Do not lose the course

Jane Emerick
Members who lost their fight to keep Geelong Golf Club have warned Torquay golfers against stumbling down the same path.
Ray Abikhair and Hector Macdonald, who led the fight to save the historic Geelong club, are worried Torquay faces the same fate amid a takeover offer from RACV.
PGA Links bought the 59-hectare Geelong course in 2002 for $1.8 million after the club hit financial problems.
Mr Abikhair said the club and promised incentives such as shares in Thirteenth Beach disappeared when PGA Links closed the Geelong course and locked out former members in 2002.
“My advice for the Torquay Golf Club would be that under no circumstances should they listen to anyone who comes along making wild promises to the members unless they have been well and truly documented and investigated by their own lawyers,” Mr Abikhair said.
“In the end we didn’t get anything we were promised and we lost our golf club.
“Torquay has nothing to gain but everything to lose.”
RACV has promised a new clubhouse, restaurants, a pool, gym and free memberships as part of the takeover offer.
The organisation also wants to build 55 holiday apartments on the course.
The board of RACV will decide whether to formalise its offer later this month.
Mr Macdonald, a former captain of Geelong Golf Club, said the Torquay members should examine all RACV “promises” carefully.
“Once it’s sold they could lose total control of their club,” he said.
Continued page 5“If they’re dealing with professionals, which they are, then they should make sure they read between the lines, make sure the benefits benefit them.
“I’m very upset about what happened with the demise of the Geelong Golf Club and I would not want it to happen at Torquay.”
Torquay club general manager Bill Laird released a press release this week saying the course would be re-zoned “tourism”.
The rezoning would “give us the certainty that it will always be a golf course”, he said.
But Surf Coast Shire’s Mark Harwood said the area, currently zoned Public Park and Recreation, was likely to become a Special Use zone.
Mr Harwood said the zoning would not necessarily prevent new owners applying for residential development on the course.
“They’d have to apply for rezoning but there’s nothing stopping them from doing that,” he said.
Councillor Ron Humphrey said he would push for a 173 agreement to prevent residential development other than the 55 units if the club sold the course sold to RACV.