Golfers have until year-end at Sevilla

MEMBERS of the Brechin Castle Golf Club, owned by Caroni (1975) Limited, have up to the end of this year to play golf on the company’s golf course.

But until such time, club members must maintain the course at no cost to the company, which is currently undergoing restructuring. The company’s 9,000 employees have been sent home on a VSEP package and the Brechin Castle factory has been shut down. With most of Caroni’s 77,000 acres of land to be devoted to agriculture, housing and enterprise development, the Brechin Castle 40-acre golf course is earmarked for closure by year’s end. Company management declined to reveal plans for the greens. Club members who are former employees of the company turned out to play yesterday, in what was possibly their last round.

It was mixed feelings of sadness and anxiety stirred by specualtion of what is to become of the grounds which stretch for three miles. Already the course and grounds are on the verge of becoming overgrown with grass and shrubs. Members of the club dismissed the perception that only the company’s elite staff played golf.  “A lot of ordinary sugar workers have been playing golf on this course for many years,” a member said. The club’s match secretary, Bhola Lakhan, said members have been allowed to utilise the facilities, including the Sevilla Club, only until the end of the year. “But the club must bear the cost,” Lakhan, a former senior supervisor in the company added. The company has offered to provide two tractors to cut the grounds, Lakhan said.  The club is currently working on the cost to determine whether it is feasible, she said. The divestment secretariat overseeing Caroni’s restructuring has earmarked the three-mile course for lease to a foreign company.