28 “Getting this project off the ground was incredibly hard” GCA spoke with Jon Hunt of International Design Group about the firm’s comprehensive remodelling of Ingestre Park in Staffordshire, England How did the project come about? The work is being done following the routing of the UK’s new HS2 highspeed railway line through Ingestre’s golf course. The proposed route of HS2 passes close to the clubhouse, cutting through the eighteenth hole and bisecting the course. Safety considerations and HS2 landscape mitigation requirements meant the club would lose 12 holes and would need to reconfigure two within a small area of the course that would remain after the railway was built. The only option available to the club was to accept two parcels of nearby, open, intensively farmed land on which replacement holes could be built. What impact has HS2 had on your design? There would only be four holes which were to be left untouched by the train line, which at one point in the course is on a 12-metre-high embankment. Great care would be needed in reconfiguring the course to minimise the noise and visual impact of the rail line. Our complex routing involves the construction of 12 new holes on adjacent land, using two road crossings to ensure two loops of nine holes can start at and return to the clubhouse. Two of the existing holes – the eighth and eighteenth – are being remodelled to allow for the new boundary imposed by HS2. Since the club committee wanted a cohesive and homogenous playing experience on new and old holes, it decided to renovate retained greens, tees and bunkers, and install a new drainage system. Getting this project off the ground was incredibly hard. Since the project is government funded, agreeing a budget which did not provide any ‘betterment’ was an arduous affair. After studies were carried out on the TEE BOX THE INTERV I EW with Jon Hunt Twelve new holes are being built on new land, with the remainder being reworked in some way Images: International Design Group
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