About Us
36 holes set in 360 acres of Parkland & Woodland on the border of Kent & London
Cray Valley Golf Club was founded in 1971 with a 5670 yd 18 hole course with a 126 WHS slope rating from the White competition tees & a 9 hole course consisting of 5 par 4’s & 4 par 3’s with access to Ruxley park another challenging par 35, 9 hole course on site, driving range, practice area, pro shop, restaurant & bar. An active Gents, Ladies, Seniors & 9 hole section have competitions & Swindles on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays
History of Cray Valley Golf Club
Land bought and the club is formed.
In the early 1970’s twelve Royal Blackheath Golf Club members bought some land off Sandy Lane, and set up a management company called Ruxley Heights, there were 31 shares, known as B shares. At that time golf was still a very elitist sport. Hugh Stovin QC, trading as Alphgreen Ltd, leased a portion of the land with the intention of building a course that would be open to everyone. On 1st September 1972 Cray Valley opened. Membership cost £20 a year and you paid 50 pence every time you played, however there were no official handicaps. The members petitioned Hugh Stovin and he agreed to arrange formal registration under CONGU. Cray Valley formally became a golf club in September 1973; the clubhouse was opened the same year. Shortly after Hugh Stovin employed Ron Hill as Secretary.
Club Grows and more land is purchased.
Another group, the Simpson Brothers, had leased another portion of the land from Ruxley Heights and opened Ruxley Park 9-hole course, however they were very restrictive and didn’t open until 8:00 even in the summer. After a while Hugh Stovin took over the lease and together with Ron Hill and an investor called Jonathan Irving Bell. They grew Cray Valley and Ruxley Park to be very successful, and profitable. According to the 1997/98 club diary Cray Valley GC had had around 700 members, with around 100 people playing in regular club competition and up to 140 in special competitions. There were many social events held at the club, the 1976/77 fixture list showed there were 11 social events held throughout the year. Further plots of land were leased, Ruxley Park became an 18-hole course and additionally a new 9-hole course at Ruxley was built. What became known Orpington Golf Centre had at one time 54 holes of golf.
Jonathan also started hot air balloon flights from Cray Valley. Because of the vagaries of the wind, they could never be sure where they were going to come down, once they landed on the football pitch of Hendon Police College. This experiment lasted less than a year.
Some Lease take-overs before Mytime get involved.
American Golf took over the lease and introduced their own team with John Scappatura as General Manager and Tom Ashman as the Head Professional. Their business model seemed more focused on building the number of green fees rather than encouraging membership. They withdrew 7-day membership and consequently the number of members declined. Crown Golf took over and continued a similar policy although they were a little more receptive than American Golf had been.
Mytime Active, the current owners, took over on 5th January 2012 but it was not until 2014, when Matt Burns took over as General Manager, that things improved. The biggest factor was that Matt was a golfer himself. The Ruxley 9-hole course became a foot golf course and was, for some time, quite successful.
Present Day and the Future.
Mytime active have shown great commitment by extending the lease to 2059 and there are plans to refurbish the clubhouse and new driving range at Cray Valley. There is also likely to be some course changes. We have a new head greenkeeper, who with his team have worked hard and the course and it is probably the best conditions it’s been for many years.
There are healthy gents, ladies, senior and 9-hole sections with a full range of competitions throughout the year, they all welcome new members. We have a bright future and look forward to another 50 years of golf at Cray Valley.
