Family effort to woo the tourists

6:50am Saturday 22nd November 2008

CAPE CORNWALL is England’s only cape. It’s where the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea meet, and it’s also where a family group with strong Worcestershire connections meets up as often as possible to ensure their dream of providing a top class holiday destination is fulfilled.

Earlier this year the group of five decided the golf club and ancilliary buildings at the cape, just a couple of miles up the coast from Lands End, would be their perfect choice to commit their futures to the tourist industry.

On the market at the turn of the year, the five – husband and wife Terry and Kay Glazebrook, along with Kay’s daughter Kelly together with husband Justin, and Justin’s father, Steve Brown – felt the resort had great potential, although it was at that stage in a neglected state. They eventually took the plunge and acquired it for less than the original £1.2m asking price.

That was back in March with Terry and Kay, then living close to the West Midland Safari Park near Bewdley – a property they are still trying to sell, wondering just what they had let themselves in for.

Neither had been in the business of looking after holidaymakers before. Terry is an interior designer/architect by trade, and Kay has been in sales and marketing.

But with Kay’s daughter from a previous marriage, having married Steve Brown’s son, it did help bring on board someone with considerable hotel experience. Yorkshireman Steve has run several small hotels and clubs in the vicinity – bringing vital know-how to the table, while his son and daughter-in-law are both in the finance and legal world.

It’s these varied talents which, fused together, are helping to bring all the loose strands in line as they continue the task of making their venture a successful tourist destination.

On moving in the plan was to get the hotel and restaurant side of the business up and running again.

“There were no bookings and the buildings had seen better days, but one thing we had was a golf club with a good solid membership,” recalls Terry.

The initial task was to get the resort’s eight bedrooms, which are housed in an annexe, up to scratch, along with the clubroom café-bar, dining area and 100-seat sea-view room which now provides a splendid Civil Ceremony licensed venue.

“The flooring was grubby and the ceilings stained from years of cigarette smoking,” recalls Terry. But lots of white paint, new furnishings and fittings, and elbow grease by the bucket load, meant they were able to welcome guests this summer.

“It’s been hard work but we are seeing the effort rewarded. Bookings have picked up, the word is spreading, and I think we are also showing the village and surrounds that we are going to be part of the community. Which is what we want to be.

“There is still a lot of work to do and one of our more important tasks in the coming months is to upgrade our 15-metre heated indoor pool, spa bath, sauna, and solarium area, as well as our fully-equipped gymnasium,” says Terry.

What they have achieved already is quite remarkable. The rooms are comfortable and cosy after their spruce up, while the clubroom facilities are now first class. The bar area, with its big lounge-in sofas, is excellent, along with its smallish dining area which affords special sea views. There’s also an additional attractive café area, and for anyone planning a special day or celebration there is the superb reception room.

There’s a good menu, with board specials, and the food is good quality - whatever time of day.

As for the golf course - it is quite simply spectacular. It’s also challenging, and in parts, daunting. But even if your game isn’t quite up to scratch you have always got the views. It’s a course where you are continually called upon to think your way around – part links and almost part moorland. Built on old farmland some 14 years ago, its stone walls and hedgerows, gorse and bracken, are ever eager to gobble up wayward shots. Put these together with strong winds often raging in off the sea and you have a tricky and unforgiving course, but it’s still plenty of fun.

The 10th and 12th are perhaps the pick, with the latter the signature hole. It’s 259 yards from the tee, but it looks further as you are on an elevated tee and with the sea as a backcloth. You must negotiate a wall and hedgerow to find a narrow fairway, and then ensure your second to the green isn’t too strong, otherwise you could be looking for a ball on the rocks below!

The course is 5,462 yards off the yellow tees and par 69. In two and a half rounds I managed just five holes to par and not one birdie! But I’m determined to give it another shot at some stage in the future.

Other plus points for the area are a variety of beaches to explore, plenty of excellent clifftop paths to walk, historical sites to visit. While there are good facilities half-a-mile back up the lane at the village of St Just, and plenty more in the nearby town of Penzance.

Cape Cornwall is proud to boast that it is the ‘first and last 18-hole course in Britain’ – depending, of course, on your direction of travel. What the owners now want is for golfers and other holidaymakers, along with corporate clients, to make this dramatically situated leisure resort their first choice. They’re working hard towards this with a friendly and dedicated staff, and quite simply hoping five heads will prove better than one in achieving this.

Cape Cornwall Golf and Leisure Resort, St Just, nr Penzance, Cornwall, TR19 7NL. Telephone 01736 788611. For more details contact info@capecornwall.com or visit their website at www.capecornwall.com

By ALAN WALLCROFT