A historic Welsh golf club faces a major challenge after being forced to close its iconic 18th hole – all because of some wayward golf balls.
Holyhead Golf Club, which has been around since 1912, recently got hit with a complaint from a neighbor who’s had enough of finding golf balls on their property.
The Isle of Anglesey County Council stepped in, ordering the club to stop using the hole for safety reasons.
Now the club faces a massive £75,000 bill to build a new green farther from the neighbor’s land. That’s no small change for a local golf club.
“We’re very disappointed,” said a club spokesperson. “I don’t know of any golf club in the country who can just find £80,000 out of thin air. But we can’t bury our heads in the sand and just hope everything will be okay.”
The complaint apparently came “out of the blue,” catching club officials off guard.
What makes this especially tough is the course’s impressive heritage. It was designed by James Braid, a legend who won the Open Championship five times and created some of golf’s most famous layouts.
The club isn’t taking this lying down. They’ve launched a GoFundMe campaign to save their 18th hole, but they’ve got a long way to go. So far, they’ve raised about £8,500 of their target.
“We are hoping the work is completed by May 1, 2025 and we will be up and running as an 18-hole course again,” the club stated on their fundraising page.
Until then, golfers at Holyhead will have to make do with 17 holes – and maybe work on their accuracy a bit more.
