NOVEMBER 14, 2014: A controversial council proposal to close Whinhill Golf Course was being made as the local authority was spending around £200,000 improving it, the Telegraph revealed.

Council officials had suggested the area’s only municipal course could be shut to help make £7 million of savings. But club officials hit back by saying that shutting it down didn’t make sense.

Club captain John Ellis also explained that it would mean the loss of one full-time and three part-time jobs, and the end of a golf course and club with over 100 years of history.

He said: “This would mean an end to playing golf for our 201 adult members and our 57 junior girl and boy members.

“The closure of the only municipal golf course in Inverclyde — known as ‘the people’s golf club’ — would also mean the end to playing golf for thousands of Inverclyde’s citizens.”

Top European Tour golfer Chris Doak, of Greenock learned his skills on the course, and it’s feared many people of all ages would be unable to afford to play at private clubs.

Mr Ellis said: “We find it puzzling that closure is being suggested when substantial time and money has been invested in the past couple of years on a variety of things, including the upgrading of the female locker and changing rooms, the reconstruction of the third green and the erection of a large greenkeeper’s storage shed which is being constructed at the moment and is due to be completed in the near future.

“To spend this amount of money on the course and then close it all in the space of a couple of years does not make sense.”

Mr Ellis said news of the proposal had a damaging effect on the club. He added: “The long term impact this news will have on the golf club will be deeply distressing.

“We, like any other competent organisation or business, try to plan ahead, but we may well struggle to do this with a question mark over the future of the course and, in turn, our golf club.”