A series of changes are to be made to the Mussenden course at Castlerock Golf Club in County Derry, Northern Ireland.
Dr Martin Hawtree has been selected by the club to lead the work, with the architect having significant experience of links courses having previously been involved with projects at Royal Birkdale and Muirfield. Sol Golf has been selected to lead the construction element of the project.
Bert MacKay, general manager at Castlerock Golf Club, provided GCA with some details of the project scope.
“The work includes the rebuild of four greens, which will be recontoured and the surrounds will be reshaped,” MacKay said. “All greenside bunkers will be clean cut and riveted, while all fairway bunkers will feature roll down faces.”
The green on the first hole is to be extended, with new mounding introduced. Two existing bunkers will be replaced and moved closer to the green.
The course’s second hole is to be completely reworked, with a new green featuring run offs and new bunkers to be created. MacKay said that the second will now be more of a ‘risk and reward’ style hole.
“On the third hole, the slope on the right-hand side will be softened, and new bunkers will be added round the back,” MacKay said. “Meanwhile on the eleventh hole, there will be a new entrance to the green, the green will be recontoured, and there will be all new bunkering.”
Similar work to the eleventh will take place on the thirteenth hole, while more dramatic changes will be made to the fifteenth hole, where a bigger green, a large bunker to the front left of the green, and changes to the fairway will all be introduced.
On the sixteenth hole, a bunker to the left of the green will be removed and the green will be extended.
“On the final hole, the bunker to the left side of the green will be opened up,” MacKay said. “There will be a softer slope through the green, and a run off to the right of the green will be created, thus removing away the large mound.”
Work is set to commence on 16 October and will last approximately eight weeks.