36 New holes open at remodelled Ingestre TEE BOX Ingestre Park Golf Club in Staffordshire, England, has reopened 11 new holes following a remodelling by International Design Group, with the remainder opening by May 2024. The work was completed following plans to route the UK’s new HS2 highspeed railway line through Ingestre’s golf course. The club lost 12 holes and needed to reconfigure others due to safety considerations and HS2 landscape mitigation requirements. Contractor MJ Abbott began course construction on 12 new holes and the renovation of the remainder of the layout in 2021. “We took the opportunity to level up the playing experience by introducing more playing strategy into the game,” said Jon Hunt, golf architect at International Design Group. “We now have sharper doglegs, approach bunkers and new ditches.” Bunkers are also steeper and deeper as well as having a more “characterful” edge, with greenside bunkers closer to the putting surface. “The new first is a classic risk and reward hole,” said Hunt. “If the player can fly the bunker on the left of the fairway, there’s an easy bump and run into the slightly uphill green. However, if their tee shot finds its way to the right of the fairway, the adjacent lake will come into play and a flop into the green is needed.” Another new hole is the ninth, which has a ridge running diagonally across the landing zone. If a player’s tee shot reaches the top of the ridge, they will have good visibility of the green, if they are short, they face a more difficult approach. “The ridge runs across the green, linking the two bunker noses, makes long putts difficult, so accuracy into the green is critical to make a birdie,” said Hunt. “The new sixteenth [old eighth] is the only significant drop hole on the course. The new teeing position forces a tighter dogleg. Some long and accurate hitters could reach the green but there’s danger all round. It is far better to lay up with a long iron The new eleventh, twelfth (foreground) and thirteenth at Ingestre Park
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