Golf Course Architecture - Issue 61, July 2020

26 TEE BOX Gaunt returning MacKenzie style to Cavendish FROM THE ARCHI VE Jonathan Gaunt has started a renovation project at Cavendish Golf Club in Buxton, England. The course, which opened in 1925, was designed by Dr Alister MacKenzie, a precursor to his work with Bobby Jones for Augusta National. The project will see Gaunt remodel bunkers to a MacKenzie style, reinstate contours and shapes on greens, bring back lost pin positions, and thin out woodlands to recover forgotten vistas across the course. Most bunker remodelling work will be completed by 2025, in time for the club’s centenary. The implementation of a woodland management plan has already started, with work focused on holes ten and eleven. “These are considered to be MacKenzie’s highlight holes,” said Gaunt. A brook flows alongside and across both the tenth and eleventh. In January 2020, the process of opening views of this feature began with the clearing of scrub and non-native trees and shrubs. “We have photographic reference as the course was photographed at the time of opening, so we are able to use this excellent archive as an influence,” said Gaunt. “The styling of bunkers will be focused upon visibility from tee to fairway and from fairway approach to green. MacKenzie wanted his hazards to be visible to the golfer. “What is exciting is the opportunity to reintroduce some of the old original bunkers that were filled in during the 1950s and 60s – these hazards will begin the path towards bringing back MacKenzie’s legacy.” Read more about this project at golfcoursearchitecture.net Photo: Cavensish Golf Club