Berkhamsted members go ‘bunkers’ for new short game practice area – Golf News | Golf Magazine

Berkhamsted Golf Club has opened a brand new brief recreation follow space that boasts quite a lot of bunkers – a function of golf course design that its famously absent from the golf course that it sits subsequent to.

Positioned in secluded woodlands beside the Hertfordshire membership’s 18th gap, the brand new brief recreation space, which was designed by golf architect James Edwards of Edwards Design Worldwide, consists of a big, curved double-green surrounded by fescue-topped mounds and quite a lot of chipping and pitching areas. There are additionally two new bunkers – the primary at Berkhamsted for over 100 years.

Membership supervisor Howard Craft mentioned: “We requested our members what they most wished, and overwhelmingly they requested an improve to our follow services. We’re very proud of the outcome! We did wrestle with the bunkers choice, on condition that we’re generally known as one of many UK’s few nice bunker-free golf programs, however our members aren’t hermits – they journey all around the world to play golf, so the brand new bunkers give them a really welcome likelihood to work on their sand play.”

Unusually, there are not any cups on the double-green, as they don’t seem to be designed for placing on, so the pins are on spikes which may be moved to supply quite a lot of challenges.

Craft added: “We now have three pins, and golfers can simply transfer them to create just about limitless follow choices. Whether or not you’re taking part in bunker pictures, hitting chip-and-runs, or taking part in from the swales and hollows, out right here you’ll discover kind of each brief recreation problem from the principle course – other than the bunkers.“

Women European Tour star Alice Hewson, a former junior member at Berkhamsted, formally opened the world in a ceremony at the beginning of the season, and the membership’s members are actually having fun with immaculate taking part in situations.

Work started in late 2021, with designer James Edwards working intently with acclaimed shaper Conor Walsh to supply a contemporary tackle Berkhamsted’s world-famous mounds which create formidable defences for the greens on the principle golf course. The brief recreation space’s greens are seeded with pure bent grass, with dwarf rye fescue on the outfields to copy the tight lies on Berkhamsted’s inexperienced approaches. Heather was taken from non-golfing areas of the principle golf course, and replanted in between the bunkers: the outcomes are a visible feast for golfers.

Edwards mentioned: “Three iconic golf architects – Willie Park Jnr, Harry Colt and James Braid – every contributed to the design of the principle golf course right here, so with our first heathland academy we wished to recreate a number of the pure ambiance and distinctive pictures which make Berkhamsted so memorable. Gerald Bruce and his greenkeeping crew have taken the setup to a different degree with their wonderful imaginative and prescient for its aesthetics and playability, and the top outcome has surpassed our expectations.”

Berkhamsted’s Head Skilled Joe Biggs mentioned: “It’s an outstanding addition to the golf membership, and a tremendous place not solely to get pleasure from follow but additionally as a spot to show the brief recreation. There are such a lot of pictures to hit there. We wish to be the easiest we may be right here at Berkhamsted, and I imagine that the brand new brief recreation space has elevated the membership’s popularity nonetheless additional. With its arrival, Berkhamsted now has the whole lot that severe golfers want as regards genuine, conventional grass follow.”