A company selling overseas golf travel packages has folded suddenly, leaving many players out of pocket and angering top courses and administrators.
Cale Golf was selling travel packages that included green fee vouchers, and was promoting golf tournaments in New Zealand, including the Srixon Pairs.
The company’s Browns Bay office has been closed.
At Cale-backed tournaments, players were encouraged to bid on auction items, which ranged from balls to vouchers for holiday.
The company’s collapse has resulted in golfers turning up to destinations on the Gold Coast and at top clubs such as Whangaparaoa Peninsula’s Gulf Harbour Country Club, with vouchers than cannot be redeemed.
Even shareholders in the company have been unable to contact its sole director, Ewan Cameron.
Lance Murray, a former shareholder who left the company in early 2009 and who publishes New Zealand Golfer magazine, said he had left numerous messages with Cameron.
Cameron did not return calls from the Weekend Herald.
Murray has no idea how many people have been affected, but understood that some clubs, such as Millbrook in Queenstown, had redeemed vouchers so as not to leave people out of pocket.
The manager at Gulf Harbour has been left angry after her dealings with Cale Golf, registered as a company in March 2008, and with Cameron.
Kim Bond said she had to engage “legal kneecappers” to go to Cameron’s home to recover money for vouchers that were never authorised.
“[He] continued to give out vouchers that we couldn’t honour because the arrangement had been terminated.
“I had people ring me from Christchurch saying they had bid on these vouchers at a charity auction and had won them and were on their way up to play golf.
“I had to tell them they were unauthorised and that he [Cameron] had no right to sell them to you.
“They then told me they also had vouchers to play Formosa [Golf Resort, near Beachlands], so he had been around the traps,” Bond said.
“We finally recovered all the money owed to us, but not before we had to pay private investigator’s fees, so I’m not happy.”
New Zealand Golf’s operations manager, Phil Aickin, emailed clubs warning them about Cale’s demise and what it might mean for some of their members.
“The company has unfortunately folded owing a large number of golfers overseas travel packages that were sold as auction items throughout the past year,” Aickin wrote.
Aickin said yesterday the exact numbers of golfers affected was unknown, but “the numbers are quite significant”.
“I couldn’t give you a dollar level, but it seems like it’s all turned to custard,” he said.
Murray said the recession had put a squeeze on the golf industry and his former colleague’s actions had further harmed the sport.
“I’ve had a lot of calls and … emails and as for Ewan Cameron, nobody seems to know where he is.”
The company’s address was a private residence in Torbay, but Murray understands it has been sold and that Cameron might now be in Southland.
“There’s a lot of people looking for Ewan Cameron,” Murray said.
“It’s not good for the indus
try. It’s tough at the moment and doesn’t need this sort of s***.”
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