Gillyflower Golf, end of 2022 season letter.

Dear Friends and Members,

Can I start by thanking all of you for your incredible support of Gillyflower Golf this year. Without you I would not be in a position to write to you now enclosing a copy of our 2023 Membership subscriptions, along with of our updated pending planning application for the new clubhouse, virtual driving ranges, club shop and 19 “Drum” Villas. We hope to submit the application in early Spring 2023.

The team behind Gillyflower Golf, with the exception of our Director of Golf, Joe Micklethwaite, are not natives of the golfing world. This will, I’m quite sure, be no surprise to those of you who we have had the pleasure of meeting this year. However, we are quick learners, have a genuine passion for the course and its future direction of travel and all of us have a steadfast belief that we can create a golf course and golfing experience unparalleled anywhere else in the world.

As we move towards our official full opening in March 2023, we are busy upgrading further aspects of the course. These upgrades include creating a new golf tee on the 2nd; replacing the old irrigation system to provide a direct water source to every green and tee; creating a practice putting/chipping green on the site of the original first green; preparing a 4 acre patch of land above the 3rd fairway for our grapevines; planting 2023 spring bulbs in the long rough to help feed our pollinators and giving the greens a lot of love after the difficult water starved summer we endured. We were hugely embarrassed by the state of the greens after the two heat waves this summer and to ensure it does not happen again we have taken the decision to re-establish a permanent water supply.

I mentioned at the beginning of my letter how thankful we are for your support this year and, as the UK and wider world holds its breath at the political and economic uncertainties that lay ahead of us, we have been exploring how we can keep membership costs down. With this in mind, we have taken the decision to increase our membership quota from a maximum 350 to 400 members. We have also increased our 2023 Green Fees a little more than we had wanted, to enable us to offset some of the membership cost.

2022 members are guaranteed a place for 2023 (provided you are able to confirm renewal before January 9th 2023 and leave a £50 deposit). Please contact us via email or phone to pay your deposit. We would also like to incentivise our members to introduce new members by offering a £50 referral reward for every new full member introduced before March 1st 2023. There is no limit to the number of referrals a member can make, until of course, we are full. You will be able to find out more about this initiative on our website.

We will have 6 brand new buggies in the fleet next year. Members will continue to get a significant discount with hire fees of £10 for 9 holes and £15 for 18 holes. We are also introducing an additional buggy membership option of an additional £225 which allows our members to have unlimited buggy use every time you play, with no additional costs. More details of this will be uploaded onto our website over the next couple of weeks.

Some of you who live out of county have requested we consider a country membership option. We are delighted to announce that this option will now also be available, the details of which can also be found on the website.

As a final thank you, we have decided to freeze our 2024 membership fees for all members who sign up for their 2023 membership by the 31st of January. The current cost of living crisis makes membership commitments to a golf course less of a priority and knowing what the costs will be for the next 24 months will, we hope, provide a degree of comfort. We have a membership form online that you can fill in and email to us or simply email Joe and he’ll sort everything out for you.

I’m incredibly proud of what the team have managed to achieve this year and we are extremely confident that as Gillyflower Golf grows and our facilities increase, our club membership will become the envy of golfers UK wide. I very tmuch hope that you will decide to become a member and look forward to joining us on the exciting journey ahead.

With very best wishes,

Alex Smit and the Gillyflower Team.