Japanese drinks giant, Asahi Group, which owns the Buckinghamshire golf club in southern England, is to invest £2 million in refurbishing the golf course.

Golf architects Thomson Perrett & Lobb will lead the renovation project, which will be implemented over the next two winters, and will include building an irrigation reservoir, installing a new Toro irrigation system and rebuilding the existing green to tee cart paths. Lake work and a rebuild of the course’s bunkering will complete the works, which should be done by March 2017.

“A key part of our brief was to reduce the size of the course’s bunkers,” says TPL principal Tim Lobb. “The bunkers are way too large, and many of them do not really influence play. We’ll reduce the bunkers from a total size of 14,000 sq m down to 6,000 sq m.”

“Building a large reservoir will help us to save money and improve our sustainability and means we won’t be reliant on using mains water,” said course manager Andy Ewence. “Installing a new irrigation system will help us to produce tournament standard conditions throughout the year, while our advanced new sprinkler system will also reduce wastage. We will be able to target only the greens, surrounds, approaches, fairways and tees where water is required.”

“We have been working with the Buckinghamshire to implement a strategic review of the bunker positioning and style among other planned upgrades,” said Lobb. “At the forefront of all our design proposals is to create a strategic, interesting and fair golfing challenge for club members, visitors and tournament golfers alike. We look forward to commencing work on site this winter.” Contractor Profusion Environmental is in charge of the construction work, with AT Bone handling infrastructure works.

The original course at the Buckinghamshire Golf Club was designed by John Jacobs and is set in 226 acres of magnificent English parkland near Denham and close to the M25. The club is the headquarters of the Ladies European Tour.