The design team for the new Seven Mile Beach golf course project in Hobart, Australia, has arrived on site to start work on construction of the new 18-hole course, for tour professional Mat Goggin’s development group, The Golf Preserve.

Mike Clayton and Mike DeVries, partners at Clayton, DeVries & Pont, and associate Lukas Michel had planned to begin work in September, but were delayed by Covid-related restrictions, including the closure of Tasmania’s border.

The design team was appointed in January and site preparation – mostly the removal of radiata pines from the course’s footprint – has been ongoing since, while Clayton and DeVries were completing the design.

DeVries, who will be on site leading the team for the next six months, said: “It has been frustrating watching the site’s clearance work from afar but I am delighted to be in Hobart and am looking forward to the next few months with eager anticipation. The reveal of the site without trees has reaffirmed my suspicions of its greatness. The diversity of the landscape combined with the views and intimacy of the routing will make for a compelling and lasting golf course. Construction has begun and will ramp up after the holidays with shaping of the holes to follow as debris removal is completed. Well drilling and irrigation pond development is under way. Construction and seeding will continue during 2022 with the opening set to take place in 2023.”

“Until last week, we had only ever seen the site covered in pines and had had to make assumptions that it was as good as it felt,” said Clayton. “Walking over it now for the first time in its cleared state and seeing the holes from tee to green has confirmed our hopes. This is the rarest and most beautiful of sites. I am convinced that it can be worked into a truly world-class course.”