'Overwhelming sadness' over golf course closure

David Young has been a member of the golf club for about 40 years

The closure of an 118-year-old golf course to make way for a housing development has left members with an "overwhelming feeling of great sadness".

North Oxford Golf Club will close on Friday, after the 70-acre site was earmarked for the development of more than 1,000 homes.

Jill Northover, who has played at the club for 20 years, said members had been "dreading today".

The land's owners Oxford University, Merton College and Exeter College previously came to an agreement with the golf club and offered them £4.3m to leave the site.

A group of golfers, known as the Greenway group, came together to try to stop the plans but were unsuccessful.

An alternative golf course site at Frieze Farm has been proposed as part of Cherwell District Council's local plan.

"People are having to go to various other clubs, and some of which are now full because there are so many of us needing to move," Ms Northover explained.

"The overwhelming feeling is one of great sadness that this green space will no longer be there because once it's gone, you can't get it back.

"It's the physical exercise, the mental wellbeing you get from the sport, making friends, having a chat afterwards, playing competitions if you want to."

David Young, who has been a member of the golf club for about 40 years, said the club had been "open to everybody, it's not been exclusive, it's always been very inclusive".

"Lots of local people have valued what it offered, and that's much more important than whatever has been won or not won," he added.

Ms Northover said her favourite memory had been a hole-in-one on the second, "although I didn't see it go in the hole because you can't see it from the tee".

She said she had made "friends for life" at the club, before adding that she was "off to play the course one last time".