Bermuda Golf Association have made it through to the second phase in the tendering process to run Ocean View Golf Course.

The governing body are one of three groups who put forward proposals to take over the running of the financially crippled course, and are considered the favourites to be handed the job.

While some may be surprised to see the association throwing their hat into the ring, BGA vice-president Alan Gamble said it was preferable to the loss of Ocean View altogether.

"We have an obligation to golf," said Gamble. "If there was a possibility that the course could get closed down, if the Government turned around and said 'we're losing half a million dollars a year, we're not interested in running it any more', we couldn't allow that to happen.

"In one sense the last thing the BGA need is more responsibility, but we thought it was encumbent upon us to look at it (the possibility).

"There were other people who made presentations, we were told there were three groups of which we were one, and we have been asked to go to the next stage."

For the BGA the motivation in getting involved is driven by the desire to be able to provide affordable golf for all, returning Ocean View to what it once was.

"Our vision I guess is to take it back to what it used to be, which is affordable golf, like a municipal golf course should be. The prices there, in our opinion, are far too high. And it goes back to encouraging people to play the game.

"If you've got to pay $4,000 to join a club, there are a huge number of people for whom that is going to be less likely than it ever was. So we would want to protect that, I have no idea what our pricing would be, just that our philosophy would be different to the way it has been run."

For the BGA, Ocean View would become a starter course, a place where beginners and juniors can learn to play the game, while also attracting the tourists who don't want to pay the higher cost of some of Bermuda's other courses.

"It's not a bad little course," said Gamble, "but price is the key.

"Andrew Brooks (director of golf at Port Royal) was right when he said there was a top end and a bottom end, and you get what you pay for. Ocean View is at the bottom end, and that is exactly the niche it should fill."

However, while the governing body may be current front runners, they are understood to have concerns about the financial implications of such a move, especially given the huge sums of money the course has been haemorrhaging in recent years.

"The BGA can't take on financial responsibility of (possibly) losing $200K a year," said Gamble. "While we're a not-for-profit organisation, we're also a not-for-loss one as well. We're not here to make money out of something, just here to protect the game."