21 Photo: Steve Marnoch The new heather-clad fairway bunker on the 255-yard par-four fourteenth better defines the hole and protects the green from a running approach shot offer a wide range of habitat benefits compared to just taking the old bunkers away and returfing. How will your changes impact the playing experience? The strategy of the fairway bunkers was pretty much non-existent but now, on certain holes, such as the first, seventh and fourteenth, the new bunkers help to guide play. At the greens, the former bunkers did little but catch an already poor shot. Now, they tighten up the greenside pin positions and define green entrances, which, in turn, define which side of the fairway will offer the best approach. The surrounding, rugged features have also been brought more into play, connecting the man-made golf holes with the natural landscape and influencing play, for example at the side of the par-three fifteenth. Naturally sited bunkers with randomly-shaped edges – some with heather patches around them and some with their edges connecting with the natural rough native grasses – will fit far better within an upland moorland than the flat meaningless saucers with no connection or relevance to their surroundings. What benefits will the heather programme bring to the club? Heather is commonly recognised as a vital habitat for wildlife and an enjoyable feature when playing a round of golf. Heather is an asset that should be protected and developed as much as possible throughout the golf course. Where it is suspected to be in the ground as dormant seed, this hidden gold should be exposed and brought back to its former glory. The original site must have been covered in heather – it is visible in paintings in the clubhouse. However, years of unmanaged planting has gradually transformed Matlock from open moorland to more of a parkland layout. Extensive maintenance has also suppressed heather from developing properly. The rewilding plan for Matlock intends to turn this situation around. Tree clearance, particularly between holes twelve to seventeen, of undesirable species will help with the heather development and improve the health of the grasses around the playing surfaces. This will also help to open the site in the higher areas, defining these as moorland again, whilst the land alongside Bentley Brook, which runs through the course, can be managed as attractive woodland. Altering the mowing regimes around known heather areas to allow these to develop and flower in the autumn will also provide better definition and separate the fairways. We are also translocating mature heather and spreading a locally sourced mixed heather seed. And in areas suspected of containing dormant heather seed, such as between holes six, seven and eight, we are carrying out turf stripping down to the black layer to allow that heather to germinate. Read more about the renovation project at www.golfcoursearchitecture.net
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