In 1927, Sir John Drughorn transformed Hyde Farm into Ifield Golf Club, preserving ancient iron ore minepits and limestone quarries as natural hazards within an 18-hole layout. One hundred years later, those same fields will house a secondary school and 3,000 homes.

Ifield Golf Club will close its gates in April 2027, the exact month it should be celebrating a century of operation. The closure is not due to financial failure or dwindling membership. The course remains operationally viable, hosting 6,000 annual visitors and maintaining 500+ members. Instead, the shutdown is dictated by Homes England, the government housing agency that acquired the freehold in 2020 and has now served notice to quit.

The West of Ifield masterplan demands the land. The development proposal, submitted to Horsham District Council in August 2025, envisions 3,000 residential units alongside a new secondary school for 1,200 pupils, extensive playing pitches, a 9.7-hectare public park, and a relief road corridor. The golf course will be sacrificed to provide the infrastructure backbone for this urban expansion.

The timing has amplified the emotional weight. Members facing displacement include the club’s oldest player, aged 101, and its youngest, aged seven. For these 500 individuals, April 2027 will not mark a milestone, but rather an ending.

Ifield’s heritage extends beyond longevity. The course was designed by Frederick G. Hawtree and J.H. Taylor, the same partnership that redesigned Royal Birkdale in 1927. Taylor, a five-time Open Champion and co-founder of the British PGA, brought strategic vision to inland golf. Hawtree founded what remains the longest continuous golf architecture practice on record, a dynasty that continues through his grandson, Dr. Martin Hawtree.

Dr. Hawtree has testified to Ifield’s rarity. He noted that the course retains “much of the original character” that Royal Birkdale has lost to modernization. He argued that if golf courses were eligible for listed building status, Ifield would qualify as Grade II due to its preserved routing and green sites. The layout incorporates 16th and 17th-century industrial archaeology iron ore minepits and limestone quarries as natural hazards, maintaining field boundaries and ancient woodland strips that trace the pre-1927 farm landscape.

To legally erase a sports facility, developers must satisfy Paragraph 99 of the National Planning Policy Framework. The land must be proven surplus to requirements, or the loss must be replaced by equivalent provision. Homes England relies on a Knight, Kavanagh & Page assessment claiming 61 golf clubs in the Sussex Union create sufficient capacity. The district, they argue, is “well provided for.”

Rather than building a replacement 18-hole course, which would require 100+ acres, Homes England proposes financial mitigation. They will contribute to upgrades at Tilgate Golf Course in Crawley and Rookwood Golf Course in Horsham, improving drainage, greens, and driving range facilities. A new leisure centre and swimming pool are also offered as part of the “sporting provision” package.

Opponents reject this equivalence. Alan Covey, an England Golf U-18 selector and club member, calls the closure “a disaster.” He warned it would damage junior golf development. “I deal with the elite players in the country but I need places like this to develop kids to get to my level,” Covey told The Argus. “What’s good about this place is that it’s welcoming to the kids. They don’t feel intimidated, they come along, play golf and feel relaxed. And that’s what we need as a country—places like this.”

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Ifield joins UK-wide golf closure wave

Ifield’s closure is not isolated. Between 2020 and 2025, dozens of historic UK golf clubs have closed or face imminent redevelopment driven by identical mechanics: rising land values, housing delivery targets, and the reclassification of recreational land as developable “Grey Belt.”

North Oxford Golf Club, founded in 1907, closed in October 2025 after landowners Oxford University, Merton College, and Exeter College refused to renew its lease. The site will now accommodate 1,180 homes. Members received a £4.3 million settlement, but the High Court ruled that housing need outweighs green wedge preservation.

Maidenhead Golf Club, established in 1896, will shut at the end of 2025. The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead sold the 132-acre site, described as the “lung of Maidenhead,” to Cala Homes for 1,500 homes. The club is merging with Flackwell Heath to preserve its membership.

Horsham Golf and Fitness, just miles from Ifield, faced a similar fate. Generator Group proposed 800 homes with a reduced 9-hole course. Horsham District Council rejected the application in May 2024, but the Planning Inspectorate overturned the decision in July 2025. When the council launched a Judicial Review, the High Court refused to quash the approval in October 2025. The ruling established a precedent: housing shortfalls trump Neighbourhood Plans.

The pattern extends beyond the UK. Auckland Council announced plans to convert Takapuna Golf Course from an 18-hole layout into a 9-hole course and flood storage wetland, with construction set to begin in 2027. The decision drew opposition from two-time Olympic gold medalist Lydia Ko, who learned the game there, and community groups arguing for alternative flood mitigation solutions that would preserve the full course.

The pattern is structural. Institutional landowners—universities, councils, government agencies—reclaim leased land upon contract expiry. Planning Inspectorates consistently override local democratic opposition when housing delivery metrics are invoked. Regional assessments aggregate golf supply across wide geographic areas, ignoring local accessibility and displacing thousands of players to distant facilities.