US investor's buyout plea to Royal Dornoch Golf Club
AMERICAN investor Todd Warnock is urging Royal Dornoch Golf Club (RDGC) to purchase a hotel sited next to the course and convert it into a clubhouse.
Mr Warnock has sent two open letters to club members outlining the case for buying the Royal Golf Hotel, which overlooks the first tee, a stone’s throw from the existing clubhouse.
The long running issue of a new clubhouse will feature on the agenda at the club’s annual general meeting next Friday.
However, it has emerged that members will not be asked to make any firm decision about how to proceed but simply whether or not they agree on the principle of a new clubhouse.
RDGC, which is currently celebrating 400 years of golf, has 1900 members, 1500 of whom are golfers. Of the 1500, a third are based overseas.
Its existing cramped and badly laid out clubhouse has long been regarded as inadequate for a club ranked number five in the world by Golf Digest.
At the club’s 2012 AGM, it was proposed to demolish the building and replace it on the same site with a £4.6 million new-build.
But members rejected this plan, making it clear that, while they were keen to build a new clubhouse, they did not want it on the existing site, which is deemed to be too tight and does not have the best views.
A working group was set up to examine options and it was agreed the issue would be put to the membership again at the 2016 AGM. This would also give time to put more funding aside for the multi-million project.
The Northern Times has learned that the working group’s preferred option is a “future-proof” new build on the 18th green. Less favoured options are the purchase of the Royal Golf Hotel; a replacement build on the current site; or the status quo.
Club member Mr Warnock, the entrepreneur behind Dornoch’s Links House hotel, the newly opened Carnegie Courthouse visitor centre and the planned Coul Links golf course, is lobbying hard for the acquisition and conversion of the Royal Golf.
In November last year, he and David Sutherland, one of the business consortium that owns the Royal Golf, sent an open letter to club members advocating the move. This was followed up more recently by another open letter.
Mr Warnock believes the hotel idea has a number of advantages, namely that it would divert the traffic flow from the course; that its traditional architectural design is more in keeping with the town and what overseas visitors are looking for; and that it has the desired views over the course.
The entrepreneur has gone as far as to commission, at his own expense, Inverness based architects Maxwell and Company, the firm he used for his own projects, to draw up designs for the hotel conversion and integration with the existing clubhouse. The estimated cost of the work is £5 million.
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In his second open letter, Mr Warnock gives hints that his efforts may not have been fully welcomed by club managers.
He reveals he and Mr Sutherland volunteered to become part of the clubhouse working group but had not been allowed to participate.
And he writes: “I have attempted to have management meet and interview Maxwell and Company.
“Despite introductions and numerous calls from Maxwell, management refused to meet and interview the company ... hence I hired them directly.”
Mr Warnock is critical about the preferred choice of the 18th green as a site for the new clubhouse.
He wrote: “I am certain a contemporary styled clubhouse on the 18th green is neither functionally appropriate or in the best interests of the club.”
It is understood that if the club does not buy the Royal Golf, then its owners will likely go ahead with the construction of blocks of apartments in the hotel grounds.
These apartments are likely to overshadow Mr Warnock’s Links House hotel, which is sited on Grange Road next to the clubhouse. A new clubhouse on the 18th green may also affect views from the rear of Links House.
But the Royal Golf proposal could effectively be stymied because members will not be asked at the AGM to pick an option and the window of opportunity for a purchase will not last forever.
The Northern Times has been told that it had originally been intended to present all options to the meeting but that will not now happen.
It is understood that following two open evenings members said they wanted more detailed information before making such a crucial decision.
Club manager Neil Hampton said there was no need to rush into an immediate decision on where the new clubhouse should be built.
