Swan Golf Designs will return to The Karnataka Golf Association (KGA) to review a redesign and renovation project at the course in Bangalore, India, that has been five years in the making.

The original project centred on finding a solution to the flooding issues that caused problems on an annual basis and rendered the course unplayable for several weeks a year.

However, after identifying an engineering solution to solve the flooding difficulties and following a lengthy analysis and consultation process, Swan Golf Designs made the decision to make improvements to various facets of the course.

Swan Golf Designs introduced new greens, tees and bunkering throughout the course, as well as a high specification drainage scheme and automated water collection, storage and irrigation.

The playing areas were sand capped to help play continue all year round and speed up recovery when monsoon season strikes.

The course is now 7,220 yards from the tournament tees, and since reopening the course has not been forced to close due to flooding.

The KGA hosted the Indian Open Asian Tour event in 2012, and will host the Bonallack Trophy in March 2014, a leading amateur tournament between players from Europe and the Asia Pacific region.

“It was a major challenge for us to lead and guide the Indian workforce to undertake the project,” said Howard Swan, principal golf course architect at Swan Golf Designs. “They had little experience of golf course construction but with a team built around an experienced project manager and utilising many of the resources of the club itself it proved to be a highly successful outcome. I found it quite fascinating to have a workforce of 600 on the project with a vast majority of the operations being undertaken by hand. Particular impressive was the delicacy with which the detailed construction was undertaken and was the quality of planting of the hybrid grasses to greens, tees and fairways, almost wholly carried out, stolon by stolon, plant by plant by a team of local female workers.”

Swan Golf Designs will return to the KGA course this February to review the progress that has been made over the past five years. A programme of further improvements that will be carried out over the coming five years will also be instigated.

“We are all very proud of what has been achieved in the renovation and the accolades which have been given to the course over the last five years,” added Swan. “The club have now decided to look at the next five years and see how the course and the management facilities can be improved further and I’m greatly looking forward to continuing our relationship with KGA.”