Hi All,
Came across this a few weeks ago, not sure if it was ever covered on GCA.
Riddell's Bay GC in Bermuda abruptly closed on 4/1/16 when funds dwindled to the point where they couldn't pay their expenses. Sounds like a decline in membership caused the final nail in the coffin, despite some efforts to restructure things that never gained traction (or were not accepted as reality!). RBGC is Bermuda's oldest golf club, and has been worked on by Emmet, among others. Its quaint, 5600-yard layout was an interesting niche to the golf offerings on the island, sitting mission-wise between the big private courses at MOC and Tucker's Point and the public courses at Port Royal and Belmont.
Since then, there have been two offers to buy the property, one by a group of members in order to re-open the club, and one by an overseas developer. The developer won the bid, but wants to convert 17 acres into waterfront homes, and create a nature preserve on the other 50-odd acres remaining. This plan is contingent on re-zoning the land from its protected status as "recreation" to something else. Re-zoning land away from recreation has no legal precedent in Bermuda to this point.
Debate, judging from local comments on the several Royal Gazette news stories, centers around whether the land should be re-zoned breaking from precedent, and whether this should be done for a developer who is seemingly hiding the desire for profit on the waterfront lots behind the "public good" of the nature preserve on 50 less-than-choice acres that may not even be eventually open to the public at all.
I have no skin in this game, other than enjoying a nice round at Riddell's in 2002 and a desire to play again someday and pay my greens fee as a visitor!
Some former members in the losing bid group have put together a change.org petition that they will present to the Bermuda government advocating there be no change in zoning away from "recreation" that would promote or allow the new development/preserve plan. Presumably, this would open the door for a new Riddell's Bay GC to be formed and the course to re-open. They are looking for at least 500 signatures, and they already have 380.
If any of you golf travelers have visited Riddell's Bay and enjoyed your round, maybe driven the green at one of the course's ocean-infused short par fours, you may want to help out by signing the petition...only requires a name and an email address.
Here is the link, with more information on the page:
https://www.change.org/p/bermuda-department-of-planning-preserve-bermuda-recreational-land-petitionFellow golf lovers, unite!