Club manager Iain Russell credits these accomplishments to a change in strategy by the greenkeeping team led by the long-serving Barry Nichol. Mr Russell also explains the club’s plans to build extensive new practice facilities for its 920 members, and what’s on the cards following last year’s boom in junior members at East Ren.
What do you think swung it for the club in the NCG rankings?
The greens are what a lot of golfers comment on when they are playing, and we have switched our strategy on that. The club invested in a new piece of machinery and Barry and his team of six greenkeepers changed their approach on how to improve the surfaces, so that has gotten a lot better over the last year or so.
Also over the last eight years now they have been on a course plan where they have every winter taken up two greens and put in primary drainage, and also changed the shape of the bunkers and enhanced them so that visually it has given the hole a better look from the approach, but also again improving the playing surfaces.
At about 6,100 yards you say it’s a “fun course” – what’s your favourite hole?
The 2nd. You’ve got a lovely raised tee and along the the right hand side of the fairway is the Brither Burn that then crosses in front of the green. You play down to the left and then go over the burn and into the green.
There are others that stand out, but the main thing I like is that no hole is the same. There are some stunning holes but there is also a lot of strategy because the holes are very different. There’s no side-to-side up-and-down, it’s very much a strategy course. You can score well – it does give you that option, it’s not the longest – which is great.
So what’s the big news in 2026?
We’ve got planning in to have a new, improved practice facility built. We are looking to remodel the 17th and 18th holes with some topsoil being delivered, and also improve our practice area.
We’re going to have a large green with some bunkers around that, and then some hitting mats and some bays and some pop-up putting greens. For us it’s an all-around facility to have some covered bays in there and potentially some lighting so that even when it’s dark or the weather’s poor, members still have a reason to come up to the golf club, whereas we just don’t have that facility at the moment.
When will it be ready for play?
This project has been planned for seven years now, so it’s tricky to put a timeframe on it. We are waiting on planning being accepted and we hope to hear about that in the early part of this year. If so, we aim for work to start this year but if you’re going to include the construction and the grow-in period of maybe 12 to 18 months, we’re probably looking at around 2028 to see completion.
The course is a James Braid design (Image: East Renfrewshire GC)
What’s the business strategy?
We see this as membership retention. We believe we have a wonderful course that’s now been recognised nationally around Scotland, which is great. We continue to invest in the clubhouse but for us we feel that we are lacking in the practice area. So what this will do is offer our members, who told us so in a survey, the short game area that they said they would like to have.
The club had a huge increase in junior membership last year from less than 60 to more than 160 and you’ve closed the waiting list for that category – what next?
Last year our junior convener, alongside a team, really promoted the juniors and it was a great success. We’re working just now on strategy so there is a pathway to bring them up to a level where they are able to get out on the course, and eventually become full members as they get older.
Access the entire series of Around the Greens here.
