The Board of Trustees of the island’s two government-operated golf courses were “left with no choice” other than to increase membership rates and fee structures to reduce operating costs and fund upgrades at Port Royal Golf Course, according to chairman Jason Wade.

The changes, which come into effect on April 1, have been strongly opposed by members at Port Royal, whose entire Members Executive Committee resigned after they were approved by the board for the course, as well as Ocean View.

However, Wade is adamant that the changes were unavoidable to fulfil Port Royal members’ request to enhance the Southampton golf course, home to the PGA’s Butterfield Bermuda Championship.

“In the past year any golfer will tell you that Port Royal has drastically improved. If you look at the PGA tournament in November, the PGA said that we have come on leaps and bounds within a year,” Wade told The Royal Gazette.

“The membership has asked us to improve the course. We have improved the course but that cost money. We have to buy the sand, we have to buy the equipment and we have to fully staff the course so I don’t understand how the membership did not expect the rates to be increased.

“We were left with no choice because of the simple fact that we have to be fiscally responsible with the Government’s money. We have to manage and operate this golf course and we can’t be subsidising so much under-cost golf because that’s what’s happening.”

According to Wade, the island’s two courses are operating at a loss annually under the existing fee structure.

“The public golf courses are subsidised for over $2 million each year by government and the combined wages and benefits for both golf courses is in excess of $4 million. That means we are operating at a loss every year and we are trying not to operate at a loss,” he said.

“We are operating at a loss because our fees are so low, our rates are so low and membership fees are so low. Compare our membership rates to the two comparable courses in Bermuda, which are Mid Ocean and Tucker’s Point, and see how much they are paying.

“We can appreciate that people don’t like change. But if you look at our rates compared to the other comparable clubs around the island, our rates remain much cheaper and Port Royal is playing just as good, if not better.

“The condition of the course has vastly improved with the investment that this board has put into this golf course and fees have been up literally once in the last 15 years.”

Wade added: “What the membership executive, not the membership because it’s the membership executive that are complaining, are asking for is private members benefits at a public golf course. That’s what they want but they don’t want to pay private members’ club prices and they’re still not paying those prices.

“If I want to play a round at Mid Ocean, I pay $400. That’s how much it cost at Mid Ocean if a non-member wants to play there but we’re not asking anywhere near that and you have to put it in comparison.

“The board has been tasked to run the golf courses more efficiently and we can’t be using all this taxpayer money to subsidise under-market golf because that’s what it is. The taxpayer is subsidising under-market rate golf and golf is a luxury sport. The public should not by OK with the fact that so much of their taxpaying dollars is going towards subsidising low-cost golf.

“The board has been mandated to generate more revenue so that we don’t have to go back to government and ask for subsidies and we shouldn’t be.”

Wade said the board had also come under fire for reducing the amount of tournaments at Port Royal to allow more access for the general public to play and increase revenue.

“Another issue that the members are upset about is that we have cut down their tournaments from 22 tournaments in the morning on the weekends to ten,” he said.

“That allows for the entire playing public to be able to get tee times at Port Royal. The membership are allowed to play their tournaments in the afternoon but they are now allowed ten tournaments in the morning instead of 22 tournaments in the morning.

“With the membership blocking key money-making times with their tournaments and low membership rates we’re not able to generate as much income as we possibly can. So what our new membership structure and fees does is open up playing times for the public to come and play and other groups to play on the public golf course.

“The golf courses have to manage the excess for the public because they are public golf courses not private membership clubs. That means that all golf groups and golfers need to have equal access to the course and we have to manage a membership that has had one rate increase in the past 15 years so it has to make sense.”

Underlying some of the members’ concerns is the lack of transparency surrounding the finances of government golf courses. The last annual report officially audited by the Auditor-General was in 2020, which members have sought via a Pati request.

Wade said the board was updating their accounts. “The Auditor-General has our audit accounts and we will be up to date with our accounts by the end of the year,” he said.

“When I came on as board chairman, we made it a mandate to get our accounts up to date. I can’t speak to why it didn’t happen before but we are actively working with the Auditor-General with that being the membership’s concern.”