Clive Smith, who built and owned three golf courses and set up a tournament for elite amateurs, has died at the age of 82 following a short illness.
Smith, who was a member at Camberley Heath, Walton Heath, Royal Porthcawl, Wentworth and several other leading clubs at different times during his life, turned his hand to building golf courses after an early career spent working as an accountant for Chrysler and Ford.
In 1982, he transformed the former racecourse at Hawthorn Hill in Maidenhead into the 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. Smith also designed a 9-hole course at Windlemere Golf Club in Woking which opened in 1978.
All three clubs were operated on a pay-and-play basis and were designed to target the green fee market. It proved to be a winning formula, with Pine Ridge consistently hosting over 40,000 rounds a year during golf’s boom years in the 1990s.
Smith sold Pine Ridge to Crown Golf in 2007, while Bird Hills was sold to Japanese owners in 1992. Windlemere Golf Club permanently closed in 2017.
In addition to his golf course development business, Smith also founded the Lagonda Trophy, a tournament for low handicap amateurs that earned R&A World Amateur Ranking points.
First played for in 1975 at Camberley Heath in Surrey, where Smith served as club captain, the trophy for the winner was a miniature replica of a 1930s Lagonda sports car which was Smith’s pride and joy. The tournament was held at Camberley until 1989, after which it moved to Gog Magog Golf Club in Cambridgeshire, where it is still played today.
Past 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 presented with the trophy by Smith.
Paying tribute to Smith in the latest edition of Golf Features magazine, Colin Jenkins, chairman of the Organisation of Golf Range Operators, said: “Clive was industrious, intelligent and far-sighted. Immensely successful, he was great company and truly likeable to his core.
“He developed one of the finest pay-and-play golf centres in the UK at Pine Ridge, and I was with him on the day that he sold it to Crown Golf. We were about to play at Chart Hills with Stephen Lewis and Carsten Hallas and he took a phone call shortly before we were due to tee off and then arranged for us to be half an hour late on the tee. He treated us all to a glass of champagne to toast the completion of the sale. He had a lot of style.
“In creating high-quality user-friendly courses he enabled hundreds of thousands of golfers to play the game to a good standard and in quality surroundings. Despite the fact that he was a member of some of the most prestigious clubs, he took great pride in being a ‘golf for all’ entrepreneur.
“I’m very proud to have known him and I only wish I had spent more time developing our friendship even more. Above all else, he was a true gentleman, and the golf world will miss him greatly.”