Pennard appoints Tom Doak to consult on bunker rebuilding work
Pennard Golf Club in Wales has appointed Tom Doak as its consulting architect. The club has just started a programme of rebuilding its bunkers, installing the Ecobunker artificial revetting solution to reduce its maintenance burden, and Doak will advise on both placement and shaping of those bunkers.
Doak, who has long expressed his affection for Pennard, told GCA that his commitment to spend a significant amount of time in Europe over the next few years, researching the new edition of his Confidential Guide to Golf Courses, made it possible for him to take on consulting work of this kind in the UK, though he has not yet made his first visit. “We are talking to a couple of other UK clubs about a relationship, and pursuing a new project on the Continent as well,” he said. Doak’s associate Clyde Johnson, who lives in Scotland, will work on the project also.
Johnson has already been at work at Pennard. Course and club manager Huw Morgan, who came to Pennard a year ago, has overseen the construction of an extension to the green of the par three second. This green was rebuilt several years ago, and, according to Morgan, has proved unsatisfactory. The new surface lies immediately behind the existing green, with a steep five foot high rise between the two. It is not yet clear how much, if any, of the existing putting surface will remain in play. Alongside this green, Johnson and Ecobunker construction manager Llewelyn Matthews have built a new bunker, using the Ecobunker product to create the revetted face. Several other bunkers have also been rebuilt, and Morgan said the plan was to reconstruct the rest over the next two winters.
Morgan also expressed an interest in reworking the course’s sixteenth green, either moving or extending it further back. Behind the green – which is steep, and short of pin locations – lies a sandy ridge, which blocks the view over Three Cliffs Bay. An extension could take the green almost to the cliff edge.
| Slideshow HTML |
-
The sixteenth hole. Manager Huw Morgan suggests extending the green
-
The land which any extension of the sixteenth green would occupy
-
The new second green with trap revetted using Ecobunker
|