NEWS FROM THE SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIAN GOLF COURSE ARCHITECTS

Mornington GC Moving forward

The next stage of construction works at Mornington Golf Club, on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, has commenced.  The project involves a complete rebuild of the Club’s par-4 6th hole.  

Those familiar with the course will know that the current tee shot on the 6th is too difficult, especially for shorter hitters. The severity of the right-to-left slope means the fairway has to be uncomfortably narrow with longer grass required to slow balls down. The green is also unnaturally pushed up and tilted and is too small to give any variety to hole positions.  Significant earthworks are proposed to create a much wider, two-tier fairway, high on the right and lower on the left.   A string of three small bunkers will be set into the highest ridge on the right. A new green will also be built behind the current green, which will be demolished. The new green will sit very naturally and low on the ground. When viewed from the fairway on the high right side, the backdrop to the green will be simply a thin strip of water and the sky. In Golf Architecture, this is referred to as a ‘skyline green’.  

Earthworks will continue throughout winter and spring with the new hole expected to open this coming summer.  Ben Davey of Contour Golf and Darius Oliver, the architects for the project, believe these works will transform the hole into one of the best on the course.

Drouin Opens New Holes

In 2016 Pacific Coast Design (PCD) was appointed to assist land developers who were working with Drouin Golf Club in a land swap deal.  The work for PCD involved creating two new holes and modifying another hole to ensure the par-72 course that plays over and around the Drouin racetrack kept its par and stayed at about the same yardage.

The two new holes were located on land to the left of the existing 2nd hole and a site that housed an existing irrigation storage pond.  This pond was filled but additional storage space was created as was a better system for harvesting water of an adjacent storm water drain.

PCD worked with the developer, their planners and the Drouin Golf Club to ensure come opening day a like-for-like transition could occur and golf could continue to prosper at the Drouin Golf Club.  The new holes were opened earlier in 2021 and have been well received.

Grass set to be greener at Karratha GC

Exciting times for the Karratha Golf Club as the “City of Karratha” press the button to convert their sand scrapes to grass greens.

In June Richard Chamberlain Golf Design was on site to supervise the construction of the back-nine greens.

Callum Hitching from “Turf Life” undertook the construction of the first three greens (11th, 12th and 13th) before Chamberlain and Golf Course Shaper Chicka King arrived for a fortnight stint.

Five more greens were created in a marathon two-week stint. Callum Hitching will now work on the grassing operations.

The growth progress of the greens is nothing short of phenomenal at Karratha with about 80% coverage in a five-week period. The fairways are Santa Ana Couch and the greens are Velvetene.

The team expect to head back in 2022 to complete the front nine greens and raise Karratha Golf Course to a much higher level.