The greens, which have been used for the past 60 years, will no longer be used due to the financial pressure caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The board and management of the club made the decision on Friday, September 4.
With the unprecedented impact of COVID-19, it was announced the difficult step was necessary to ensure the ongoing viability of the club.
The expenditure associated with maintaining two greens was announced by club management to be unfeasible, with more than $99,000 spent on associated wages, chemicals and other repairs and maintenance last year.
President Robert Haynes said while the decision was tough, it was necessary for the club to ensure it continued to serve its community.
‘‘This year has been extremely difficult for Finley RSC as a business and we are extremely saddened about this unfortunate outcome,’’ he said.
‘‘Ultimately the decision was made to ensure our members can continue to socialise, dine and celebrate special occasions at their local club long into the future.’’
Feeling the immediate impacts of the closures are the members of the associated bowling club.
Bowls president Jeff Peacock said the only option offered to the club to keep the greens open was to assume complete responsibility for them.
He said this option was unrealistic with limited financial support and only small fundraisers run throughout the year.
“It was offered to the bowls club members to take over maintenance and all costs incurred,” Peacock said.
‘‘Unfortunately, our members declined this citing age, health concerns and costs.
‘‘As our only means of income derives from catering, raffles, fundraisers and with the information that all catering was to go through the RSC, members felt it was not economically viable for us as we were also not able to source sponsorship from outside the RSC.’’
The cancellation and ongoing uncertainty around the resumption of tournaments has made it a challenge to raise the funds necessary to manage the cost of the bowling facility's operations, according to RSC management.
The impending retirement of the club’s turf manager and difficulty in securing a replacement has also been a factor.
The RSC said it consulted closely with its sub-club throughout the process.
To support the sub-club in its transition, the RSC will make a one-off contribution of $200 a bowling member towards buying a new membership and uniform at a bowls club of their choice.
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