Riddell's Bay Bermuda closed April 1st...change.org petition

[Brad Tufts]

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-petition

Fellow golf lovers, unite!

[PCCraig]

I signed the petition. I've played Riddell's Bay and have always enjoyed my time there. It's not in the same class as a Mid Ocean, but the island should preserve as much open space as possible.

[Tom_Doak]

It's been hard times for golf in Bermuda the past few years.  At. George's shut down, Riddell's was known to be struggling, and even Port Royal and Mid Ocean are way down on visitor rounds.  There's a lot more competition for East coast vacationing golfers than there once was, and more quality options.  Still hard to beat the weather out there, though.

[Mike Sweeney]

Signed.


Thanks for posting Brad.

[MCirba]

Signed, as well.

Overdevelopment of Bermuda will effectively kill the Golden Goose that drives tourism there in the first place.

[Brad Tufts]

In reading lots of the comments on the news stories from the locals, I was surprised at how many mentioned the lagging economy on the island.  I read things that potentially 10% of the population has left since 2007-2008, and their economy as a whole has tipped a bit more towards international business than tourism, with visitors desiring different things.

I'm sure they are counting on the America's Cup to perk things up for 2017, but who knows.  I did notice that a Ritz Carlton Reserve is now under construction on the old US Naval Annex property near the Dockyard area.  This plan originally included a golf course, but they have since decided that Port Royal is so close that there is no need.  RCR appears to be super high-end with residences and hotel rooms, with a marina on the scale of Albany in the Bahamas.

St. George's is gone (played in 2002 and had a blast) but not much has happened to the land.  Obviously Riddell's struggled for a while before closing, and I also read that Ocean View is a white elephant for the government.  Interesting times for golf on the island.

Although there are many other golf destinations, and much cheaper places to go, BDA is a perfect storm (see what I did there?!) for my young family.  The flight is short from Boston, the island is pretty friendly for little kids with plenty of beaches and good resort activities, there is spectacular scuba diving to impress my wife, and golf is accessible and high-quality for me!

[George Smiltins]

That is a shame. My wife and I stumbled upon Bermuda when planning our honeymoon last year. I initially wanted to go to the Dominican Republic (to check out Teeth of the Dog) but reports of the Zika virus scared her enough to make us look elsewhere. We didn't have a lot of time on our hands to head to Europe or Asia so Bermuda quickly emerged as the only viable candidate.


I was amazed to find that such a small-ish island had such a (seemingly) healthy golfing community. I swear over half of our cab drivers had clubs in their trunks and had some form of memberships to clubs. Resorts and Restaurants all seamed to be alive and well. Mid-ocean tee sheet seemed pretty full both of the days I was trying to schedule. Proved true on the day I played as I happened to pull my tee shot on 18 near the 17th tee and ran into a fellow Clevelander (not as much of a coincidence as you'd think as it was RNC Convention week in Cleveland and half of the city fled). Port Royal on the other hand was dead. But I did book a high noon tee time and it was around 90 that day.


Hard to say if threats of Zika for the 25-40 year old-set accounted for a huge boom this year but it sure looked like a happening place when we went. If I had more time, I would have tried to explore the other courses. Sad to see this one close but 7 or 8 courses might be on the high end for an island that is 21 miles wide.