Sapey Golf Club, straddling the B4203 north of Bromyard, was previously part of Mr Best’s Wyldecrest Parks company which still owns the nearby Saltmarshe Castle residential park, before being put on the market last year for £1.8 million.
A plan submitted in June by Brett Walton of Great Witley sought permission to turn the 80-hectare site into a “tourism and leisure complex” as well as family home, with parts of the clubhouse being rejigged.
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Instead of golf, the wider grounds were to offer “leisure and wellness activities”, including walking, running, cycling, horse riding and “foraging trails”.
There were to be four new holiday lodges in addition to the four already in place, a barn was to be converted into stables for up to ten horses, and a large new lake was to be created in the grounds.
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In all, “up to a dozen local people” would be employed at the course when back up and running.
But planning officer Ollie Jones has now ruled that the application “is fundamentally lacking in the necessary detail”, on the new lodges, stables and other facilities, on what activities were proposed, their hours of operation and the likely number of visitors they would bring.
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Along with this, it had not been made clear what the impact of the scheme would be on local traffic, on habitats within the site, and on the catchment of the river Teme, he said.
There was one call to keep it open as a golf course, from Simon Smith of Worcester.
Full planning permission was refused.