Members of Loch Lomond Golf Club are attempting to raise an estimated £100m to buy the exclusive resort.

Members of Loch Lomond Golf Club are attempting to raise an estimated £100m to buy the exclusive resort.

Ken Lewandowski, the businessman and former chairman of Hibernian FC who is Scottish captain at Loch Lomond, was yesterday involved in talks aimed at buying out the US owners and turning Loch Lomond into a private members' club, similar to Augusta National, home of the Masters Tournament in the US.

An unofficial executive committee representing the 800-plus worldwide members has been formed. It has been acknowledged as a serious contender to seal the deal against "eight or nine" competing bids from the Middle East, Europe and America.

Niall Flanagan, general manager of the club, said yesterday that American Lyle Anderson remained the owner of the club, which also owns the Dundonald course in Ayrshire and that a members' buy-out would meet his approval.

"Lyle is a member at Augusta and Loch Lomond was always touted as Europe's Augusta," said Mr Flanagan, who insisted that Dubai-based Leisurecorp, which bought the Turnberry resort this year for £55m, was not an interested party.

"Moving towards a members' buy-out lends itself to an Augusta style. What Lyle would wish is that it does become a private members' club kept to very high standards and in Scotland. The members' buy-out is right up there. It has to be one of the front-runners."

Members, meanwhile, have been told of plans to raise annual subscriptions from £3250 a year to £7000 for those based in Europe, and to £3750 for the rest of the world. Members are also required to pay £65,000 on joining, refundable when they leave.

Mr Flanagan said: "The reaction was one of shock initially, but then one of realisation that in order to keep this club as special as it is it needs to have investment. Once you explain it to them, their passion comes through.

"The club is not your normal club. It is not the kind of place where you gain a handicap, play medals, and have a drink in the spike bar. We have something like 92 American members who haven't been here this year but still pay their subscription. The club means a lot of things to different people."

Control of the club, which has 43 bedrooms and a spa and is due to host the Barclays Scottish Open in July for the next four years, has been handed over to New York business recovery firm Marotta, Gund, Budd & Dzera, appointed by the Bank of Scotland. The new directors, Stephen Marotta and Philip Gund, have visited Loch Lomond several times this year.

Mr Flanagan said: "They understand the club and have worked with the management team and know our goals and objectives going forward. Obviously, they are looking for a purchaser, as Lyle has been for the best part of a year-and-a-half.

"I think we will be looking for in excess of what Turnberry sold for. It will be around £100m. We are in an economic climate that fluctuates daily and we are not quite sure what is happening with HBOS and their merger. There are a lot of outside parameters that we have no control over, but generally that's what we are looking at."

The buy-out attempt is being led by Scott Murdoch, a London-based Scot in the property business, and Mr Lewandowski is a member of the group that envisages the financing would be equity-based, with members buying as many shares as they can afford, rather than asking for a levy of £125,000 a head which would raise £100m.

Mr Lewandowski said: "The main thing the members are concerned about is maintaining the club at the same standards and ideals.

"Over the years, Loch Lomond has built up a mystique. People think that it is a stuck-up, snobby place, but when I bring friends here they cannot believe how informal and friendly it is.

"I've also played at Augusta six or seven times and while the golf course there is magnificent, the place isn't a patch on Loch Lomond."

Mr Flanagan said that despite the financial troubles, Loch Lomond, which has running costs of about £9m a year, was close to being profitable on an operating basis and there was no immediate prospect of it being opened to the public.

"We've done that with Dundonald, but we would not be able to handle it at Loch Lomond," he said. "It would be very tough suddenly to have 100 folk every day paying £50. It just wouldn't work. This club has a place in the market, there is a higher echelon and that is where it should be kept."