West Hove members are this week mourning the death of Keith Haste who helped save their club four years ago.

Keith, the 52-year-old director and managing secretary, died at the Royal Sussex County Hospital following a stroke shortly after being admitted.

It was the rescue plan proposed by Keith, who had captained the club 12 months earlier, that offered hope of re-structuring when West Hove hit deep water early in 1997.

Keith came up with his own idea of raising money after members overwhelmingly rejected a management committee compulsory levy of £475 a head to pull them out of the mire.

Suddenly the light at the end of West Hove's tunnel began to shine and all thoughts of going into receivership were dismissed. The rescue plan enabled West Hove to contemplate a safe future as a private members' club as a new company, West Hove Ltd, based on a voluntary share scheme, was put in place.

The minimum figure from individual members was £25. Also, a mortgage over 15 years with NatWest was tied up. That, together with the rescue fund, and the conversion of the debenture scheme and bonds into shares, further secured the club's future.

Yet earlier that year the club was hamstrung by debts of over £1.7m and I recall Keith, with characteristic cheerfulness, telling me: "At the start of our troubles we had been very pessimistic about losing members, but loyalty is very much part of West Hove's spirit and there was no spate of panic departures."

Keith lost no time in acknowledging the help received from benefactors Frank Shannon, Mike Hunt and Les Watts. Never one to seek the limelight, Keith called to mind their substantial donations to the rescue fund. It was Shannon who had signed the course over to ownership by the new company.

Then Tom Quigley, at 34, the youngest chairman in the club's 90-odd year history, was a big player in assembling the rescue package by using his City connections to start the vital ball rolling with NatWest.

When all was done and dusted, Keith and Brian Hazlegrove acted as joint club managers for a while until Brian moved to Singing Hills.

This left Keith in sole charge and the immense satisfaction of seeing the club prosper.

Following an early retirement from Seeboard, Keith hoped for more time to improve on his eight handicap. But he spent untold hours working on his master plan.

Richard Simmons, chairman of the board, paid Haste a tribute. He said: "Keith became heavily involved in the club administration and, indeed, was instrumental in both promoting and operating the plan that has seen West Hove through some very difficult times to its present very healthy and stable situation.

"All the West Hove members owe Keith an enormous debt of gratitude for what he has done for the club and he will be sadly missed. It is true to say that there would not be a West Hove golf club if it wasn't for him."

Keith's son Duncan was head greenkeeper and recently been named Groundsman of the Year by the Sussex PGU.

Cliff Pluck, the SPGU secretary said: "We have lost a very good friend in Keith and our sympathies go out to Carrol, his widow, and sons Darrell and Duncan and also the three grandchildren."