Kilbarchan Golf Club

Kilbarchan Golf Club

Established in 1979

Gallery

Club Profile

Kilbarchan Colliery (which is situated 12km south of Newcastle) came into being during the mid-1950's. The mine supplied coal to the Eskom lngagane Power Station. The area has strong Scottish connections and the farm Kilbarchan on which the mine is situated is named after a village in Ayrshire.

The Recreation Club started in 1960 and from its humble beginnings has grown to what we have today - Kilbarchan Golf Club.

The Golf Club started in the late sixty's and in 1973 the then Mine Manager, George Edwards, decided to have a properly designed course, and Grimsclale and Wilkes were approached to design a 9 hole course. The Club House was built in 1979 by the mine employees, under leadership of the then Mine Manager, Paul Zietsman. The Mine contributed a vast amount of money to maintain the course and its facilities. The main contributors towards the building of the club house were Eskom and Messrs McAlpine.

Since 1989 a major change in the supply of coal resulted in the closure of Eskom Ingagane Power Station. During March 1992 the mine stopped producing coal and all operations were ceased. The Golf Committee realised that there were no funds coming from the mine anymore, and that, if we wanted to continue with the Golf section, we had to look at taking over the commitments and the funding of the course.

The Golf Club Chairman, Chris le Roux and the Captain Johan Hugo, arranged a meeting with Natal Navigation Collieries & Estate Co Ltd - the Landlords - to discuss a lease contract with them, which was then granted. +- 4 years went by and still under leadership of Chris le Roux, Management and their members decided to approach NNC to acquire the property. On the 12 December 1996 the property was registered in the name of the Club.

Our membership has been multi-racial since the commencement of the Recreation Club. Kilbarchan Golf Club was the first Club in Northern Natal to have an African League player, Kenneth Mtshali, in their side.

The first four development players were registered in 2002 — and under the leadership of Sam Tshabalala, a member of our Club, and an independent Coach for Development, the development out of grass roots to a level where they can join Clubs, has grown from strength to strength. Six youngsters has been registered with the Junior Foundation. A total of +- 30 youngster’s play on a regular basis at our Club.

Club facilities are available to Companies/Organisations for functions or organised Golf Days.

We also host sponsored days for Charity organisations.