Clive Smith, a certified accountant who was a driving drive within the golf course growth enterprise within the south east within the Nineteen Eighties and 90s, has died on the age of 82 following a brief sickness.
A tremendous golfer in his personal proper, and a member at Camberley Heath, Walton Heath, Royal Porthcawl and Wentworth at varied factors in his life, Smith turned his hand to constructing golf programs after an early profession spent working as an accountant for main automobile producers Chrysler and Ford.
After turning his ardour for golf right into a enterprise, he reworked a former racecourse at Hawthorn Hill in Maidenhead into an 18 -hole course which opened in 1982 and later he bought to a Japanese operator in 1991.
The brand new homeowners modified the title to Chook Hills and continues to be operational at the moment, Smith additionally designed and constructed an 18-hole course at Pine Ridge Golf Centre in Frimley, Surrey, which opened for play in 1992.
Smith’s first golf centre was the 9-hole course at Windlemere Golf Course in Woking which opened in 1978 however closed in 2017.
PAY-AND-PLAY POLICY
All three golf equipment had been operated on a pay-and-play foundation and had been designed to focus on the every day charge golf market, his enterprise mannequin at each Hawthorn Hill and Pine Ridge included floodlit ranges, restaurant and performance services.
Being of a better commonplace than most different public or municipally run programs on the time, the purpose for all of Smith’s venues was present good high quality golf at an reasonably priced value, which proved to be a successful method, enabling a lot of these new to golf to develop a lifelong curiosity within the recreation.
After 14 years of personal possession, Smith bought Pine Ridge to Crown Golf in 2007.
LAGONDA TROPHY
Eager to encourage beginner golf in any respect ranges and to deliver on the subsequent technology of future stars, Smith based the Lagonda Trophy, an elite boys’ beginner event open to gamers with a handicap of 1.4 or higher.
First performed for in 1975 at Camberley Heath Golf Membership in Surrey, the place Smith served a membership captain, the trophy for the winner was a miniature duplicate of a Nineteen Thirties Lagonda Tourer sports activities automobile which was Smith’s satisfaction and pleasure.
The event was held at Camberley till 1989, after which it moved to Gog Magog Golf Membership in Cambridgeshire, the place it’s nonetheless performed to today.
Previous winners embody a roll name of gamers who went onto get pleasure from success within the each the beginner {and professional} recreation, together with Peter McEvoy (’80), Russell Claydon (’88), David Gilford (’86), Lee Westwood (’92), Luke Donald (’97), Gary Wolstenholme (’02), Andy Sullivan (’10), Kennie Ferrie (’98), Oliver Fisher (’04) and Dale Whitnell (’08)
This 12 months’s Lagonda Trophy – the forty ninth renewal – passed off at Gog Magog on Could 29-30 and was received by Brandon Skidmore from Cotswold Hills with a 72-hole rating of 275.
SUCCESSFUL RACEHORSE OWNER
In addition to being a eager golfer, Smith was additionally an enormous fan of horseracing and had horses with a lot of Nationwide Hunt racing’s main trainers, together with Martin Pipe, Jenny Pitman, David Elsworth and David Nicholls.
He owned a number of Cheltenham winners, together with Queen Mom Champion Chase winner Grasp Minded, and the legendary Kauto Star, who received 16 occasions over fences, together with the Cheltenham Gold Cup twice (2007 and 2009) and 5 King George VI Chases at Kempton.
