Clive Smith, who owned three golf courses and founded the elite novice tournament, has died aged 82 following a short illness.
Smith, who was a member of Camberley Heath, Walton Heath, Royal Porthcawl, Wentworth and other leading clubs at various times during his life, turned his hand to building golf courses after his first career was spent working as an accountant for Chrysler and Ford.
In 1982, he converted the former race course at Hawthorn Hill in Maidenhead into a 9-hole course at Bird Hills Golf Centre, and also designed and built an 18-hole course at Pine Ridge Golf Club in Surrey, which opened in 1992. designed the 9-hole course at Windlemere Golf Club in Woking which opened in 1978.
All three clubs were run on a pay-and-play basis and were designed to target the greenback market. It proved to be a winning formula, with Pine Ridge consistently hosting more than 40,000 rounds a year during golf's boom years of the 1990s.
Smith sold Pine Ridge to Crown Golf in 2007, and Bird Hills was sold to Japanese owners in 1992. Windlemere Golf Club closed permanently in 2017.
In addition to his golf course development business, Smith also founded the Lagonda Trophy, a handicap novice tournament that has earned points in the R&A World Amateur Ranking.
First played in 1975 at Camberley Heath in Surrey, where Smith served as club captain, the winner's trophy was a miniature replica of the 1930s Lagonda sports car that was Smith's joy. The tournament was held in Camberley until 1989, after which it moved to Gog Magog Golf Club in Cambridgeshire, where it is still played today.
Previous winners include Peter McEvoy ('80), Russell Claydon ('88), David Gilford ('86), Lee Westwood ('92), Luke Donald ('97), Gary Wolstenholme ('02), 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 gifted the title by Smith.
Paying tribute to Smith in the latest issue of Golf Features, Colin Jenkins, chairman of the Organization of Golf Range Operators, said: “Clive was energetic, intelligent and far-sighted. He was very successful, good company and really dear to his heart.
“He built the UK's most premium golf center at Pine Ridge, and I was with him the day he sold Crown Golf to us. We were going to play at Chart Hills with Stephen Lewis and Carsten Hallas and he picked up the phone just before we left and arranged for us to be half an hour off the tee. He offered us all a glass of champagne to toast the completion of the sale. He had a lot of style.
“In creating high quality courses that are easy to use you have enabled hundreds of thousands of golfers to play the game at a great level and quality environment. Despite the fact that he was a member of some prestigious clubs, he took great pride in being a 'golf for all' businessman.
“I am very proud to have known him and I wish I had spent more time developing our friendship more. Above all else, he was a true gentleman, and the golf world will miss him dearly. “
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