Clive Smith, who built and owned three golf courses and founded a tournament for elite amateurs, has died at the age of 82 after a short illness.
A member of Camberley Heath, Walton Heath, Royal Porthcawl, Wentworth and several other leading clubs at various times during his life, Mr Smith had an early career working as an accountant for Chrysler and Ford. He turned to building golf courses.
In 1982, he converted the former racecourse at Hawthorn Hill, Maidenhead, into a nine-hole course at Bird Hills Golf Center, and also designed and built the 18-hole course at Pine Ridge Golf Club in Surrey, which opened in 1992. I was also involved in designed the nine-hole course at Woking’s Windlemere Golf Club, which opened in 1978.
All three clubs operated on a pay-and-play basis and were designed to target the green fee market. This proved to be a winning formula, with Pine Ridge consistently hosting more than 40,000 rounds a year during the golf boom of the 1990s.
Mr. Smith sold Pine Ridge to Crown Golf in 2007 and Bird Hills to a Japanese owner in 1992. Windlemere Golf Club closed permanently in 2017.
In addition to his golf course development business, Mr. Smith also founded the Lagonda Trophy, a tournament for low handicap amateurs that earns R&A World Amateur Ranking points.
First played in 1975 at Camberley Heath in Surrey, where Smith was captain of the club, the trophy was a miniature replica of a 1930s Lagonda sports car, which was Smith’s pride and joy. Ta. The tournament was held in Camberley until 1989, when it moved to Gog Magog Golf Club in Cambridgeshire, where it is still held today.
Past recipients include Peter McEvoy (’80), Russell Claydon (’88), David Guildford (’86), Lee Westwood (’92), Luke Donald (’97), Gary・Includes Wolstenholme (’02) and Andy Sullivan (’10). ), Oliver Fisher (’04), and Dale Whitnell (’08). This year’s Lagonda Trophy was won by Brandon Skidmore from Cotswold Hills, who was presented with the trophy by Mr Smith.
Colin Jenkins, president of the Golf Driving Range Owners Association, paid tribute to Smith in the latest issue of Golf Features magazine, saying: “Clive was hard-working, intelligent and visionary. He was extremely successful, great company and a genuinely likeable person.
“He developed one of the finest paid golf centers in the UK at Pine Ridge. I was with him the day he sold it to Crown Golf. We met Stephen at Chart Hills. -I was about to play with Lewis and Kirsten Halas when he called me just before teeing off and arranged for me to be 30 minutes late to the tee to celebrate the completion of the sale. He treated us all to a glass of champagne. He had great style.
“By creating high-quality, user-friendly courses, he has enabled hundreds of thousands of golfers to play the game at a good standard in a quality environment. He is a member of some of the most famous clubs. Despite this, he took great pride in being an entrepreneur of “golf for everyone.”
“I am very proud to have known him and wish we had spent more time developing our friendship. Above all, he was a true gentleman and the golf world loved him. I will miss you very much.”
