Popular English golf course will not reopen after ‘shock’ closure

Tracy Park Golf Club closed in September last year

The 36-hole venue will instead be reverted to a private estate

It was planned to be one of the finest hotel and golf resorts in the UK. Now it will be a private home once again.

Tracy Park, near Bath, was home to the Tracy family for 300 years before being transformed into a 40-room hotel with two 18-hole championship golf courses in the 1970s.

When it was purchased by the Shaw family in 2019, there were promises of turning the Grade II-listed estate, which is situated in the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, into a four-star complex.

However, last summer, general manager Greg Shaw, according to the Bath Echo, emailed members to say the business would soon cease trading, including both courses.

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“It is with a very heavy heart I have to announce that Tracy Park Golf Club will be closing,” it read.

“I understand that this will be a massive shock to many members and will undoubtably cause a great deal of sadness and for this I am truly sorry.

“Our full intention and focus was to develop Tracy Park into a premier golf and leisure destination, yet after £300,000 investment in planning reports and applications, we have received very little sign of encouragement or belief that this ambition will be realised under current planning constraints.

“This, compounded with trading losses over the last two financial years of £456,000, and a particularly poor quarter one this financial year, mainly due to terrible weather conditions, mean we have had to detach our emotional ambitions and make the difficult business decision that the best option is to sell the property.”

Now, though, any hope former members and visitors had of the courses reopening have been dashed.

A planning statement drafted by Bath-based Lord Architecture to South Gloucestershire Council said that “in recent years many of the buildings on site have fallen into a state of disrepair and are in need of restorative works”.

It added: “Despite the significant investment of several experienced commercial operators and a plethora of approved planning and listed building applications, many of these implemented over the past five decades, Tracy Park as a commercial venture has been deemed unviable by its most recent owner, operators and their specialist advisors.

“The return of Tracy Park to a residential estate will secure much needed investment in the buildings and the wider site and ensure the longevity of Tracy Park for this and future generations.

“The proposals seek full planning permission and listed building consent for the change of use of Tracy Park Estate to residential.”