Steven McKinney, along with his friend Edward Montgomery and other volunteers, have currently cut 15 holes on the course.
Steven says the team initially decided to cut some of the holes so they had somewhere to practice.
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Edward Montgomery and Steven McKinney pictured at Linn Park Golf Club (Image: Colin Mearns)
He told the Glasgow Times: “We didn’t have anywhere to go to have a hit about and we had to join clubs that were quite far away.
“When that was on our doorstep, we could just get in there and practice, so we thought we’d just get in down there and cut a couple of holes to give us somewhere to mess about.
“After we cut a few we just thought why not cut the rest of them and it just snowballed from there.”
He continued: “The course is still very rough because it’s not had any work done on it for about four years, and the Green’s in a hell of a state.
“We started off cutting greens and tees because we didn’t have machinery big enough to do fairways.
“Then a gentleman called Chris McLaughlin from CM Landscaping came up off his back and cut the fairways down so it actually looks like a golf course today.”
Edward Montgomery and Steven McKinney pictured at Linn Park Golf Club (Image: Colin Mearns)
Glasgow City Council closed Linn Park Golf Course in March 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic and has not reopened it since.
Steven, who was a member for more than 20 years, says it was like losing “a member of the family” when the club closed.
The 47-year-old said: “It was a mixture of young people and old people who used the course.
“There were people actively playing golf every day before they shut that and there’s members who just turned into old men [not being able to use it].”
The group shared a picture of their work on the course on Facebook, where Steven says their work was met with a positive response from locals.
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Edward Montgomery and Steven McKinney pictured at Linn Park Golf Club (Image: Colin Mearns)
At the end of March, a GoFundMe was launched to raise funds to buy equipment to keep the course playable
More than £3800 has been raised so far, with Steven saying they have now purchased a ride-on lawn mower so they can cut the courses’ semi-roughs and fairways, and they also have a trailer and other lawnmowers.
Steven, from Castlemilk, says the course has been “chock-a-block” with people out playing golf.
He said: “The response has been nothing but positive, everybody’s been right behind us.
“We’ve been astounded by the level of support people have shown us.
“The community’s come together basically and opened a golf course again.”
Edward Montgomery and Steven McKinney pictured at Linn Park Golf Club (Image: Colin Mearns)
He continued: “It’s going to give them somewhere they can actually play golf in the Southside of Glasgow.
“The council’s shut all the municipal courses this side of the Clyde but now there’s a space for golf again and it’s totally free.
“We’re all boys from Castlemilk and we didn’t think community existed like this anymore.
“It’s been brilliant.
“We started doing this for selfish reasons and it’s turned out we just want to do it so that people have somewhere to go.”
Edward Montgomery and Steven McKinney pictured at Linn Park Golf Club (Image: Colin Mearns)
While Steven, Edward and others will continue to maintain the course, Steven says the council has now agreed to send staff to the course once a month to cut the fairways.
He says the group are also now in the process of trying to become a community trust with the hope of taking over the running of the golf club with support from the council in the future.
Glasgow City Council was contacted for comment.
Linn Park Golf Course is located on Simshill Road, Glasgow.
You can view their GoFundMe HERE.
