Spogárd & VanderVaart has begun seeding work as part of the renovation of the ninth hole at Hilversumsche Golf Club in Hilversum, Netherlands.

The golf architect firm has worked at Hilversumsche for the past four years. “The club wanted to build a new clubhouse,” said Michiel van der Vaart. This led to the opportunity for the firm to review and assess the entrance, parking, garden, practice facilities and ninth hole.

Construction of the new clubhouse would damage the old practice green. “We took this as an opportunity to create a larger practice surface and incorporate a new, slightly raised back tee on the tenth hole,” said van der Vaart.

“The old chipping green was too severe and had too much shadow. They asked us to design a new smaller chipping green with lots of space around it for practicing a large variety of shots.” An artificial turfgrass practice green was created near the driving range and ninth hole.

The current project concerning the ninth hole began on 1 April 2019 and is nearly complete, with seeding beginning this week.

The ninth green was worked on 10 years ago, with the surrounds suffering from drainage issues and poor turf quality ever since. “We made a new design for the second part of the hole where we took the chance to remove 800 cubic metres of sand to create a kind of valley towards the left side of the green,” said van der Vaart.

“The old green complex was more or less squeezed in to the trees and had no connecting supporting mounds. We were able to remove three oak trees on the left and free up room to create a wide fairway apron on the left of the green ending in front of a bunker, catching the low running shots. The supporting mounds of this bunker connects the raised back tee of the tenth with the green complex of the ninth, tying everything together. The mounds will be covered with heather in the upcoming years.

“My highlight of the project has been the site visits. To see that what was first in my head, then on paper and now realised has been great.”

Construction company J. De Ridder, based in the Dutch town of Soesterberg, is the contractor for the project, with Martin Overvest overseeing shaping.