John Cawood, 72, has been reinstated to the presitgious Sunningdale Golf Club following a County Court battle after the committee expelled him for ‘playing too often’.
A golfer who claimed he was the victim of ‘a stitch up’ after being thrown out of one of the UK’s most exclusive clubs following complaints that he played too much golf has been reinstated after suing it in court.
John Cawood, 72, a retired Australian lawyer, had his membership of the prestigious Sunningdale Golf Club terminated amid concerns he was attending too often.
His discounted £975 ‘overseas membership’ meant he could play only 30 days a year, but records showed him present in the club itself up to 94 days in a single year, a court heard.
One senior member complained of Mr Cawood using Sunningdale – where Sean Connery, Hugh Grant and Gary Lineker have played – as ‘his country club’.
The club claimed his membership was cancelled because his regular attendance suggested he was not in fact resident overseas – and should have been paying nearly four times as much for a full membership.
But Mr Cawood, who said he did not break the 30 days play rule, claimed the cancellation in 2015 was a ‘stitch-up’, motivated by ‘dislike’ of him amongst certain members of the club’s committee.
Today, ruling on the case at Central London County Court, Judge David Saunders said the decision to remove him had been influenced by feeling that Mr Cawood ‘was not the kind of person that the club wishes to have as a member’.
The judge found that the club was wrong to terminate his membership and ordered his reinstatement.
The judge said the club’s committee was wrong to find that Mr Cawood was not ‘resident overseas’ adding that there had been an element of a ‘clash of personalities’ with some other members.
‘It is very difficult not to accept that there was some strong element of dislike and a view that Mr Cawood was not the kind of person that the club wishes to have as a member,’ he said.
‘The problem, I consider, is that these issues became conflated. The residency issue was a convenient method of terminating his membership.’
Retired Australian lawyer John Cawood won his case against Sunningdale Golf Club in Hampshire, pictured, over allegations it terminated overseas membership because he was playing too often. Mr Cawood paid £975 for overseas membership compared with £3,245 for full membership
The court heard that Mr Cawood was an overseas member of the club from 1997 to 2015, paying £975-a-year, considerably less than the £3,245-a-year full membership fee.
Overseas members had all of the same rights as full members, although their use of the golf course was limited to only 30 days’ play per year, said the judge.
The club said his membership was terminated after years of concern about the amount of time he was spending at Sunningdale, as shown by his use of a payment card.
In the 11 months before his membership was ended, he had been physically present on 94 days, strongly suggesting to the committee that he was resident in the UK.
The club said the termination of his overseas membership did not mean he was prevented from being a member, as he could apply for full membership, but didn’t.
Taking the case to court, Mr Cawood applied for an injunction and damages payment, claiming that the club committee was wrong in saying he was not resident abroad.
The court heard that former club captain John Jermine had ‘an underlying dislike of Mr Cawood and the intent to be rid of him’
Despite having lived in accommodation close to Sunningdale, he insisted that he is an Australian with no intention of changing his permanent home to any other country.
‘Australia is my real home for all the obvious reasons,’ he told the judge. ‘Much as I like the US and love the UK, my emotional and historic ties are to Australia.’
Mr Cawood’s lawyers claimed he was disliked by some members, which fed into the committee’s ‘biased’ decision to terminate his membership.
Ruling on the case today, Judge Saunders said there were ‘numerous examples of the committee’s ill feeling’ towards Mr Cawood.
Former club captain John Jermine had claimed in an email that Mr Cawood was ‘continuing to use the club as his country club with no apparent remorse’.
The evidence heard in the trial showed Mr Jermine’s ‘underlying dislike of Mr Cawood and the intent to be rid of him,’ the judge added.
‘Such evidence does not just flow from Mr Jermine,’ he continued.
‘In a draft letter to several club members, Mr Leslie McNeile, then the captain, made a thinly veiled threat of disciplinary proceedings against those members should they invite Mr Cawood to attend the club as a visitor.
‘It is not clear whether the letter was sent but the fact that it was mentioned in a draft is indicative of the attitude of those on the committee that they would consider threatening disciplinary proceedings against members just for inviting Mr Cawood as a guest.’
‘The club allowed themselves to concentrate wrongly on the days that he spent in the club by reference to his swipe cards.
‘Whilst I accept that this may be some evidence upon which to reach the decision that they did, it was insufficient to determine permanent residence in the UK. This is again irrational.
‘I am also concerned that, at least within some of the members of the committee, there was a strong feeling of dislike motivated by their view that the claimant was taking advantage of his overseas membership…’
The judge said Mr Cawood and his partner live a ‘peripatetic’ lifestyle, dividing their time between three different countries.
‘I find that the time they spend in one country will often depend on their personal circumstances at any particular time,’ he said.
‘I am therefore satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, and upon the evidence, that he is not permanently resident in the UK.
‘On balance, I do not believe that he has any intention of setting up home here.
‘The fact that he used the club whilst he was in the UK is just a natural consequence of his lifestyle at that time.’
The judge made an injunction, reinstating Mr Cawood’s membership, and awarded him £250 damages for the ’embarrassment’ caused.
‘This is an emotive type of case,’ he said.
‘Membership of any sports club – particularly where one is a longstanding member and where sport is a love of one’s life – is extremely important.
‘To certain people, where golf is concerned, such a membership is more than simply playing golf – to many it is a lifestyle choice and with a significant social element.
‘Mr Cawood is a longstanding member, enjoys playing golf and having use of the facilities.
‘Sunningdale Golf Club is a top prestigious club and if he were, for example, to seek membership at another club then it would be very difficult for him to find an equivalent alternative – if at all.
‘He has many of his closest friends there.’
He added: ‘I accept that there will inevitably be some difficulty due to the clash of personalities evident in the oral evidence I heard but, in such a large club, I am satisfied that the risk of that would be small, that the parties as a whole are sensible, and that any tension or conflict could easily be managed and avoided.’
Mr Cawood brought his case against several individual members as representatives of the whole membership, but the judge said effectively the case was against the club itself.