Spectacular golf course unveiled in Bale’s back garden
WALES star Gareth Bale has finished transforming his back garden into some of the most iconic holes in golf.
It was first reported in 2015 that the Real Madrid ace, an avid golf fan, was embarking on a project that would see the 17th hole at Sawgrass, the “postage stamp” 8th at Royal Troon and the fabled 12th at Augusta National recreated at his South Wales home.
Architect James Edwards drew up the infamous holes and worked with Southwest Greens and golf course shaper Mark Ely to provide the Welsh winger with the perfect practice facility.
“I had a lovely bit of land here and it was something that I really wanted to do and I decided that I would love to make a dream come true and build a mini golf course in my house,” Bale said.
“I did my research online and I found Southwest Greens. I wanted to do a lot of low maintenaince. We came up with a big concept of what I wanted to do. We loved the idea of it and went from a plain piece of land to building what we have now.
“It was a lot of hard work and a lot of craftmanship. It’s so much better than I ever thought it could be.”
Bale is currently in Nanning, China with Ryan Giggs’ Wales squad ahead of this week’s China Cup.
President of Southwest Greens, Kevin Holinaty told the Echo: “We worked with Gareth to decipher what his wishes were, being that he’s a keen golfer and like all of us that like to play the game, you have your favourite holes, you have your dream scenarios.
“He came to us with that, James Edwards at EDI Golf Design was very much involved in that process. We came up with a design that we wanted to move forward with.
“There were a few ideas going back and forth and in the end he chose these three symbolic, iconic golf holes.
“They’re not exact replicas, they’re ‘in the spirit of’ these three holes and it was done like that.”
The project took about six months and has actually been finished for two years. However, a golf course needs time to mature so all parties have had to wait before revealing the finished article.
Bale was keen to be involved from the beginning in all areas of the design, with meetings held in Madrid and Wales to fine tune the details.
He asked the designers to fit the three holes on the site as sensitively as possible at their full length.
Designer Mr Edwards said: “This unique brief was an incredible thrill for us.
“The only real challenge was the weather. The site was extremely wet and the construction was delayed many times. The perseverance was worthy of an award!”