Q&A Why is CDP’S emphasis on restoration rather than redesign? Are more clubs going down the restoration route now?

Mike Clayton

Partner – Clayton, Devries & Pont (CDP) course architects

Why have many heathland courses strayed so far from their original character?

It’s probably to do with committees and members not really understanding why what they have is great. It’s almost certain that at some point someone with influence sat around the committee table and insisted the course was ‘too easy’.

I’m not sure it is entirely. Some courses are so good that restoring lost features, playing lines and mowing lines is all you need to do to regain what might have been lost.

The best courses are, but the right path depends entirely on the pedigree of the course and whether it was good in the first place. We have just commenced works at The Addington in Surrey – a truly amazing, world-class course – where restoration of what has been lost is critically important.