Clive Smith, a certified accountant who was a driving pressure within the golf course growth enterprise within the south east within the Eighties and 90s, has died on the age of 82 following a brief sickness.
A fantastic 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 automotive producers Chrysler and Ford.
After turning his ardour for golf right into a enterprise, he remodeled 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 identify to Chook Hills and continues to be operational in the present day, 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 have been operated on a pay-and-play foundation and have been designed to focus on the day by day payment golf market, his enterprise mannequin at each Hawthorn Hill and Pine Ridge included floodlit ranges, restaurant and performance amenities.
Being of a better normal than most different public or municipally run programs on the time, the goal for all of Smith’s venues was present good high quality golf at an inexpensive worth, which proved to be a successful method, enabling a lot of these new to golf to develop a lifelong curiosity within the sport.
After 14 years of personal possession, Smith bought Pine Ridge to Crown Golf in 2007.
LAGONDA TROPHY
Eager to encourage novice golf in any respect ranges and to convey on the following technology of future stars, Smith based the Lagonda Trophy, an elite boys’ novice match 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 reproduction of a Nineteen Thirties Lagonda Tourer sports activities automotive which was Smith’s delight and pleasure.
The match was held at Camberley till 1989, after which it moved to Gog Magog Golf Membership in Cambridgeshire, the place it’s nonetheless performed to this present day.
Previous winners embody a roll name of gamers who went onto get pleasure from success within the each the novice {and professional} sport, 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 – befell at Gog Magog on Could 29-30 and was gained 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 gained 16 occasions over fences, together with the Cheltenham Gold Cup twice (2007 and 2009) and 5 King George VI Chases at Kempton.
