At over 7,800 yards Rockliffe will become one of Europe’s longest courses
be a stunning course, but the distance from the back tees will make it a challenge for even the world’s greatest golfers.” Constructed to
It’s been a very involved engineering exercise,” he said. But the creation of a great golf course does not lie solely in the hands of an architect. It requires collaboration between many disciplines - designer, hydrologist, ecologist, constructor, and maintenance team.
Golf course constructors, MJ Abbott Limited, have moved almost one million cubic metres of earth during construction and have designed and installed complex gravity and pumped drainage systems. They have also installed a state of the art Rainbird irrigation system to greens, surrounds, tees and fairways. By completion of the project in June 2009, the constructors will have undertaken all aspects of the work including earth moving, shaping, drainage, irrigation, cultivation, lake construction, landscaping, and early maintenance. Commenting on the highly testing layout, Contracts Director Nigel Wyatt said, “The vision applied to the plans is second to none. Not only will it
USGA
recommendations, the greens are seeded with a blend of creeping bentgrass varieties (Penn A4 and G6) and will be maintained to the highest standards. A fleet of Toro equipment will make up the bulk of the machinery inventory and David anticipates a staff of 16, comprising 12 full-time and 4 casuals, including a mechanic and irrigation technician, by the time the course is open for play.
Newly appointed Course Manager, David Cuthbertson, who was at Slaley Hall for twelve years before accepting the post at Rockliffe, is a staunch Sunderland FC fan but is now proud of his association with Middlesborough FC. He welcomes the challenges and responsibilities of such a prestigious development and is fully aware of its economic and historical importance to the area. Rockliffe Hall is a Grade II listed building and is steeped in grand North East history. Original plans for the hall date back to 1774, but it wasn’t until the
1800s that the Hall and the estate started taking shape. Records from the 1820s list it as being known as Pilmore House. In 1918, the Earl of Southampton bought the estate and lived there on and off until 1948. The Rockliffe Park estate was bought by the Brothers of St John of God and converted into a hospital in 1950. Some eighteen years later Durham County Council compulsorily purchased it for use as a Community Centre. Sadly, it stood empty for several years and was left to petty vandals until, in 1996, Middlesbrough Football Club bought Rockliffe Park, where it established its new training facilities. Construction of the new championship golf course has tested the ingenuity of the construction team. Despite the proximity of the River Tees along the southern and eastern boundaries of the site, a stipulation of planning consent was that no drainage could be discharged into the river. Consequently, wetland areas have had to be created and are now a primary feature of the low-lying areas of the golf course. Lowland and marshland wild flower mixes will be established, creating wildlife havens and enriching the botanical diversity. A complex arrangement of pipes and surface contouring directs extraneous water to the wetland zones, themselves being an intrinsic part of the flood
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