Dundee leisure chiefs have spent just £500 in the last three years to promote two golf courses that are set to close due to a lack of players.
The 18 and nine-hole facilities at Caird Park will shut this April in a cost-cutting move.
Leisure and Culture Dundee says not enough people play the courses for them to break even.
Councillors backed a motion to shut the courses at the end of last year.
Now leisure chiefs have come under fire after figures obtained by The Courier showed they have only allocated £500 in the last three years to promote Caird Park golf courses.
That was spent entirely on marketing golf memberships.
Dundee Golf social media posts cut by nearly 90%
Not a single penny was spent on other promotional activity for the courses between 2021 and 2024 – in stark contrast to the near-£16,000 spent between 2013 and 2021.
Meanwhile, Leisure and Culture Dundee has cut the number of posts on its Golf Dundee social media pages by nearly 90% in just three years – and even most of those were updates about weather-related closures.
And just £450 has been spent on social media advertising in the last decade but nothing in the last three years.
In total, the organisation has spent £32,000 on various marketing and promotional activities for Caird Park golf courses since 2013/14 – but almost all of it was spent before Covid, and nearly £8,000 of that went on external marketing consultants between 2013 and 2015.
‘We need to maximise the promotion of leisure and sport facilities’
The Caird Park courses will shut after Leisure and Culture Dundee claimed a combination of falling usage and rising costs meant they were no longer sustainable.
Bosses at the organisation also previously cited Covid as a key factor in the scrapping of plans to invest in golfing facilities at Caird Park.
Opposition councillors have hit out at “unacceptable” efforts to attract new players.
Fraser Macpherson, leader of the Lib Dem group, said: “We need to maximise the promotion and marketing of sport and leisure facilities in Dundee if we are to make people aware of what there is.
“We need a dynamic approach if we are to market facilities like Caird Park golf courses effectively.
“For example, it doesn’t cost a lot financially to advertise on social media and the figures show that hasn’t been done much.”
Labour group leader Kevin Keenan said: “We need to spend money if we are to make people aware of what facilities are available.
“That has clearly not been done and we are now looking at the closure of the courses.”
Asked to respond to the criticism of the figures, a spokesperson for Leisure and Culture Dundee said: “During this period, we have invested £32,156 in marketing our golf courses.”
In December, hopes emerged that the golf courses could be saved under proposals being drawn up by a management firm.
Officials were also accused of “staying silent” over the plans while councillors voted to close the courses.
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