Par-tee time for golf club after awards win
Greenkeepers at a golf club were on par for success at a top awards ceremony.
It was par-tee time for the greenkeeping team at Strathaven Golf Club after picking up a national gong for most ‘Outstanding Project of the Year’ in recognition of their work at the seventh and ninth holes.
Their fore-ward thinking and creativity was recognised by The British Institute of International Greenkeeper’s Association (BIGGA).
The team of six were strokes ahead and eventual winners, coming out on top against the other two finalists – Prestwick GC and Astbury GC – at the ceremony in Harrogate.
In 2019 Strathaven Golf Club was faced with a serious dilemma due to the number of golf balls landing in the garden of a neighbour of the club.
Its insurance company insisted that the club cease playing its seventh hole – a right-handed par 4 of some 370 yards in length.
All means of minimising the impact of play to its neighbour had failed and it ceased playing the hole at the end of the playing season in 2019.
The club had no spare land and no potential to increase land area, so the only option was to find a way to create a new hole within the current bounds of the course.
Stuart Fairgrieve, general manager, at the Strathaven club, said: “Our head greenkeeper, Stephen Hunter, used some lateral thinking.
“He suggested that we create a new par 3 with a new tee approximately in the same area of the current tee but aiming away from the neighbour’s property and a new green in a wooded area some 130 yards from the proposed new teeing ground.
“While there was some scepticism about how this might be achieved given
the wildness of the terrain, the various club committees accepted Stephen’s idea. However, this meant that the par of the course would be reduced from 71 to 70 and the yardage reduced by some 240 yards.
“Stephen then suggested that the club increase the length of our ninth hole, at that time a 230-yard par 3, to a par 4, by building a new green some 100 yards beyond the current green – and building a new tee some 70 yards behind the existing tee.
“Again, the challenge of finding the appropriate land and creating a new tee and green seemed daunting but was accepted by the committee. Thus began a major two-year project to create two new holes from scratch.”
Stephen has a team of six which consists
four greenkeepers and two apprentices.
The team carried out all this work themselves with the hire of earthmoving equipment and the use of a member’s
expertise in level surveying the only outside assistance in the project. No contractors were engaged at any point.
Stuart added: “The new seventh hole was completed and opened for play at the end of April 2021 and the new ninth hole was completed and opened for play at the end of April 2022.
“Given the challenges faced by Stephen and his team, the results are outstanding. The club lost two of its least interesting and challenging holes and gained two of its most picturesque and challenging holes. In doing so, the par and yardage of the course remained the approximately the same.
“The members, our neighbour and our insurance company are delighted. The club is indebted to Stephen and his team for a magnificent piece of work.”