Out of the rough

By Melissa Grant
LANG Lang Golf Club’s fortunes have swung around with the $300,000 debt that it struggled with two years ago set to be wiped.
The club will issue its first round of shares in the coming weeks, a venture that potentially will raise $700,000 – and ensure golfers will be walking the Lang Lang links for years to come.
The club was in the rough three years ago when the former committee considered selling off the 18-hole course in a desperate bid to avoid closure.
But members were against the move and a new committee was formed in 2007 to find other ways to clear the club’s debt.
A group of members created a new company to buy the course, on the South Gippsland Highway in Nyora, meaning members who bought shares would get a stake in its ownership.
The company’s director Brian Paynter, a club member and chartered accountant, said more than $150,000 had been raised so far.
Mr Paynter said it wouldn’t take long for the club to clear its debt. He said its members had rightly fought off interest from private enterprise.
“(In 2006) a local businessman said, ‘I will buy the land and I’ll give you 15 years to run the golf club’, but we said what happens after that? We were going to lose control. After 2007, we got members to subscribe (to shares) in more of an expression of interest. It (the scheme) will pay out the debt and the members in this new company will own the property and lease it back for a peppercorn rent.”
The innovative money-making scheme has the club’s future looking bright – since it was flagged in 2007 the club’s membership has jumped from 240 to 360 under the leadership of president Rob Walker and the new committee.
Mr Paynter, who first played at the club as a teenager, said it was important to keep the course considering its location.
“A golf course on a sand belt area is absolutely priceless,” he said. “The water drains easier, the grass grows thicker and the trees quicker. It can be pouring rain and other courses will be closed but Lang Lang will be in mint condition.”
The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) recently approved the scheme’s Offer Information Statement.
Lang Lang Golf Club members who haven’t already subscribed for shares can buy them for $10 each. Others are also welcome to become a club member and buy shares. Call 5659 6284 or download a Share Application Form at www.langlanggolfclub.com.au