the clubhouse was going to look like on the wall. We carried on, and walking down the 10th fairway and looking at the way it was cut in a criss cross style it looked superb and we realised that we could easily be convinced to join.
As i stated before we were members at another club, and i had just paid my green fee of £500 for the year but my pal hadn't paid his yet, and he was saying he wanted to join Nazeing instead and how i could take him to my course as a guest and him me at Nazeing, the only stumbling block was Nazeings Joining fee at that time was £1750 plus £700 green fees but he thought with all of the spill we had heard from the Pro and the Owner that now was the time to move, so he joined. We continued playing both courses but Nazeing was a much better layout, and pretty close to where we both lived, and the hype around the course soon convinced me to join about a couple months after.
Building works started about 2 years later for the clubhouse, and after work every night we would meet up and play then walk around the build site and see how it was progressing, and in all honesty it didn't take that long, we enjoyed going into the building and watching the bars being fitted in, and the changing rooms as they were being fitted, it was as if you was having it built for yourself. Within a year or so it was complete, and adverts was being placed for staff, and not long after that we started to use our own club house.
I suppose its now time to explain the ownership, of what i will now call the club, the man, who's idea was put in motion sadly died while the course was being built, but he had two sons who between them took over the running of the club, there was still a part of the farmland still being used as a mushroom growing business which by all accounts wasn't doing to bad, so one of the brothers concentrated on the farm and the other on the club,he became the man in charge of course management cutting of the fairways and the greens and the workings of the clubhouse, so he was always busy, the other owner that put in with his land at the start of the project was involved with the clubhouse as well, but as time went on i don't think that all the parties were that happy with their lot, and the two brothers decided to buy the other partner out, and that was what happened.
We had quite a small membership and it was hard to find members as times were tight so the owners were not exactly raking in the funds to plough back into the business so staff were at a minimum, the course staff were also thin on the ground and every time i visited i was to see the owner working bloody long hours on the tractor. It wasn't very long after this that something had happened in the family and the brothers decided to change roles and we started to see the other brother on the tractor also working long hours, members can only be thankful of these two brothers hard work that the club is still here today.
A couple of years ago the club was in danger of closing the climate wasn't that good membership was on the decline and all the signs was bad, i imagined that all of the hard work around the course for not much return, must have been very demoralising and i was afraid that that was it. Then all of a sudden which was a big break for all concerned, a company came in with an offer to take control of the club on a lease basis and try and build the club up, i imagine that the two brothers would have grabbed that offer with both hands and the club changed hands but i am sure that all of the members were very grateful to the family for all of the hard work over the years, that they had put in, and i only hope they did alright out of it, they certainly deserved to.
Well the new Management took over and it must be said a very professional outfit they are turning out to be , work on the course has bettered the course, and new idea's and more staff has turned the club around, inside the clubhouse has also changed with good staff and social events, and a restaurant on weekends where the public can also use the facilities. At the moment we have increased our membership and everything is moving towards what the man with the idea at the start, and hopefully accomplishing his dream.
As in all clubs, be it social or sports, they depend on the support of the members, Nazeing is no different, for a smooth running club a lot of effort has to be put in by volunteers, Social secretary, Handicap secretary and so on, but the most prestigious position, is the club Captain he has to volunteer a lot of his time throughout his year in office, people are not always aware of the commitment that the Captain has taken on, he needs to be there for all of the club meetings, all the club competitions, to present the trophies and prizes, all of the speeches he has to make, and to back up, with his time all of the social events i like to think it is appreciated by the members. And to the ladies Captain Ditto. The club professional also has a big responsibility, he sells the products that members need, he gives tuition to the members, he is involved in all the workings in the club score boards society bookings and tee bookings, plus lots more that i wont bore you with, we are very lucky to have a very active pro.
Members, makes me smile, when i think of our members at Nazeing, we have people from all walks of life Firemen Builders Solicitors businesses of all sorts, if you need a Chippy Sparks Plumber Tiler Painter anything, you could build a house with all the trades, so a very handy place to be, It takes all sorts of personalities in a golf club, and at Nazeing we have a very good mix, every body gets on well with every body, and new members or members guests are welcomed, plus if you are competitive this is the place for you, although most golfers like to see good golf being played, they also absolutely love it when you play bad as well, so if your thinking of joining a golf club you wouldn't go far wrong with Nazeing.
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