GET YOUR DESIGN BUILT
Calling all hobby golf course architects! Here’s your chance to design some new holes for Australia’s oldest golf course and, the best judged design, will be built. Here, Ratho Farm owner, Greg Ramsey, explains why he’s calling on Armchair Architects to create a trio of holes.
I HAVE always enjoyed Armchair Architect competitions. The most famous of course, is Britain’s 1914 example of Country Life magazine’s competition, won by medical practitioner Dr Alister Mackenzie. His awarded design saw him establish himself as a professional full-time architect (many say, the greatest ever) to go on to design or partner in creating the likes of Augusta National, Royal Melbourne and Cypress Point.
Another famed participant was Tiger Woods, who as an 11-year-old submitted a double-dogleg par-5 to an island green, in an American competition. I am proud to have had a long association with Wisconsin’s celebrated new Mammoth Dunes course, which this year opened a very dramatic risk-reward short par-4, designed through a public competition.
What all these competitions have lacked however in my opinion is the opportunity to think more expansively; from Mackenzie to Tiger Woods, all were asked to submit single hole designs in a narrow corridor of play.
The re-imagining of Ratho Farm’s northern three holes – (not part of the original layout, but 1980s additions) – provides a chance to look at a 50-acre area of land with the same starting and finishing point; with watercourses, dry heathland banks, a heritage farm backdrop, and surrounding scenery of the Tasmanian highlands.
Through modern technology you can experience this landform through contour maps, drone flyovers, animated CAD and still imagery.
The need for these holes has been highlighted by increased visitation to Ratho Farm, where full-field corporate golf days, pro-ams and charity outings of first-time visitors, mean that local knowledge and safety awareness is nil. Interestingly, the rest of the course, despite some blind shots and quirky hazards, is very safe and flows intuitively.
But the three northern holes were designed by a civil engineer (and his designs suggest, he was NOT a golfer). The works were funded by the Department of Main Roads to facilitate the club abandoning three of its original pre-World War II holes, to enable a new highway bridge across the Clyde River and into the village of Bothwell.
The club, at that time, had only 20 or so members, and like all early courses around the world, was only played in the winter. So the new holes were just fine for then. But now the club has many more active members, and an increasing numbers of golfers and groups are visiting to play Australia’s oldest golf course, the National Golf Museum in the village as well as neighbouring Nant Distillery in Australia’s oldest working flour mill.
The proposed new corridor of play shortens walks from tee-to-green, eliminates a dreaded internal out-of-bounds as well as a ‘salt pan’ where it is hard to establish turf. The new corridor focuses on mountainous backdrops, playing up to and around that area’s modest contours, and should completely remove any tees and greens from being in the ‘firing line’ of adjoining holes.
We are thrilled to have two of Australia’s finest modern day golf course architects, Neil Crafter and Paul Mogford, consulting to Ratho Farm’s restoration and expansion. They are joined on our judging panel by one of Australia’s finest ever female golfers, Lindy Goggin (who will not participate on any family member’s submissions!) as well as our onsite architect at Barnbougle Dunes, Brian Schneider, who shaped up Ratho Farm’s wonderfully restored six green sites.
Redesigning Ratho Farm’s new northern holes gives us an opportunity to complete 18 safe holes of fun, fair, strategic and thought-provoking golf. The winning holes will be in keeping with the property’s rich history, and remain appealing to the modern golfer who has little interest in history, but loves great golf holes.